Breast cancer is the malignant tumour that developed from cells of the breast and is the first leading cause of cancer death among women worldwide. Surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy are the available treatments for breast cancer, but these were reported to have side effects. Newcastle disease virus (NDV) known as Avian paramyxovirus type-1 (APMV1) belongs to the genus Avulavirus in a family Paramyxoviridae. NDV is shown to be a promising anticancer agent, killing tumour cells while sparing normal cells unharmed. In this study, the oncolytic and cytotoxic activities of NDV AF2240 strain were evaluated on MDA-MB-231, human mammary carcinoma cell line, using MTT assay, and its inhibitory effects were further studied using proliferation and migration assays. Morphological and apoptotic-inducing effects of NDV on MD-MB-231 cells were observed using phase contrast and fluorescence microscopes. Detection of DNA fragmentation was done following terminal deoxyribonucleotide transferase-mediated Br-dUTP nick end labeling staining (TUNEL) assay, which confirmed that the mode of death was through apoptosis and was quantified by flow cytometry. Furthermore, analysis of cellular DNA content demonstrated that the virus caused an increase in the sub-G1 phase (apoptotic peak) of the cell cycle. It appears that NDV AF2240 strain is a potent anticancer agent that induced apoptosis in time-dependent manner.

Background: It is well known that Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) AF2240 has antitumor activity against breast cancer cell lines. Several studies have thought this activity depend on direct viral oncolysis, which may not be the only factor that play a role in the antitumor effect of the virus. However, the mechanism underlying its antitumor effect is largely unresolved. In line with this observation, we postulated that NDV AF2240 may induce an in vitro production of Nitric Oxide (NO) and Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF-α) in RAW 264.7 macrophages for cytotoxic activity on breast cancer cells.Methods: NDV AF2240 were subjected to different experimental conditions (Live, UV-inactivated and Heatinactivated), different Heamagglutination (HA) titer of the virus were co-cultured with RAW 264.7 cells to get the cell-free supernatant. Levels of TNF-α, and NO production were measured by ELISA and Griess assay respectively. MTT assay was later used to determine their cytotoxicity on MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line in vitro.Results: NDV was found to be an excellent inducer in RAW 264.7 macrophage cells of TNF-α (P<0.05) and NO production (P<0.05) when compared with the negative control. The supernatant containing NO and TNF-α was also found to be cytotoxic against MDA-MB-231 cells (P<0.05) when compared with the negative control, indicating that viral replication was not necessary for their production, because UV-inactivated NDV for 15 minutes was almost as good as lived NDV. However, heat inactivated NDV did not induce TNF-α and NO production. Conclusion:This suggests the relevance of TNF-α and NO in the indirect antitumor effect of NDV AF2240, and also shown that mare contact between the macrophages and the NDV is enough to induce TNF-α and NO production in macrophages.

Spices that are mostly of plant origin are used in the preparation of almost all processed food to enhance palatability, tastiness, sweetness, and its overall acceptability, without taking into consideration of its medicinal values. The study was conducted to determine the antioxidant capacity and antibacterial activity of the extracts ofAllium sativum,Syzygium aromaticum, andZingiber officinale against some bacterial isolates of foods origin including Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli,Salmonella typhi,Shigella dysentriae,andStaphylococcus aureus. Bacterial isolates of food origin were collected from the laboratory unit of the Department of Microbiology, Kano University of Science and Technology, Wudil. Antioxidant capacity of the extracts used was determined using 2,2-diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay while agar disc diffusion techniques were used in the determination of the antibacterial activity. Results show that extracts of the spices exhibited a strong antioxidants capacity that ranges from 89.5% to 97.5% at high concentrations of the extracts with methanol extracts being the most active. Methanolic extracts shows zone of inhibition ranging from 16.45mm to 5.26mm while that of aqueous extracts were 10.32mm to 4.32mm. Meanwhile isolates of E. coli and S. aureus were the most sensitive with 16.45 and 15.32. This study concluded that the antibacterial effect of methanolic extract of Allium sativum extract was stronger in comparison, followed by Syzygium aromaticum and Zingiber officinale against five test bacteria isolated of food origin. Therefore, this study revealed that spices produced using Allium sativum, Syzygium aromaticum and Zingiber officinale have an antibacterial property and can be used for food preservation.

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