scholarly journals A standardized polyherbal preparation POL-6 diminishes alcohol withdrawal anxiety by regulating Gabra1, Gabra2, Gabra3, Gabra4, Gabra5 gene expression of GABAA receptor signaling pathway in rats

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lalit Sharma ◽  
Aditi Sharma ◽  
Ashutosh Kumar Dash ◽  
Gopal Singh Bisht ◽  
Girdhari Lal Gupta

Abstract Background Alcohol abuse is a major problem worldwide and it affects people’s health and economy. There is a relapse in alcohol intake due to alcohol withdrawal. Alcohol withdrawal anxiety-like behavior is a symptom that appears 6–24 h after the last alcohol ingestion. Methods The present study was designed to explore the protective effect of a standardized polyherbal preparation POL-6 in ethanol withdrawal anxiety in Wistar rats. POL-6 was prepared by mixing the dried extracts of six plants Bacopa monnieri, Hypericum perforatum, Centella asiatica, Withania somnifera, Camellia sinesis, and Ocimum sanctum in the proportion 2:1:2:2:1:2 respectively. POL-6 was subjected to phytochemical profiling through LC-MS, HPLC, and HPTLC. The effect of POL-6 on alcohol withdrawal anxiety was tested using a two-bottle choice drinking paradigm model giving animals’ free choice between alcohol and water for 15 days. Alcohol was withdrawn on the 16th day and POL-6 (20, 50, and 100 mg/kg, oral), diazepam (2 mg/kg) treatment was given on the withdrawal days. Behavioral parameters were tested using EPM and LDT. On the 18th day blood was collected from the retro-orbital sinus of the rats and alcohol markers ALT, AST, ALP, and GGT were studied. At end of the study, animals were sacrificed and the brain was isolated for exploring the influences of POL-6 on the mRNA expression of GABAA receptor subunits in the amygdala and hippocampus. Results Phytochemical profiling showed that POL-6 contains major phytoconstituents like withaferin A, quercetin, catechin, rutin, caeffic acid, and β-sitosterol. In-vivo studies showed that POL-6 possesses an antianxiety effect in alcohol withdrawal. Gene expression studies on the isolated brain tissues showed that POL-6 normalizes the GABAergic transmission in the amygdala and hippocampus of the rats. Conclusion The study concludes that POL-6 may have therapeutic potential for treating ethanol-type dependence.

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kondeti Ramudu Shanmugam ◽  
Bhasha Shanmugam ◽  
Gangigunta Venkatasubbaiah ◽  
Sahukari Ravi ◽  
Kesireddy Sathyavelu Reddy

Background : Diabetes is a major public health problem in the world. It affects each and every part of the human body and also leads to organ failure. Hence, great progress made in the field of herbal medicine and diabetic research. Objectives: Our review will focus on the effect of bioactive compounds of medicinal plants which are used to treat diabetes in India and other countries. Methods: Information regarding diabetes, oxidative stress, medicinal plants and bioactive compounds were collected from different search engines like Science direct, Springer, Wiley online library, Taylor and francis, Bentham Science, Pubmed and Google scholar. Data was analyzed and summarized in the review. Results and Conclusion: Anti-diabetic drugs that are in use have many side effects on vital organs like heart, liver, kidney and brain. There is an urgent need for alternative medicine to treat diabetes and their disorders. In India and other countries herbal medicine was used to treat diabetes. Many herbal plants have antidiabetic effects. The plants like ginger, phyllanthus, curcumin, aswagandha, aloe, hibiscus and curcuma showed significant anti-hyperglycemic activities in experimental models and humans. The bioactive compounds like Allicin, azadirachtin, cajanin, curcumin, querceitin, gingerol possesses anti-diabetic, antioxidant and other pharmacological properties. This review focuses on the role of bioactive compounds of medicinal plants in prevention and management of diabetes. Conclusion: Moreover, our review suggests that bioactive compounds have the potential therapeutic potential against diabetes. However, further in vitro and in vivo studies are needed to validate these findings.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Xie ◽  
Xiaofeng Hang ◽  
Wensheng Xu ◽  
Jing Gu ◽  
Yuanjing Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Most of the biological functions of circular RNAs (circRNAs) and the potential underlying mechanisms in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have not yet been discovered. Methods In this study, using circRNA expression data from HCC tumor tissues and adjacent tissues from the Gene Expression Omnibus database, we identified out differentially expressed circRNAs and verified them by qRT-PCT. Functional experiments were performed to evaluate the effects of circFAM13B in HCC in vitro and in vivo. Results We found that circFAM13B was the most significantly differentially expressed circRNA in HCC tissue. Subsequently, in vitro and in vivo studies also demonstrated that circFAM13B promoted the proliferation of HCC. Further studies revealed that circFAM13B, a sponge of miR-212, is involved in the regulation of E2F5 gene expression by competitively binding to miR-212, inhibits the activation of the P53 signalling pathway, and promotes the proliferation of HCC cells. Conclusions Our findings revealed the mechanism underlying the regulatory role played by circFAM13B, miR-212 and E2F5 in HCC. This study provides a new theoretical basis and novel target for the clinical prevention and treatment of HCC.


