Plants have been used for medical purposes since the beginning of human history and are the basis of modern medicine. Most chemotherapeutic drugs for cancer treatment are molecules identified and isolated from plants or their synthetic derivatives. Our hypothesis was that whole plant extracts selected according to ethnobotanical sources of historical use might contain multiple molecules with antitumor activities that could be very effective in killing human cancer cells. This study examined the effects of three whole plant extracts (ethanol extraction) on human tumor cells. The extracts were from Urtica membranacea (Urticaceae), Artemesia monosperma (Asteraceae), and Origanum dayi post (Labiatae). All three plant extracts exhibited dose- and time-dependent killing capabilities in various human derived tumor cell lines and primary cultures established from patients' biopsies. The killing activity was specific toward tumor cells, as the plant extracts had no effect on primary cultures of healthy human cells. Cell death caused by the whole plant extracts is via apoptosis. Plant extract 5 (Urtica membranacea) showed particularly strong anticancer capabilities since it inhibited actual tumor progression in a breast adenocarcinoma mouse model. Our results suggest that whole plant extracts are promising anticancer reagents.

Homozygosity mapping was performed in five patients from a consanguineous family who presented with infantile mitochondrial encephalomyopathy attributed to isolated NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase (complex I) deficiency. This resulted in the identification of a missense mutation in a conserved residue of the C6ORF66 gene, which encodes a 20.2 kDa mitochondrial protein. The mutation was also detected in a patient who presented with antenatal cardiomyopathy. In muscle of two patients, the levels of the C6ORF66 protein and of the fully assembled complex I were markedly reduced. Transfection of the patients' fibroblasts with wild-type C6ORF66 cDNA restored complex I activity. These data suggest that C6ORF66 is an assembly factor of complex I. Interestingly, the C6ORF66 gene product was previously shown to promote breast cancer cell invasiveness.

Mitochondria can be incorporated into mammalian cells by simple co-incubation of isolated mitochondria with cells, without the need of transfection reagents or any other type of intervention. This phenomenon was termed mitochondrial transformation, and although it was discovered in 1982, currently little is known regarding its mechanism(s). Here we demonstrate that mitochondria can be transformed into recipient cells very quickly, and co-localize with endogenous mitochondria. The isolated mitochondria interact directly with cells, which engulf the mitochondria with cellular extensions in a way, which may suggest the involvement of macropinocytosis or macropinocytosis-like mechanisms in mitochondrial transformation. Indeed, macropinocytosis inhibitors but not clathrin-mediated endocytosis inhibition-treatments, blocks mitochondria transformation. The integrity of the mitochondrial outer membrane and its proteins is essential for the transformation of the mitochondria into cells; cells can distinguish mitochondria from similar particles and transform only intact mitochondria. Mitochondrial transformation is blocked in the presence of the heparan sulfate molecules pentosan polysulfate and heparin, which indicate crucial involvement of cellular heparan sulfate proteoglycans in the mitochondrial transformation process.

A cDNA clone for human interleukin 2 (IL-2) has been fused to the 5' end of a modified Pseudomonas exotoxin (PE) gene that lacks the sequences encoding the cell recognition domain. The chimeric protein IL-2-PE40 was produced in Escherichia coli. It was extremely toxic to IL-2 receptor-positive cells but had no measurable effect on cells lacking the IL-2 receptor. IL-2-PE40 might be a useful cytotoxic agent in the treatment of diseases involving IL-2 receptor-positive cells and in the treatment of allograft rejection.

Modern medicine offers no cure for mitochondrial disorders such as lipoamide dehydrogenase (LAD) deficiency. LAD is the E3 subunit shared by alpha-ketoacid dehydrogenase complexes in the mitochondrial matrix, and these complexes are crucial for the metabolism of carbohydrates and amino acids. We propose a novel concept for restoring the activity of an immense multicomponent enzymatic complex by replacing one mutated component, the LAD subunit. Our approach entails the fusing of LAD with the transactivator of transcription (TAT) peptide, which is capable of rapidly crossing biological membranes, thereby allowing TAT-LAD to be delivered into cells and their mitochondria where it can replace the mutated endogenous enzyme. Our results show that TAT-LAD is indeed delivered into the cells and their mitochondria, where it is processed, restoring LAD activity to normal values and, most importantly, increasing the activity of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. We report here, for the first time, that TAT-mediated replacement of one mutated component restores the activity of an essential mitochondrial multicomponent enzymatic complex in cells of patients with enzyme deficiencies. We believe that this approach involving TAT-mediated enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) can be applied to the treatment of LAD deficiency as well as to other mitochondrial and metabolic disorders.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract