title: Methylation of flavonoids: Chemical structures, bioactivities, progress and perspectives for biotechnological production.
abstract: Among the natural products, flavonoids have been particularly attractive, highly studied and become one of the most important promising agent to treat cancer, oxidant stress, pathogenic bacteria, inflammations, cardio-vascular dysfunctions, etc. Despite many promising roles of flavonoids, expectations have not been fulfilled when studies were extended to the in vivo condition, particularly in humans. Instability and very low oral bioavailability of dietary flavonoids are the reasons behind this. Researches have demonstrated that the methylation of these flavonoids could increase their promise as pharmaceutical agents leading to novel applications. Methylation of the flavonoids via theirs free hydroxyl groups or C atom dramatically increases their metabolic stability and enhances the membrane transport, leading to facilitated absorption and highly increased oral bioavailability. In this paper, we concentrated on analysis of flavonoid methoxides including O- and C-methoxide derivatives in aspect of structure, bioactivities and description of almost all up-to-date O- and C-methyltransferases' enzymatic characteristics. Furthermore, modern biological approaches for synthesis and production of flavonoid methoxides using metabolic engineering and synthetic biology have been focused and updated up to 2015. This review will give a handful information regarding the methylation of flavonoids, methyltransferases and biotechnological synthesis of the same.
authors.affiliation: Department of BT-Convergent Pharmaceutical Engineering, Institute of Biomolecule Reconstruction, Sun Moon University, 100, Kalsan-ri, Tangjeonmyun, Asansi, Chungnam 336-708, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: koirala.biochem@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Niranjan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Koirala
authors.affiliation: Center for Molecular Biology, Institute of Research and Development, Duy Tan University, K7/25 Quang Trung Street, Haichau District, Danang City, Viet Nam. Electronic address: nguyenhuythuan@dtu.edu.vn.
authors.forename: Nguyen Huy
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Thuan
authors.affiliation: Department of BT-Convergent Pharmaceutical Engineering, Institute of Biomolecule Reconstruction, Sun Moon University, 100, Kalsan-ri, Tangjeonmyun, Asansi, Chungnam 336-708, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: gopalsunmoon@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Gopal Prasad
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Ghimire
authors.affiliation: Department of BT-Convergent Pharmaceutical Engineering, Institute of Biomolecule Reconstruction, Sun Moon University, 100, Kalsan-ri, Tangjeonmyun, Asansi, Chungnam 336-708, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: thangbiotek@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Duong Van
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Thang
authors.affiliation: Department of BT-Convergent Pharmaceutical Engineering, Institute of Biomolecule Reconstruction, Sun Moon University, 100, Kalsan-ri, Tangjeonmyun, Asansi, Chungnam 336-708, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: sohng@sunmoon.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Jae Kyung
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Sohng
mesh_terms: D001682:Biological Availability; D001709:Biotechnology; D005419:Flavonoids / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D008745:Methylation; D008780:Methyltransferases / Q000378:metabolism; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D005419:Flavonoids; D008780:Methyltransferases
keywords: Bioavailability; Flavonoids; Metabolic engineering; Methylation; Pharmaceutical agents; Synthetic biology