Aloe emodin, one of the active compounds found in Aloe vera leaves, plays an important role in the regulation of cell growth and death. It has been reported to promote the anti-cancer effects in various cancer cells by inducing apoptosis. However, the mechanism of inducing apoptosis by this agent is poorly understood in glioma cells. This research is to investigate the apoptosis and cell cycle arrest inducing by aloe emodin on U87 human malignant glioma cells. Aloe emodin showed a time- and dose-dependent inhibition of U87 cells proliferation and decreased the percentage of viable U87 cells via the induction of apoptosis. Characteristic morphological changes, such as the formation of apoptotic bodies, were observed with confocal microscope by Annexin V-FITC/PI staining, supporting our viability study and flow cytometry analysis results. Our data also demonstrated that aloe emodin arrested the cell cycle in the S phase and promoted the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential in U87 cells that indicated the early event of the mitochondria-induced apoptotic pathway.
Glioblastoma, the most aggressive and malignant form of glioma, appears to be resistant to various chemotherapeutic agents. Hence, approaches have been intensively investigated to targeti specific molecular pathways involved in glioblastoma development and progression. Aloe emodin is believed to modulate the expression of several genes in cancer cells. We aimed to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effect of Aloe emodin on gene expression profiles in the human U87 glioblastoma cell line utilizing microarray technology. The gene expression analysis revealed that a total of 8,226 gene alterations out of 28,869 genes were detected after treatment with 58.6 µg/ml for 24 hours. Out of this total, 34 genes demonstrated statistically significant change (p<0.05) ranging from 1.07 to 1.87 fold. The results revealed that 22 genes were up-regulated and 12 genes were down-regulated in response to Aloe emodin treatment. These genes were then grouped into several clusters based on their biological functions, revealing induction of expression of genes involved in apoptosis (programmed cell death) and tissue remodelling in U87 cells (p<0.01). Several genes with significant changes of the expression level e.g. SHARPIN, BCAP31, FIS1, RAC1 and TGM2 from the apoptotic cluster were confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). These results could serve as guidance for further studies in order to discover molecular targets for the cancer therapy based on Aloe emodin treatment.
Melaleuca cajuputi Powell is a tree species belonging to the family Myrtaceae and is widely used in traditional medicine. This study was conducted to investigate the antibacterial activities of essential oils of M. cajuputi Powell. Antibacterial activity was tested against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria using the agar disc diffusion method. The essential oils of M. cajuputi were found to exert antibacterial activity against all of the tested bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Escherichia coli. The zones of inhibition for S. aureus, S. pyogenes, MRSA, E. coli, and K. pneumoniae were 12.7 mm, 10.7 mm, 10.0 mm, 8.7 mm and 9.3 mm respectively, against 0.714% (w/w) of the essential oils. These results highlighted that Gram negative bacteria are less susceptible to the essential oils of M. cajuputi. A large zone of inhibition might be a sign of a leaching antimicrobial agent. These findings suggest that M. cajuputi is a potential natural antibacterial agent.
Background: There is a need to analyze a worldwide database of the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.This may prove valuable to facilitate better strategies and planning on prevention, screening, surveillance, early diagnosis, containment and treatments.
Method: We extracted 14,259 case reports of COVID-19 dated 11th November 2019 to 18th March 2020 from Johns Hopkins University Repository Online Databaseof 58 countries. After extensive data preprocessing, a multi-disciplinary expert researcherthen conducted series of vetting to categorizefree-text description of symptoms into discreet standardizedcategories.Continuous variables were presented by using median and inter-quartile range whereas categorical variables were presented by frequency and percentage.
Result: A total of 2191 cases (15.4%) were included for demographic analysis. The median age was46 years (IQR26 years) with 787 (35.9%) cases involved patients aged of 60 and above while patients less than18 years of age were reported in 79 (3.6%) cases. Majority of the patients were males (n=1227, 56.7%). There were a total of 20standardized categories ofCOVID-19symptoms.The most prevalent were fever (74.8%), nonproductive cough (42.2%), fatigue (13.1%), sore throat (12.8%) and shortness of breath (11.7%). Other symptoms with frequency of more than 1% were chest discomfort, nasal congestion, muscular pain, chills and rigors, headache, diarrhoea, expectoration and joint pain. Other more uncommon symptoms reported include loss of appetite, conjunctivitis, toothache and abdominal pain. Asymptomatic manisfestations were reported in 8 cases (1.0%).All population are susceptible to COVID-19 especially the older age group. There were 20 standardized categories of symptoms wherefever, non-productive cough, fatigue, sore throat and shortness of breath were the most commonly reported.
Conclusion: Findings of this study contribute to a deeper understanding on COVID-19 and may prove useful for researchers to better-design screening and surveillance strategies via more accurate risk-prediction modelling.
Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol. 21 No. 03 July’22 Page: 702-709
Depression is a debilitating psychiatric disorder impacting an individual’s quality of life. It is the most prevalent mental illness across all age categories, incurring huge socio-economic impacts. Most depression treatments currently focus on the elevation of neurotransmitters according to the monoamine hypothesis. Conventional treatments include tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), norepinephrine–dopamine reuptake inhibitors (NDRIs), monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), and serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Despite numerous pharmacological strategies utilising conventional drugs, the discovery of alternative medicines from natural products is a must for safer and beneficial brain supplement. About 30% of patients have been reported to show resistance to drug treatments coupled with functional impairment, poor quality of life, and suicidal ideation with a high relapse rate. Hence, there is an urgency for novel discoveries of safer and highly effective depression treatments. Stingless bee honey (SBH) has been proven to contain a high level of antioxidants compared to other types of honey. This is a comprehensive review of the potential use of SBH as a new candidate for antidepressants from the perspective of the monoamine, inflammatory and neurotrophin hypotheses.
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