Context: Medicinal plants are continuously screened for their pharmacological properties. Despite the diversity and the numerous phytochemicals found in Ardisia (Myrsinaceae) species, its full biological potential has not been fully explored. Objective: Four naturally occurring alkylbenzoquinone derivatives, namely ardisiaquinone N (1), ardisiaquinone J (2), ardisiaquinone K (3) and a mixture of ardisiaquinone P (4) and K (3) from Ardisia kivuensis Taton (Myrsinaceae) were investigated in vitro for their cytotoxicity and antimicrobial activity. Materials and methods: Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined using the broth micro-dilution assay. Tumor cells growth inhibition was performed by sulphorhodamine B (SRB) assay while sub-diploid DNA fraction was measured by flow cytometry. Results: Compounds 1, 2 and 3 showed significant antimicrobial activity against two Gram-positive bacteria and one fungus (with MICs varying between 3.12 and 6.25 mg/ml). The four compounds exhibited remarkable antiproliferative activity against the leukemia cell line TPH-1 with IC 50 inhibition values between 2 and 2.1 mg/ml. Cytotoxic activity was found to be related to apoptosis induction. Discussion and conclusion: These findings suggest that natural compounds herein studied are interesting potential candidates for the development of new therapeutic agents, especially against leukemia and Gram-positive bacterial infections.
Background: Candida tropicalis is a human pathogenic yeast frequently isolated in Latin America and Asian-Pacific regions, although recent studies showed that it is also becoming increasingly widespread throughout several African and south-European countries. Nevertheless, relatively little is known about its global patterns of genetic variation as most of existing multilocus sequence typing (MLST) data come from Asia and there are no genotyped African isolates.
Objectives:We report detailed genotyping data from a large set of C. tropicalis isolates recovered from different clinical sources in Italy, Egypt and Cameroon in order to expand the allele/genotype library of MLST database (https://pubml st.org/ctrop icalis), and to explore the genetic diversity in this species.Methods: A total of 103 C. tropicalis isolates were genotyped using the MLST scheme developed for this species. All isolates were also tested for in vitro susceptibility to various antifungals to assess whether certain genotypes were associated with drug-resistance.
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