Title:

The Effect of Devil’s Club (Oplopanax horridus) Bioactives on Gdf1 Expression in Cancer

An estimated 1.7 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in 2020, and for those patients with poor prognostic cases, the need for novel therapeutic agents is pivotal. Devil’s Club (DC) (Oplopanax horridus) is a significant medicinal plant used among indigenous people of Southeast and Southcentral Alaska and the coastal Pacific Northwest to treat upwards of thirty-four different conditions including diabetes, infections, and cancer. Previous studies have revealed the therapeutic abilities of bioactive compounds found in plants against a variety of diseases. Growth differentiation factor 1 (Gdf1) downregulates the expression of enzymes associated with ceramide metabolism. Due to the pro-apoptotic properties of ceramide, Gdf1 is an important target for oncological drug discovery. It is hypothesized that bioactive compounds found in DC may exhibit an anticancer effect through the upregulation Gdf1 expression, thus maintaining high levels of pro-apoptotic ceramide in cancer cells. This study aims to shed more light on the potential of DC for the development of novel cancer therapeutics.

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