Background: The progresses made in stem cell therapy offer an innovative approach and exhibit great potential for the repair of damaged organs and tissues. This study was conducted with a view to find the mechanisms responsible for the effectiveness of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) in the suppression of diabetes and experimentally-induced diabetic nephropathy.Methods: To realize this objective, diabetic and diabetic nephropathy subject groups that underwent MSC treatment were studied through numerous biochemistry and molecular genetics analyses.Results: The findings show that, relative to the control groups, the rats in the diabetic and diabetic nephropathy groups treated with stem cells infused with BM-MSCs showed a significant reversal in the levels of their insulin, glucose, heme-oxygenase-1 (HO-1) serum, and advanced glycation end product (AGEP). Moreover, BM-MSC therapy was also found to have a definite positive effect on the kidney functions. In addition, it also corresponded with a significant decrease in the availability of certain growth factors, namely the fibroblast growth factor (FGF), the platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), and the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β). BM-MSC treatment also improved the levels of expression of monocyte chemoatractant-1 (MCP-1) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) genes within kidney tissues. Lastly, the treatment recovered the organizational structure of the kidney and pancreas, a result demonstrated by a histopathological analysis. These results greatly coincide with those obtained through the biochemistry and molecular genetics analyses.Conclusion: Treatment using BM-MSCs is determined to be definitely effective in cases of diabetes and diabetic nephropathy.

Chemotherapy shows some promising results in the inhibition of cancer, but resistance to chemotherapy and its severe side effects may occur in due course, resulting in only restricted and narrow benefits. Therefore, there is a pressing need to find alternative chemotherapeutic drugs for combating cancers. Plants have been used since ages in medicine, and by the dawn of 19th century, various potent and promising anti-cancer products have been derived from plants. Strigolactones (SLs) are a novel class of phytohormones involved in regulating the branching of shoots. Recently, many novel synthesized SL analogues have been found to be effective against solid and non-solid tumours. These hormones have been reported to have a unique mechanism of inhibiting cancer cells by lowering their viability and promoting apoptosis and cell death at micromolar concentrations. Therefore, synthetic SL analogues could be future potent anti-cancer drug candidates. Further research is needed to identify and deduce the significance of these synthetic SL analogues.

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Barium oxide nanoparticles (BaONPs) are an important industrial compound and are widely used in polymers and paints. In this study, apoptotic and genotoxic effects of BaONPs in mouse embryonic fibroblast (L929) cells were determined by using single-cell gel test. In vitro cytotoxicity assays were performed to assess BaONPs’ toxicity in L929 cells. Mild cytotoxicity was observed in L929 cells due to BaONPs. BaONPs increased lipid peroxidation, catalase, and superoxide dismutase levels and lowered glutathione levels in L929 cells. This was accompanied by concomitant generation of reactive oxygen species and activation of caspase-3 in BaONPs-treated L929 cells. On the other hand, when we exposed L929 cells to BaONPs for 24 and 48 hours (comet assay), there was a duration- and dose-dependent increase in DNA impairment detected in the single-cell gel test. Thus, BaONPs exhibit genotoxic and apoptotic effects in L929 cells, most likely due to initiation of oxidative damage.

Recent works have indicated the beneficial efficacy of using nanocurcumin in addressing poor bioavailability commonly associated with native curcumin. Curcumin has been shown to alleviate hyperthyroidism induced liver dysfunction. Here we carried out a comparative study using both native curcumin and nanocurcumin to verify the superior effects of encapsulation of curcumin in nanomaterials in blunting liver dysfunction in L-thyroxine induced hyperthyroid rats. Native curcumin (NC) and poly (lactide-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) encapsulated curcumin (PNC) significantly increased liver catalase activity and reduced glutathione (GSH) levels and significantly declined malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in hyperthyroid rats. However, rats treated with PNC had significantly better ameliorative effects on these parameters than rats treated with NC. Similarly, PNC showed significantly improved effects in lowering inflammatory mediators including TNF-a, IL-6, VEGF, CRP and caspase protein levels compared to NC in hyperthyroid rats. Serum T3, T4, and TSH levels and liver functional markers including albumin, ALT, ASP and AST were better controlled in PNC treated rats than in NC treated hyperthyroid rats. DNA fragmentation as estimated by comet assay was significantly lower in PNC treated rats than in NC treated rats. Likewise, significantly fewer histopathological and ultrastructural changes were observed in liver tissue in PNC treated hyperthyroid rats. Conclusion: Our work illustrates the capability of PNC to resolve hyperthyroidism induced liver dysfunction and substantiate the findings that beneficial effects of curcumin may be maximized by improving its stability and bioavailability by its encapsulation in nanoparticles.