Hematologic malignancies constitute about 9% of all new cases of cancers as reported via the GLOBOCAN series by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 2008. So far, the conventional therapeutic and surgical approaches to cancer therapy have not been able to curtail the rising incidence of cancers, including hematological malignancies, worldwide. The last decade has witnessed great research interest in biological activities of phenolic compounds that include anticancer, anti-oxidation and anti-inflammation, among other things. A large number of anticancer agents combat cancer through cell cycle arrest, induction of apoptosis and differentiation, as well as through inhibition of cell growth and proliferation, or a combination of two or more of these mechanisms. Various phenolic compounds from different sources have been reported to be promising anticancer agents by acting through one of these mechanisms. Honey, which has a long history of human consumption both for medicinal and nutritional uses, contains a variety of phenolic compounds such as flavonoids, phenolic acids, coumarins and tannins. This paper presents a review on the molecular mechanisms of the anti-leukemic activity of various phenolic compounds on cell cycle, cell growth and proliferation and apoptosis, and it advocates that more studies should be conducted to determine the potential role of honey in both chemoprevention and chemotherapy in leukemia.

This study aimed to evaluate in vitro whole blood (WB) clot lysis method for the assessment of fibrinolytic activity. Standardized unresected (uncut) retracted WB clot was incubated in pool platelet poor plasma (PPP) for varying incubation times and in streptokinase (SK) at different concentrations. The fibrinolytic activity was assessed by D-dimer (DD), confocal microscopy, and clot weight. DD was measured photometrically by immunoturbidimetric method. There was a significant difference in mean DD levels according to SK concentrations (P = 0.007). The mean DD ± SD according to the SK concentrations of 5, 30, 50, and 100 IU/mL was: 0.69 ± 0.12, 0.78 ± 0.14, 1.04 ± 0.14 and 2.40 ± 1.09 μg/mL. There were no significant changes of clot weight at different SK concentrations. Gradual loss and increased branching of fibrin in both PPP and SK were observed. Quantitation of DD and morphology of fibrin loss as observed by the imaging features are in keeping with fibrinolytic activity. Combination of DD levels and confocal microscopic features was successfully applied to evaluate the in vitro WB clot lysis method described here.

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Eurycoma longifolia Jack has been widely used in traditional medicine for its antimalarial, aphrodisiac, anti-diabetic, antimicrobial and anti-pyretic activities. Its anticancer activity has also been recently reported on different solid tumors, however no anti-leukemic activity of this plant has been reported. Thus the present study assesses the in vitro and in vivo anti-proliferative and apoptotic potentials of E. longifolia on K-562 leukemic cell line. The K-562 cells (purchased from ATCC) were isolated from patients with chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML) were treated with the various fractions (TAF273, F3 and F4) of E. longifolia root methanolic extract at various concentrations and time intervals and the anti-proliferative activity assessed by MTS assay. Flow cytometry was used to assess the apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. Nude mice injected subcutaneously with 107 K-562 cells were used to study the anti-leukemic activity of TAF273 in vivo. TAF273, F3 and F4 showed various degrees of growth inhibition with IC50 values of 19, 55 and 62 µg/ml, respectively. TAF273 induced apoptosis in a dose and time dependent manner. TAF273 arrested cell cycle at G1and S phases. Intraperitoneal administration of TAF273 (50 mg/kg) resulted in a significant growth inhibition of subcutaneous tumor in TAF273-treated mice compared with the control mice (P = 0.024). TAF273 shows potent anti-proliferative activity in vitro and in vivo models of CML and therefore, justifies further efforts to define more clearly the potential benefits of using TAF273 as a novel therapeutic strategy for CML management.

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Purpose The aim of this study was to evaluate a new predisposition factor, M2/ANXA5 (RPRGL3), in recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) patients of Malay origin, since it was previously known that the prevalence of this condition is relatively high among the Malay population of Malaysia, where conventional hereditary thrombophilia factors have been generally ruled out. Methods A total of 232 women who had experienced ≥2 unexplained RPL and 141 available male partners were recruited, with 360 healthy Malay and 166 parous female controls. Prevalence of M2 carriage and RPL odds ratios were calculated in (a) control and patient groups; (b) clinically defined subgroups in categories of pregnancy loss, primary, secondary, and tertiary; and (c) timing of pregnancy loss in early, ≤15th gestation week and Blate^fetal losses, and >15th gestation week subgroups.Results Both male and female subjects had similar M2/ ANXA5 allele frequencies. The carrier rate of M2/ANXA5 for the general Malay population was 42.2 and 34.9% for parous controls. These carrier rates compared to Malay RPL subjects (52% M2 carriers) resulted in elevated odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of 1.53 (1.1 to 2.1) and 1.97 (1.3 to 3.1) accordingly for early fetal losses. Moreover, exceeding copy numbers of M2/ANXA5 alleles seemed to afflict a greater chance of RPL in couples, especially when both partners were M2 carriers. Conclusion This study confirmed the proposed role of M2/ ANXA5 as embryonic, genetically associated thrombophilia predisposition factor for early RPL among ethnic Malay of Malaysia.Keywords Annexin A5 . M2/ANXA5 . Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) . MiscarriageElectronic supplementary material The online version of this article