Nutrients ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Natalia K. Kordulewska ◽  
Justyna Topa ◽  
Małgorzata Tańska ◽  
Anna Cieślińska ◽  
Ewa Fiedorowicz ◽  
...  

Lipopolysaccharydes (LPS) are responsible for the intestinal inflammatory reaction, as they may disrupt tight junctions and induce cytokines (CKs) secretion. Osthole has a wide spectrum of pharmacological effects, thus its anti-inflammatory potential in the LPS-treated Caco-2 cell line as well as in Caco-2/THP-1 and Caco-2/macrophages co-cultures was investigated. In brief, Caco-2 cells and co-cultures were incubated with LPS to induce an inflammatory reaction, after which osthole (150–450 ng/mL) was applied to reduce this effect. After 24 h, the level of secreted CKs and changes in gene expression were examined. LPS significantly increased the levels of IL-1β, -6, -8, and TNF-α, while osthole reduced this effect in a concentration-dependent manner, with the most significant decrease when a 450 ng/mL dose was applied (p < 0.0001). A similar trend was observed in changes in gene expression, with the significant osthole efficiency at a concentration of 450 ng/μL for IL1R1 and COX-2 (p < 0.01) and 300 ng/μL for NF-κB (p < 0.001). Osthole increased Caco-2 monolayer permeability, thus if it would ever be considered as a potential drug for minimizing intestinal inflammatory symptoms, its safety should be confirmed in extended in vitro and in vivo studies.


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 3088
Author(s):  
Mariana Matias ◽  
Jacinta O. Pinho ◽  
Maria João Penetra ◽  
Gonçalo Campos ◽  
Catarina Pinto Reis ◽  
...  

Melanoma is recognized as the most dangerous type of skin cancer, with high mortality and resistance to currently used treatments. To overcome the limitations of the available therapeutic options, the discovery and development of new, more effective, and safer therapies is required. In this review, the different research steps involved in the process of antimelanoma drug evaluation and selection are explored, including information regarding in silico, in vitro, and in vivo experiments, as well as clinical trial phases. Details are given about the most used cell lines and assays to perform both two- and three-dimensional in vitro screening of drug candidates towards melanoma. For in vivo studies, murine models are, undoubtedly, the most widely used for assessing the therapeutic potential of new compounds and to study the underlying mechanisms of action. Here, the main melanoma murine models are described as well as other animal species. A section is dedicated to ongoing clinical studies, demonstrating the wide interest and successful efforts devoted to melanoma therapy, in particular at advanced stages of the disease, and a final section includes some considerations regarding approval for marketing by regulatory agencies. Overall, considerable commitment is being directed to the continuous development of optimized experimental models, important for the understanding of melanoma biology and for the evaluation and validation of novel therapeutic strategies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 1248
Author(s):  
Muhammad Waleed Baig ◽  
Humaira Fatima ◽  
Nosheen Akhtar ◽  
Hidayat Hussain ◽  
Mohammad K. Okla ◽  
...  

Exploration of leads with therapeutic potential in inflammatory disorders is worth pursuing. In line with this, the isolated natural compound daturaolone from Datura innoxia Mill. was evaluated for its anti-inflammatory potential using in silico, in vitro and in vivo models. Daturaolone follows Lipinski’s drug-likeliness rule with a score of 0.33. Absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity prediction show strong plasma protein binding; gastrointestinal absorption (Caco-2 cells permeability = 34.6 nm/s); no blood–brain barrier penetration; CYP1A2, CYP2C19 and CYP3A4 metabolism; a major metabolic reaction, being aliphatic hydroxylation; no hERG inhibition; and non-carcinogenicity. Predicted molecular targets were mainly inflammatory mediators. Molecular docking depicted H-bonding interaction with nuclear factor kappa beta subunit (NF-κB), cyclooxygenase-2, 5-lipoxygenase, phospholipase A2, serotonin transporter, dopamine receptor D1 and 5-hydroxy tryptamine. Its cytotoxicity (IC50) value in normal lymphocytes was >20 µg/mL as compared to cancer cells (Huh7.5; 17.32 ± 1.43 µg/mL). Daturaolone significantly inhibited NF-κB and nitric oxide production with IC50 values of 1.2 ± 0.8 and 4.51 ± 0.92 µg/mL, respectively. It significantly reduced inflammatory paw edema (81.73 ± 3.16%), heat-induced pain (89.47 ± 9.01% antinociception) and stress-induced depression (68 ± 9.22 s immobility time in tail suspension test). This work suggests a possible anti-inflammatory role of daturaolone; however, detailed mechanistic studies are still necessary to corroborate and extrapolate the findings.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kui Wu ◽  
Nathan Yee ◽  
Sangeetha Srinivasan ◽  
Amir Mahmoodi ◽  
Michael Zakharian ◽  
...  

