Posted by admin on Nov 30, 2017 in |
Justicia wynaadensis, an endemic medicinal plant found in the regions of Western Ghats is a herb, belonging to the family Acanthaceae. The following study was carried out to evaluate the in vitro cytotoxicity of the leaf extract of Justicia wynaadensis. Four different extracts were prepared by using water and methanol [aqueous fresh leaves extract, methanolic extract of dry leaves powder, hot (boiled) and cold (macerated) aqueous extracts of dry leaves powder]. Preliminary screening of extracts showed the presence of flavonoids, phenols and terpenoids and its quantitative estimation was done using HPLC. Antioxidant activity was evaluated by DPPH and ABTS assay. The cytotoxic effect of all the four extracts were tested by MTT assay on two cancer cell lines MCF7 (Breast cancer cell line) and HCT116 (Colorectal cancer cell line). The cold aqueous extract had the highest cytotoxic effect on both the cell lines at IC50 values of 20.76 µg/ml and 28.46 µg/ml...
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Posted by admin on Nov 30, 2017 in |
Malaria has been a major life threatening mosquito borne disease. Unavailability of any effective vaccine and recent emergence of multi drug resistant strains of malarial pathogen Plasmodium falciparum continues to cause persistent deaths in the tropical and sub-tropical region. As a result, there is a growing demand for new targets for more effective anti-malarial drugs. A novel microneme protein, named sporozoite microneme protein essential for cell traversal (SPECT), is produced by the liver-infective sporozoite of the malarial parasite. In the present study, the 3D conformation of Plasmodium falciparum SPECT (PfSPECT) protein was predicted using homology modelling and refined by 50 nanoseconds of MD simulation. The overall quality of the model was validated using PROCHECK and ERRAT. The PROCHECK results showed 91.4% of backbone angles were in the allowed region and ERRAT score of 85.9% suggested a high quality model. All docking calculations were performed using the “Extra Precision” (XP) mode of Glide docking. A database of 2,76,784 biogenic compounds was used for virtual screening, out of which 164 were identified as hits....
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Posted by admin on Nov 30, 2017 in |
Family Solanaceae is known for its tropane alkaloids which have many medicinal properties. In our study two Cestrum species namely Cestrum diurnum and Cestrum nocturnum which are also ornamental plants are studied as different parts of the plants possess anti-bacterial, anti-malarial, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, inhibitory effect on central nervous system and wound healing properties. The present study was undertaken to analyse the presence of various phytochemicals such as alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, saponins, steroids through preliminary qualitative phytochemical screening of the leaf extract. HPLC(High Performance Liquid Chromatography) was used for the qualitative and quantitative active principle analysis which revealed the presence of nicotine and nornicotine as major alkaloids and comparative study of the two species showed the presence of these alkaloids in large quantity in Cestrum diurnum. The detailed anatomical studies of the part(s) used help in the correct easy identification of the commercial drug in its purest...
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Posted by admin on Nov 30, 2017 in |
With exponential advancements in healthcare and pharmaceutical sciences, Peptidomimetics have emerged as essential tools in the designing and development of novel and improvised therapeutics. The peptidomimetic based drugs are designed with the aim of overcoming the shortcomings of natural peptides and proteins. Thus, peptidomimetic therapeutics possesses increased efficiency, stability and overall better pharmacokinetic properties. This review paper outlines the applications and the underlying principles of peptidomimetic based therapeutics in various diseases and issues related to healthcare. Recent advancements in the development of peptidomimetics for Cancer therapy, Renin inhibition, HIV drugs, Analgesics, anti microbials and anti viral drugs have been discussed. Additionally, the applications of peptidomimetics in anti oxidants, anti malarial drugs, blood filtration membranes and as fibrinogen antagonists have also been...
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Posted by admin on Nov 30, 2016 in |
Adenosine has been proposed as a key factor regulating the metabolic balance between energy supply and demand in skeletal muscle. Adenosine A2B receptors are expressed across multiple tissues including skeletal muscle. Previously, it has been identified the robust (in vitro) induction of the nuclear receptors (NR4A) subgroup following adenosine A2B receptors stimulation in rat skeletal muscle cells. This may be concomitant with changes in the expression of genes involved in the regulation of nutrient metabolism. Considering that skeletal muscle is a primary tissue responsible for glucose disposal, glucose oxidation and insulin resistance, this study investigated a potential functional role for adenosine A2B receptors in rat L6 skeletal muscle myotubes in terms of glycolysis (HKII and PFK), and insulin resistance/glucose oxidation (PDK4) using a transcriptional approach (QRT-PCR (Probe-based)). For the first time in rat skeletal muscle cells, the results of the present study have shown that stable adenosine analogue NECA alters the expression of a number of genes (HKII, and PFK). Moreover, this is the first study demonstrating that selective...
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