A natural predominant flavanone naringenin, especially abundant in citrus fruits, has a wide range of pharmacological activities. The search for antiproliferative agents that reduce skin carcinoma is a task of great importance. The objective of this study was to analyze the anti-proliferative and apoptotic mechanism of naringenin using MTT assay, DNA fragmentation, nuclear condensation, change in mitochondrial membrane potential, cell cycle kinetics and caspase-3 as biomarkers and to investigate the ability to induce reactive oxygen species (ROS) initiating apoptotic cascade in human epidermoid carcinoma A431 cells. Results showed that naringenin exposure significantly reduced the cell viability of A431 cells (p<0.01) with a concomitant increase in nuclear condensation and DNA fragmentation in a dose dependent manner. The intracellular ROS generation assay showed statistically significant (p<0.001) dose-related increment in ROS production for naringenin. It also caused naringenin-mediated epidermoid carcinoma apoptosis by inducing mitochondrial depolarization. Cell cycle study showed that naringenin induced cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 phase of cell cycle and caspase-3 analysis revealed a dose dependent increment in caspase-3 activity which led to cell apoptosis. This study confirms the efficacy of naringenin that lead to cell death in epidermoid carcinoma cells via inducing ROS generation, mitochondrial depolarization, nuclear condensation, DNA fragmentation, cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 phase and caspase-3 activation.

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Piperine is a nitrogenous pungent substance exhibiting multifunctional pharmacological properties. However, the mechanism underlying its anticancer potential is not well elucidated in human oral squamous carcinoma (KB) cell line. The anticancer potential of piperine was evaluated through potent biomarkers viz. reactive oxygen species (ROS), cellular apoptosis, and loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). In addition, cell cycle kinetics and caspases-3 activity were also carried out to confirm anticancer activity of piperine. Results showed that various concentrations (25-300 μM) of piperine exposure reduced the cell viability of KB cells significantly (P < 0.01). Piperine induced significant (P < 0.01) dose-related increment in ROS production and nuclear condensation. Moreover, piperine stimulated cell death by inducing loss of MMP, and caspase-3 activation. Cell cycle study revealed that piperine arrested the cells in G2/M phase and decreased the DNA content. Findings of this study suggest the efficacy of piperine in inducing cell death via the decrease in MMP and ROS liberation followed by caspase-3 activation and cell cycle arrest. Further assessment of the anticancer potency of piperine is needed for anticancer drug development.

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The evolution of wireless and mobile communication from 0G to the upcoming 5G gives rise to data sharing through the Internet. This data transfer via open public networks are susceptible to several types of attacks. Encryption is a method that can protect information from hackers and hence confidential data can be secured through a cryptosystem. Due to the increased number of cyber attacks, encryption has become an important component of modern-day communication. In this paper, a new image encryption algorithm is presented using chaos theory and dynamic substitution. The proposed scheme is based on two dimensional Henon, Ikeda chaotic maps, and substitution box (S-box) transformation. Through Henon, a random S-Box is selected and the image pixel is substituted randomly. To analyze security and robustness of the proposed algorithm, several security tests such as information entropy, histogram investigation, correlation analysis, energy, homogeneity, and mean square error are performed. The entropy values of the test images are greater than 7.99 and the key space of the proposed algorithm is 2 798. Furthermore, the correlation values of the encrypted images using the the proposed scheme are close to zero when compared with other conventional schemes. The number of pixel change rate (NPCR) and unified average change intensity (UACI) for the proposed scheme are higher than 99.50% and 33, respectively. The simulation results and comparison with the state-of-the-art algorithms prove the efficiency and security of the proposed scheme.

Myricetin is a member of the group of flavonoids called flavonols. Myricetin is obtained from various fruit, vegetables, tea, berries and red wine. Myricetin is characterized by the pysrogallol B-ring, and the more hydroxylated structure is known to be capable for its increased biological properties compared with other flavonols. Myricetin is produced by the Myricaceae, Anacardiaceae, Polygonaceae, Pinaceae and Primulacea families. It is soluble in organic solvent such as ethanol, DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide), and dimethyl formamide (DMF). It is sparingly soluble in aqueous buffers. Myricetin shows its various pharmacological activities including antioxidant, anti-amyloidogenic, antibacterial, antiviral, antidiabetic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-epileptic and anti-ulcer. This review article focuses on pharmacological effects of Myricetin on different diseases such as osteoporotic disorder, anti-inflammatory disorder, alzheimer’s disease, anti-epileptic, cancer, cardiac disorder, diabetic metabolic disorder, hepatoprotective disorder and gastro protective disorder.

Indiscriminate use of antibiotics has led to a rapid increase of antibiotic resistance among microbes which has increased the need to develop novel antimicrobial agents to fight various infectious diseases. Peptide antibiotics signify a novel class of therapeutic agents and have been isolated from a wide variety of multi-cellular organisms. Peptide antibiotics have shown broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and they not only kill different bacteria, but also kill various fungi, parasites, protozoans and cancerous cells. Peptides bear several properties that make them particularly attractive such as their small size, rapid activity and a low chance for development of resistance. Because of these distinct properties, the focus for research on antimicrobial peptides has increased tremendously in the recent years. Despite their potential, only selected cationic antimicrobial peptides have been able to enter in clinical trials. Therefore, there is a pressing need to develop new approaches to identify novel antimicrobial peptide therapeutics replacing conventional antibiotics. Recent findings strongly suggest that one can design a new generation of antimicrobials peptides with a wide range of systemic and topical applications against bacterial infections. In this review, we focus on the identification and design of novel antimicrobial peptides for therapeutic applications based on different approaches and strategies. This review also highlights some recent advances in the study of the molecular basis of anti-microbial activity in these peptides, their current pharmacological and clinical development and future directions and applications.

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