Antileishmanial and Cytotoxic Effects of Essential Oil and Methanolic Extract of Myrtus communis L.

Plants used for traditional medicine contain a wide range of substances that can be used to treat various diseases such as infectious diseases. The present study was designed to evaluate the antileishmanial effects of the essential oil and methanolic extract of Myrtus communis against Leishmania tropica on an in vitro model. Antileishmanial effects of essential oil and methanolic extract of M. communis on promastigote forms and their cytotoxic activities against J774 cells were evaluated using MTT assay for 72 hr. In addition, their leishmanicidal activity against amastigote forms was determined in a macrophage model, for 72 hr. Findings showed that the main components of essential oil were α-pinene (24.7%), 1,8-cineole (19.6%), and linalool (12.6%). Findings demonstrated that M. communis, particularly its essential oil, significantly (P<0.05) inhibited the growth rate of promastigote and amastigote forms of L. tropica based on a dose-dependent response. The IC₅₀ values for essential oil and methanolic extract was 8.4 and 28.9 μg/ml against promastigotes, respectively. These values were 11.6 and 40.8 μg/ml against amastigote forms, respectively. Glucantime as control drug also revealed IC₅₀ values of 88.3 and 44.6 μg/ml for promastigotes and amastigotes of L. tropica, respectively. The in vitro assay demonstrated no significant cytotoxicity in J774 cells. However, essential oil indicated a more cytotoxic effect as compared with the methanolic extract of M. communis. The findings of the present study demonstrated that M. communis might be a natural source for production of a new leishmanicidal agent.     

Changes in the Levels of p-ERK,p-CREB,and c-fos in Rat Mesocorticolimbic Dopaminergic System After Morphine-Induced Conditioned Place Preference: The Role of Acute and Subchronic Stress

ERK pathway plays a critical role in the cellular adaptive responses to environmental changes. Stressful conditions can induce the activation of activate ERK, and its downstream targets, CREB and c-fos, in neural cells. Exposure to opioids has the same effect. In this study, we investigated the effects of morphine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) on p-ERK/ERK ratio, p-CREB/CREB ratio and c-fos level in the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic system including the nucleus accumbens (NAc), amygdala (AMY), striatum (Str), and prefrontal cortex (PFC).Our aim was to determine if acute and subchronic stress would affect these alterations. Male Wistar rats were divided into two saline- and morphine-treated groups. Each group contained of control, acute stress, and subchronic stress subgroups. The CPP procedure was performed for all of the rats. We dissected out the NAc, AMY, Str, and PFC regions and measured the mentioned ratios and c-fos level by Western blot analysis. The results revealed that in saline-treated animals, all factors enhanced significantly after performing acute and subchronic stress while there was an exception in p-ERK/ERK ratio in the Str and PFC; the changes were not significant during acute stress. Conditioning score decreased after applying the subchronic but not acute stress. In morphine-treated animals, all factors were increased after application of acute and subchronic stress, and conditioning scores also decreased after stress. Our findings suggest that in saline- or morphine-treated animals, acute and subchronic stress increases p-ERK, p-CREB, and c-fos levels in the mesocorticolimbic system. It has been shown that morphine induces the enhancement of the mentioned factors; on the other hand, our result demonstrates that stress can amplify these changes.     

The potential of transgenic green microalgae; a robust photobioreactor to produce recombinant therapeutic proteins

Microalgae have been used in food, cosmetic, and biofuel industries as a natural source of lipids, vitamins, pigments and antioxidants for a long time. Green microalgae, as potent photobioreactors, can be considered as an economical expression system to produce recombinant therapeutical proteins at large-scale due to low cost of production and scaling-up capitalization owning to the inexpensive medium requirement, fast growth rate, and the ease of manipulation. These microalgae possess all benefit eukaryotic expression systems including the ability of post-translational modifications required for proper folding and stability of active proteins. Among the many items regarded as recombinant protein production, this review compares the different expression systems with green microalgae like Dunaliella by viewing the nuclear/chloroplast transformation challenges/benefits, related selection markers/reporter genes, and crucial factors/strategies affecting the increase of foreign protein expression in microalgae transformants. Some important factors were discussed regarding the increase of protein yielding in microalgae transformants including: transformation-associated genotypic modifications, endogenous regulatory factors, promoters, codon optimization, enhancer elements, and milking of recombinant protein.     

