Hydroxyapatite (HAP), similar to inorganic phase in bones, shows good biocompatibility and bioactivity as bone defect repairing material. Recently, nanoscaled HAP shows the special properties differing from bulk HAP in physics, chemistry and biology. This paper demonstrates that HAP nanoparticle (nHAP) possesses the ability for inhibiting cancer cell growth in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, after treatment with nHAP for 3 days, proliferation of human cancer cells are inhibited by more than 65% and by less than 30% for human normal cells. In vivo, injection of nHAP in transplanted tumor results in significant reduction (about 50%) of tumor size. The anticancer effect of nHAP is mainly attributed to high amount by endocytosis in cancer cells and inhibition on protein synthesis in cells. The abundant nHAP internalized in cancer cells around endoplasmic reticulum may inhibit the protein synthesis by decreasing the binding of mRNA to ribosome due to its high adsorption capacity for ribosome and arrest cell cycle in G0/G1 phase. nHAP shows no ROS-involved cytotoxicity and low cytotoxicity to normal cells. These results strongly suggest that nHAP can inhibit cancer cell proliferation and have a potential application in cancer treatment.

Currently there is no effective treatment available for clinical patients suffering from neuropathic pain induced by chemotherapy paclitaxel. Puerarin is a major isoflavonoid extracted from the Chinese medical herb kudzu root, which has been used for treatment of cardiovascular disorders and brain injury. Here, we found that puerarin dose-dependently alleviated paclitaxel-induced neuropathic pain. At the same time, puerarin preferentially reduced the excitability and blocked the voltage-gated sodium (Nav) channels of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons from paclitaxel-induced neuropathic pain rats. Furthermore, puerarin was a more potent blocker of tetrodotoxin-resistant (TTX-R) Nav channels than of tetrodotoxin-sensitive (TTX-S) Nav channels in chronic pain rats’ DRG neurons. In addition, puerarin had a stronger blocking effect on Nav1.8 channels in DRG neurons of neuropathic pain rats and β1 subunit siRNA can abolish this selective blocking effect on Nav1.8. Together, these results suggested that puerarin may preferentially block β1 subunit of Nav1.8 in sensory neurons contributed to its anti-paclitaxel induced neuropathic pain effect.

No abstract

The present study attempts to investigate the anti-inflammatory potential of the isolated lipid extracts of three-spot seahorse which is rare marine bony fish. Petroleum ether (PE) extract was obtained from systematic solvent extraction after reflux extraction with 95% ethanol. FrIV was collected after silica gel column chromatography, and neutral lipids (NL), glycolipids (GL), phospholipids (PL) were separated from FrIV. Basic compositions were detected and analyzed via thin layer chromatography (TLC) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Anti-inflammatory activities of total lipids (TL), isolated NL, GL, and PL were detected by secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in murine monocyte macrophage RAW264.7 cells in vitro. The results revealed that lipids of seahorse showed a positive correlation with the in vitro suppression of the release of nitric oxide (NO), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1β and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α potently in a dose dependent manner, and showed cell compatibility. Among the fractions, GL (50 μg/mL) showed the highest capacity to attenuate the generation of pro-inflammatory cytokines which was comparable to that of the positive drug dexamethasone (DX) (20 μg/mL). Collectively, our findings indicated that the lipids from seahorse may be effective in the management of inflammation.