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Marine Spirulina platensis may potentially influence the metabolic process in animal cells, and the effect of marine Spirulina platensis in normal and alloxan-induced diabetic rats was therefore investigated. Normal and diabetic rats (albino Wistar strain) were orally administered marine Spirulina platensis for 30 days and their blood levels of glucose and insulin and body weight changes were determined. Pancreatic histopathology was also noted. Treatment with marine Spirulina platensis caused significant alterations in the content of these indicators and therefore in the antidiabetic capacity of the treated animals compared to control rats.

Thermal aggregation of ␤ L -crystallin was higher in the presence of peptide fragments generated from oxidized and trypsin-digested ␤ L -crystallin compared with thermal aggregation of the control proteins without oxidized ␤ L -crystallin fragments. Increased aggregation of ␤ L -crystallin was also observed despite the presence of ␣-crystallin (which has anti-aggregating properties) in the system. Self-aggregation of the oxidized ␤ L -crystallin fragments per se was not observed under the experimental conditions. Reverse-phase HPLC analysis of the precipitate obtained after heating a mixture of ␤ L -crystallin and oxidized ␤ L -crystallin fragments revealed that more than one peptide co-precipitates with ␤ L -crystallin. Electrospray mass spectrometry analysis of the peptides revealed that the molecular weight(s) of the peptides ranged from 1400 -1800. Tandem mass spectrometry and a data base search revealed that two of the peptides originated from ␤A4-crystallin (LTIFEQENFLGR, residues 121-132) and ␤B3-crystallin (AINGTWVGYEFPGYR, residues 153-167) respectively. Oxidized synthetic peptides representing the same sequence were also found to enhance the aggregation of ␤ L -crystallin in a manner similar to oxidized lens ␤ L -crystallin peptides. These data suggest that the polypeptides generated after oxidation and proteolysis of ␤ L -crystallins interact with denaturing proteins and facilitate their aggregation and light scattering, thus behaving like anti-chaperones.

No abstract

Amidst the very many metallodrugs for the treatment of cancer regularly reported, the development of the next generation of compounds with an aim of overcoming the shortcomings by enhancing biological activity and cytotoxicity but exhibiting low toxicity is essential. Herein we report such octahedral metal(II) complexes (1-12) containing triazole-derived Schiff base as the scaffold. The complexes were synthesized and characterized by means of elemental analysis and various spectroscopic techniques. The complexes were subjected to various investigations that involved their interaction with calf thymus DNA and supercoiled pBR322 DNA.In vitro antimicrobial studies were also conducted in addition to the use of spectrophotometric, spectrofluorometric, cyclic voltammetric and hydrodynamic techniques. Although all complexes showed activity, complex 9 revealed excellent DNA proclivity, DNA cleaving tendencies and antimicrobial efficacy. All copper (II) complexes were evaluated for their antiproliferative activity against a panel of human cancer cell lines (HeLa, Hep-2, MCF-7 and NHDF). Complexes 1-12 showed activity against all the cell lines with low toxicity towards normal cell line, and the activity of complex 9 towards Hep-2 was prominent. The effect of the ligand system on the complexes is also discussed along with the importance of tuning the ligand system.