Biotechnological interventions for harnessing podophyllotoxin from plant and fungal species: current status, challenges, and opportunities for its commercialization

Abstract

Podophyllotoxin is an aryltetralin lignan synthesized in several plant species, which is used in chemotherapies for cancers and tumor treatment. More potent semisynthetic derivatives of podophyllotoxin such as etoposide and teniposide are being developed and evaluated for their efficacy. To meet the ever increasing pharmaceutical needs, species having podophyllotoxin are uprooted extensively leading to the endangered status of selective species mainly Sinopodophyllum hexandrum. This has necessitated bioprospection of podophyllotoxin from different plant species to escalate the strain on this endangered species. The conventional and non-conventional mode of propagation and bioprospection with the integration of biotechnological interventions could contribute to sustainable supply of podophyllotoxin from the available plant resources. This review article is focused on the understanding of different means of propagation, development of genomic information, and its implications for elucidating podophyllotoxin biosynthesis and metabolic engineering of pathways. In addition, various strategies for sustainable production of this valuable metabolite are also discussed, besides a critical evaluation of future challenges and opportunities for the commercialization of podophyllotoxin.

Keywords:

• Dysosma
• Podophyllum
• rhizome
• secondary metabolite
• medicinal plant
• metabolic engineering

Acknowledgements

Although we took utmost care to cite important literature relevant to this review article, however, we sincerely apologize to authors whose work has not been cited in the current review article. This manuscript represents CSIR-IHBT communication no. 3913.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no declarations of interest.

Funding

A. K. is thankful to CSIR for senior research fellowship and AcSIR for constant support. A. K. and D. S. duly acknowledges financial support from CSIR Network Projects SIMPLE [BSC0109], CeHAB [BSC0209] and CSIR-IHBT in house Grant [MLP071].