<div> <div> <div> <p>A desired goal of targeted cancer treatments is to achieve high tumor specificity with minimal side effects. Despite recent advances, this remains difficult to achieve in practice as most approaches rely on biomarkers or physiological differences between malignant and healthy tissue, and thus benefit only a subset of patients in need of treatment. To address this unmet need, we introduced a Click Activated Protodrugs Against Cancer (CAPAC) platform that enables targeted activation of drugs at a specific site in the body, i.e., a tumor. In contrast to antibodies (mAbs, ADCs) and other targeted approaches, the mechanism of action is based on in vivo click chemistry, and is thus independent of tumor biomarker expression or factors such as enzymatic activity, pH, or oxygen levels. The platform consists of a tetrazine-modified sodium hyaluronate-based biopolymer injected at a tumor site, followed by one or more doses of a trans-cyclooctene (TCO)- modified cytotoxic protodrug with attenuated activity administered systemically. The protodrug is captured locally by the biopolymer through an inverse electron-demand Diels-Alder reaction between tetrazine and TCO, followed by conversion to the active drug directly at the tumor site, thereby overcoming the systemic limitations of conventional chemotherapy or the need for specific biomarkers of traditional targeted therapy. Here, TCO-modified protodrugs of four prominent cytotoxics (doxorubicin, paclitaxel, etoposide and gemcitabine) are used, highlighting the modularity of the CAPAC platform. In vitro evaluation of cytotoxicity, solubility, stability and activation rendered the protodrug of doxorubicin, SQP33, as the most promising candidate for in vivo studies. Studies in rodents show that a single injection of the tetrazine-modified biopolymer, SQL70, efficiently captures SQP33 protodrug doses given at 10.8-times the maximum tolerated dose of conventional doxorubicin with greatly reduced systemic toxicity. </p> </div> </div> </div>


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (21) ◽  
pp. 12380-12393
Author(s):  
Chiara Platella ◽  
Marko Trajkovski ◽  
Filippo Doria ◽  
Mauro Freccero ◽  
Janez Plavec ◽  
...  

Abstract Naphthalene diimides showed significant anticancer activity in animal models, with therapeutic potential related to their ability to strongly interact with G-quadruplexes. Recently, a trifunctionalized naphthalene diimide, named NDI-5, was identified as the best analogue of a mini-library of novel naphthalene diimides for its high G-quadruplex binding affinity along with marked, selective anticancer activity, emerging as promising candidate drug for in vivo studies. Here we used NMR, dynamic light scattering, circular dichroism and fluorescence analyses to investigate the interactions of NDI-5 with G-quadruplexes featuring either parallel or hybrid topology. Interplay of different binding modes of NDI-5 to G-quadruplexes was observed for both parallel and hybrid topologies, with end-stacking always operative as the predominant binding event. While NDI-5 primarily targets the 5′-end quartet of the hybrid G-quadruplex model (m-tel24), the binding to a parallel G-quadruplex model (M2) occurs seemingly simultaneously at the 5′- and 3′-end quartets. With parallel G-quadruplex M2, NDI-5 formed stable complexes with 1:3 DNA:ligand binding stoichiometry. Conversely, when interacting with hybrid G-quadruplex m-tel24, NDI-5 showed multiple binding poses on a single G-quadruplex unit and/or formed different complexes comprising two or more G-quadruplex units. NDI-5 produced stabilizing effects on both G-quadruplexes, forming complexes with dissociation constants in the nM range.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexia Karamini ◽  
Athina Bakopoulou ◽  
Dimitrios Andreadis ◽  
Konstantinos Gkiouras ◽  
Aristeidis Kritis

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document