Jianhua Zhu, Jiazeng Yang, Zihan Zeng
Jul 17, 2014
Citations
1
Influential Citations
5
Citations
Quality indicators
Journal
The Scientific World Journal
Abstract
Artemisinin has been used in the production of “artemisinin combination therapies” for the treatment of malaria. Feeding of precursors has been proven to be one of the most effective methods to enhance artemisinin production in plant cultured cells. At the current paper, the biosynthesis of artemisinin (ART) and its four analogs from dihydroartemisinic acid (DHAA) in suspension-cultured cells of Artemisia annua were investigated. ARTs were detected by HPLC/GC-MS and isolated by various chromatography methods. The structures of four DHAA metabolites, namely, dihydro-epi-deoxyarteannuin B, arteannuin I, arteannuin K, and 3-β-hydroxy-dihydro-epi-deoxyarteannuin B, were elucidated by physicochemical and spectroscopic analyses. The correlation between gene expression and ART content was investigated. The results of RT-PCR showed that DHAA could up-regulate expression of amorpha-4,11-diene synthase gene (ADS), amorpha-4,11-diene C-12 oxidase gene (CYP71AV1), and farnesyl diphosphate synthase gene (FPS) (3.19-, 7.21-, and 2.04-fold higher than those of control group, resp.), which indicated that biosynthesis processes from DHAA to ART were enzyme-mediated.