A review on edible vaccines and their prospects

For a long time, vaccines have been the main mode of defense and protection against several bacterial, viral, and parasitic diseases. However, the process of production and purification makes them expensive and unaffordable to many developing nations. An edible vaccine is when the antigen is expressed in the edible part of the plant. This reduces the cost of production of the vaccine because of ease of culturing. In this article, various types of edible vaccines that include algal and probiotics in addition to plants are discussed. Various diseases against which research has been carried out are also reviewed. This article focused on the conception of edible vaccines highlighting the various ways by which vaccines can be delivered.

Cytotoxic Effect on Cancerous Cell Lines by Biologically Synthesized Silver Nanoparticles

The biosynthesis of nanoparticles has been proposed as an environmental friendly and cost effective alternative to chemical and physical methods. Silver nanoparticles are biologically synthesized and characterized were used in the study. The invitro cytotoxic effect of biologically synthesized silver nanoparticles against MCF-7 cancer cell lines were assessed. The cytotoxic effects of the silver nanoparticles could significantly inhibited MCF-7 cancer cell lines proliferation in a time and concentration-dependent manner by MTT assay. Acridine orange, ethidium bromide (AO/EB) dual staining, caspase-3 and DNA fragmentation assays were carried out using various concentrations of silver nanoparticles ranging from 1 to 100 μg/mL. At 100 μg/mL concentration, the silver nanoparticles exhibited significant cytotoxic effects and the apoptotic features were confirmed through caspase-3 activation and DNA fragmentation assays. Western blot analysis has revealed that nanoparticle was able to induce cytochrome c release from the mitochondria, which was initiated by the inhibition of Bcl-2 and activation of Bax. Thus, the results of the present study indicate that biologically synthesized silver nanoparticles might be used to treat breast cancer. The present studies suggest that these nanoparticles could be a new potential adjuvant chemotherapeutic and chemo preventive agent against cytotoxic cells. However, it necessitates clinical studies to ascertain their potential as anticancer agents.

Ocean Dwelling Actinobacteria as Source of Antitumor Compounds

ABSTRACT Extending over decades, research has been of great focus and enormous progress on exploring the ocean for natural products from marine actinobacteria. Attraction towards alternative medicine has led to improvements in natural product discovery. With great potential to survive in extreme environments, marine actinobacteria, efficiently produce an array of metabolites with diverse bioactivity by evolving the secondary metabolic pathways. Exploiting the secondary metabolite producing potential of actinobacteria, many compounds with antitumor, antibacterial, antifungal, antimalarial, antiprotozoal, antiparasitic, antiviral, anti-parasitic, anti-inflammatory activities has been discovered. Efforts in bioprospecting alternative sources of natural products have thus led to several explorations and improvements in technologies which has decreased the bottle neck difficulties in the drug discovery process. Emphasizing on the recent advancements in bioactive compound production in actinobacteria, this paper comprises a review of the available literature, compiles the antitumor compounds from marine actinobacteria with brief discussions and the perspectives to develop better antitumor compounds which would stimulate further research.