Cytotoxic and microbial studies of mixed metal complexes

Breast cancer and its treatment have become a prominent and challenging problem today. The increasing multidrug resistance to microbial pathogens is the root cause of breast cancer. Women suffering from cancer showed high levels of E. coli and S. aureus. In the last few decades, there has been a considerable need in the medical field for the discovery of new compounds endowed with antimicrobial activity, despite the fact that several antibiotics and chemotherapy drugs are currently accessible. Substantial research was conducted, particularly on transition complexes as metal-based drugs in pharmacological applications to provide therapeutic options. The synthesis, characterization, antibacterial activity, and cytotoxic activity of copper complexes with specific ligands of amino acids such as tyrosine and arginine are discussed in this work.

Metallopharmaceuticals: Synthesis, characterization and bio-active studies

Riboflavin can be described as a biological chelating ligand due to the existence of nitrogen and oxygen atoms on its structure that can act as coordinating sites for metal ion on chelation. Co (II) with Riboflavin have been synthesized and characterized by IR, LC-MS, UV, TG-DTA confirms the coordination of ligand. Complex is screened for Anti-microbial activity and Cytotoxicity.

Spectrum of thyroid lesions on fine needle aspiration cytology.

The incidence of thyroid lesions is increasing significantly nowadays. Many a times, differentiation between physiological, inflammatory, autoimmune, hyperfunctioning and hypofunctioning of thyroid gland, benign and malignant tumor poses diagnostic difficulty. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) with clinical correlation, along with ultrasonography and thyroid function tests are done in relevant cases. Final diagnosis requires morphological examination of the lesions. FNAC is widely accepted and has become the cornerstone in evaluation of the thyroid lesions, as unnecessary surgery can be avoided. We studied a total of 251 cases in the age range of 3 years to 72 years, who presented with thyroid swelling over a period of one year and got a spectrum of thyroid lesions on cytology. Incidence was more in females 230 cases (91.63%) compared to males 21 cases (8.36%). Nodular goiter was the commonest disease constituting 127 cases (50.59%) followed by Hashimoto’s thyroiditis 93 cases (33.05%) and malignancy was reported in 7 cases (2.78%). USG guided FNAC for optimization of results is necessary for the location of target lesion. Careful searching for malignant cells and repeat FNAC are the key to a successful diagnosis and to plan a proper surgical procedure. Follow-up is necessary in case of a benign mass.

Thirteen-week oral toxicity study of carotenoid pigment from Rhodotorula glutinis DFR-PDY in rats.

Carotenoids from some of the coloured yeasts like Rhodotorula, Phaffia rhodozyma have attracted commercial interest as a natural pigment for foods. Red yeast isolated from contaminated Potato dextrose agar plate (PDA), designated as Rhodotorula glutinis DFR-PDY has been found to produce carotenoids. In the present study toxicological evaluation of carotenoid pigment has been reported. Experiment was conducted on 3 groups of albino rats. One group with vehicle control (palm oil) and 2 groups with two different doses of red yeast pigment (lower and higher dose) were fed to rats (both male and female) by gavages for 13 weeks. Gain in body weight of rats and food consumption were monitored at regular intervals. Hematological studies revealed that there is no much difference in erythrocytes, packed cell volume, Mean corpuscular volume (MCV), Mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC), platelets and differential counts. Total leucocyte count (TLC) is less in case of higher dose group than the lower and control groups. Whereas, hemoglobin is more in case of higher dose than the lower dose group and least in control group. Even clinico-chemical parameters and urine analysis of vehicle control group and pigment fed rats revealed that there were no major differences between them as well as between two different genders of rats and also interaction between different doses and the genders. Histopathology of these experimental animals revealed that there are no major histological changes found between the groups. It may be concluded that the whole pigment extract from R. glutinis DFR-PDY may be used safely in food preparations as food colourant with an added benefit of antioxidant activity .