The Budding Yeast “Saccharomyces cerevisiae” as a Drug Discovery Tool to Identify Plant‐Derived Natural Products with Anti‐Proliferative Properties

Abstract

The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a valuable system to study cell-cycle regulation, which is defective in cancer cells. Due to the highly conserved nature of the cell-cycle machinery between yeast and humans, yeast studies are directly relevant to anticancer-drug discovery. The budding yeast is also an excellent model system for identifying and studying antifungal compounds because of the functional conservation of fungal genes. Moreover, yeast studies have also contributed greatly to our understanding of the biological targets and modes of action of bioactive compounds. Understanding the mechanism of action of clinically relevant compounds is essential for the design of improved second-generation molecules. Here we describe our methodology for screening a library of plant-derived natural products in yeast in order to identify and characterize new compounds with anti-proliferative properties.

N-alkylated linear heptamethine polyenes as potent non-azole leads against Candida albicans fungal infections

“…Finally, Candida albicans (C. albicans) is a diploid fungus well known for opportunistic yeast infections [25], especially oral and genital infections in humans [26,27]. These fungal species serve as excellent models to learn more about pathogenic fungi as they share many characteristics with their pathogenic relatives, in particular concerning regulatory features and drug therapy [28][29][30]. To validate the results, two well-characterised antifungal agents were investigated.…”

Matching the power of high throughput screening to the chemical diversity of natural products

“…164 A phenotypic screening approach with budding yeast classified cell cycle effects by observing changes in cell morphology caused by different natural product extracts. 165 …”

The anti‐fungal β‐sitosterol targets the yeast oxysterol‐binding protein Osh4

“…Yeast ( Saccharomyces cerevisiae ) is a simple eukaryote long used to identify drug targets and modes of action . Therefore, in the current study, we aimed to identify the potential target of β‐sitosterol in yeast cells.…”