Oligomeric forms of insulin amyloid aggregation disrupt outgrowth and complexity of neuron-like PC12 cells

Formation of protein amyloid fibrils consists of a series of intermediates including oligomeric aggregates, proto-fibrillar structures, and finally mature fibrils. Recent studies show higher toxicity for oligomeric and proto-fibrillar intermediates of protein relative to their mature fibrils. Here the kinetic of the insulin amyloid fibrillation was evaluated using a variety of techniques including ThT fluorescence, Congo red absorbance, circular dichroism, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The solution surface tension changes were attributed to hydrophobic changes in insulin structure and were detected by Du Noüy Ring method. Determination of the surface tension of insulin oligomeric, proto-fibrillar and fibrillar forms indicated that the hydrophobicity of solution is enhanced by the formation of the oligomeric forms of insulin compared to other forms. In order to investigate the toxicity of the different forms of insulin we monitored morphological alterations of the differentiated neuron-like PC12 cells following incubation with native, oligomeric aggregates, proto-fibrillar, and fibrillar forms of insulin. The cell body area, average neurite length, neurite width, number of primary neurites, and percent of bipolar cells and node/primary neurite ratios were used to assess the growth and complexity of PC12 cells exposed to different forms of insulin. We observed that the oligomeric form of insulin impaired the growth and complexity of PC12 cells compared to other forms. Together our data suggest that the lower surface tension of oligomers and their perturbation affects the morphology of PC12 cells, mainly due to their enhanced hydrophobicity and detergent-like structures.     

Stability improvement of immobilized lactoperoxidase using polyaniline polymer

Enzyme engineering via immobilization techniques is perfectly compatible against the other chemical or biological approximate to improve enzyme functions and stability. In this study lactoperoxidase was immobilized onto polyaniline polymer activated with glutaraldehyde as a bifunctional agent, to improve enzyme properties. Polyaniline polymer was used due its unique physical and chemical properties to immobilize lactoperoxidase (LPO). The optimum activity of immobilized LPO was observed at pH 6 and 55?°C, which has been increased about 10?°C for the immobilized enzyme. The immobilized enzyme maintained absolutely active for 60?days whereas the native enzyme lost 80?% of its initial activity within this period of time. Moreover, the immobilized enzyme can be reused for several times without loss of activity. The kinetic parameter studies showed slight differences between free and immobilized enzymes. The K_m and K_m.app were calculated to be 0.6 and 0.4; also V_max and V_max.app were 1.3 and 0.9 respectively.     

Association of genetic variation in co-stimulatory molecule genes with outcome of liver transplant in Iranian patients

CD28, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated antigen 4 (CTLA4), inducible costimulator (ICOS) and programmed cell death 1 are closely-linked genes located on chromosome 2q and encode co-stimulatory molecules, which are T-cell activity regulators. The principal assignment of T-cell mediated immune response in allograft rejection is an interesting topic of multiple studies. Although the variation in these genes may influence the graft survival and the amount of immunosuppression needed, the studies so far have been restricted solely to the CTLA4 gene. In 145 patients who underwent liver allograft transplantation, 10 single nucleotide polymorphisms of CD28, CTLA4, ICOS, and PD.1 genes were defined. To distinguish the polymorphisms of all 10 SNPs, PCR-RFLP method was used and according to the standard criteria, acute rejection episodes were determined. CTLA4-1661, AA genotype was significantly more frequent in the patients with acute rejection and AG genotype was significantly more frequent in the patients without rejection. Frequencies of CTLA4+49 AG A allele and CTLA4-1661AG A allele were significantly higher than those of CTLA4+49 AG and CTLA4-1661AG, G allele in the patients with acute rejection. ICOS+693, GG genotype and G allele were significantly less frequent in the patients with acute rejection and CD28 CT genotype was significantly more in patients with acute rejection. The present results demonstrate that potentially functional genetic variation in T-cell co-stimulatory molecules including ICOS, CTLA4 and CD28 can influence liver transplant outcome.     

Biologic and immunomodulatory properties of mesenchymal stromal cells derived from human pancreatic islets

Background aims. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) have now been shown to reside in numerous tissues throughout the body, including the pancreas. Ex vivo culture-expanded MSC derived from many tissues display important interactions with different types of immune cells in vitro and potentially play a significant role in tissue homeostasis in vivo. In this study, we investigated the biologic and immunomodulatory properties of human pancreatic islet-derived MSC. Methods. We culture-expanded MSC from cadaveric human pancreatic islets and characterized them using flow cytometry, differentiation assays and nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolomics. We also investigated the immunologic properties of pancreatic islet-derived MSC compared with bone marrow (BM) MSC. Results. Pancreatic islet and BM-derived MSC expressed the same cell-surface markers by flow cytometry, and both could differentiate into bone, fat and cartilage. Metabolomics analysis of MSC from BM and pancreatic islets also showed a similar set of metabolic markers but quantitative polymerase chain reactions showed that pancreatic islet MSC expressed more interleukin(IL)-1b, IL-6, STAT3 and FGF9 compared with BM MSC, and less IL-10. However, similar to BM MSC, pancreatic islet MSC were able to suppress proliferation of allogeneic T lymphocytes stimulated with anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 antibodies. Conclusions. Our in vitro analysis shows pancreatic islet-derived MSC have phenotypic, biologic and immunomodulatory characteristics similar, but not identical, to BM-derived MSC. We propose that pancreatic islet-derived MSC could potentially play an important role in improving the outcome of pancreatic islet transplantation by promoting engraftment and creating a favorable immune environment for long-term survival of islet allografts.     

Improvement in symptoms and pulmonary function of asthmatic patients due to their treatment according to the Global Strategy for Asthma Management (GINA)

Background

Endothelin-1 (ET-1) and Nitric Oxide (NO) are crucial mediators for establishing pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH). We tested the hypothesis that their imbalance might also occur in COPD patients with PAH.

Methods

The aims of the study were to measure exhaled breath condensate (EBC) and circulating levels of ET-1, as well as exhaled NO (FENO) levels by, respectively, a specific enzyme immunoassay kit, and by chemiluminescence analysis in 3 groups of subjects: COPD with PAH (12), COPD only (36), and healthy individuals (15). In order to evaluate pulmonary-artery systolic pressure (PaPs), all COPD patients underwent Echo-Doppler assessment.

Results

Significantly increased exhaled and circulating levels of ET-1 were found in COPD with PAH compared to both COPD (p < 0.0001) only, and healthy controls (p < 0.0001). In COPD with PAH, linear regression analysis showed good correlation between ET-1 in EBC and PaPs (r = 0.621; p = 0.031), and between arterial levels of ET-1 and PaPs (r = 0.648; p = 0.022), while arterial levels of ET-1 inversely correlated with FEV₁%, (r = -0.59, p = 0.043), and PaPs negatively correlated to PaO₂ (r = -0.618; p = 0.032). Significantly reduced levels of FENO were found in COPD associated with PAH, compared to COPD only (22.92 ± 11.38 vs.35.07 ± 17.53 ppb; p = 0.03). Thus, we observed an imbalanced output in the breath between ET-1 and NO, as expression of pulmonary endothelium and epithelium impairment, in COPD with PAH compared to COPD only. Whether this imbalance is an early cause or result of PAH due to COPD is still unknown and deserves further investigations.     

A New Artificial Chaperone for Protein Refolding: Sequential Use of Detergent and Alginate

A novel artificial chaperone system using a combination of detergents and alginate was developed to refold three enzymes with totally different structures. Upon dilution of denatured protein in the presence of the capturing agent, complexes of the detergent and non-native protein molecules are formed and thereby the formation of protein aggregates is prevented. The so-called captured protein is unable to refold from the detergent-protein complex states unless a stripping agent is used to gradually remove the detergent molecules. In that respect, we used alginate, a linear copolymer of d-mannuronic acid and l-guluronic acid, to initiate and complete the refolding process. The results indicated that the extent of refolding assistance for the proteins was different due to detergent structure and also the length of hydrophobic portion of each detergent. These observed differences were attributed to the strong electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions among the capturing and stripping agents used in this investigation. Based on this newly developed method, it is expected that the protein refolding operation can be achieved easily, cheaply and efficiently.