ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Successful cancer treatments still require more compounds to be isolated from natural sources. Thus, we have investigated anti-proliferative/apoptotic effects of methanolic extracts of lichen species Parmelia sulcata Taylor and Usnea filipendula Stirt on human lung cancer (A549, PC3), liver cancer (Hep3B) and rat glioma (C6) cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Anti-proliferative effects were monitored by MTT and adenosine triphosphate viability assays, while genotoxic activity was studied using the comet assay. Additionally, cell death mode and apoptosis assays (fluorescence staining, caspase-cleaved cytokeratin 18, caspase-3 activity and PARP cleavage) were performed. RESULTS: Extracts produced anti-population growth effects in a dose-dependent manner (1.56-100 µg/ml) by inducing apoptosis-like cell death. This resulted in the lines having the presence of pyknotic cell nuclei. In addition, significant increase in genetic damage in the cell lines was seen, indicating that DNA damage may have been responsible for apoptotic cell death. CONCLUSION: In this study, methanolic extracts of Parmelia sulcata and Usnea filipendula induced apoptosis-like cell death by causing DNA damage, to cancer cells.
Subject(s)
Apoptosis/drug effects , Ascomycota/metabolism , DNA Damage/drug effects , Neoplasms/drug therapy , Usnea/metabolism , Animals , Brain Neoplasms/drug therapy , Caspase 3/metabolism , Cell Line, Tumor , Cell Proliferation/drug effects , Enzyme Activation/drug effects , Glioma/drug therapy , Humans , Keratin-18/metabolism , Liver Neoplasms/drug therapy , Lung Neoplasms/drug therapy , Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerases/metabolism , RatsABSTRACT
A 2-year-old, female Persian cat was presented with a history of distocia. In her first pregnancy, she had whelped four kittens and had eaten all of them right after parturition. She had mated again with the same tomcat. Well-developed foetuses with weak foetal heart beats were observed in the ultrasonographic examination. En block ovariohysterectomy was performed. Three live and mature foetuses were obtained from the uterus; two of them were female foetuses and had no anatomical problem but the third one exhibiting multiple malformations was a male and diagnosed as 'schistosoma reflexum' (SR). The vertebral column deviated markedly to the right (scoliosis) at thoracolumbar region, and the middle lumbar and the sacral vertebrae were directed dorsocranially (lordosis). The entire small intestine, a part of large intestine, stomach, spleen and the right kidney were displayed out of the body, and it seemed that the listed internal organs were protruded from an abdominal cleft associated with the allantoic membrane. Liver, lungs and heart were hypoplastic. The large intestine was seen to have blind end (atresia recti), but anus was normal. Cerebrum and cerebellum were noticed as normal in sizes. Chromosome preparations from lymphocyte cultures of the foetus showed chromosomal aberrations including chromatid and chromosome breaks, exchange figures, non-homologous pairing, whereas no abnormalities were detected in the chromosome preparations from mother's cultures. This is probably the first case of SR in a cat, which was examined in detail from clinical, pathological, radiological and chromosomal angles.
Subject(s)
Cat Diseases/congenital , Cats/abnormalities , Chromosome Aberrations/veterinary , Lordosis/veterinary , Scoliosis/veterinary , Animals , Female , Fetal Death/veterinary , Fetus/abnormalities , Lordosis/congenital , Male , Pregnancy , Scoliosis/congenitalABSTRACT
Amifostine (WR-2721), a phosphorylated aminothiol pro-drug, is a selective cytoprotective agent in normal tissue against the toxicities associated with chemotherapy and irradiation. Fotemustine is a cancer chemotherapeutic agent that belongs to an extremely active class of alkylating compounds. Amifostine was tested for antimutagenicity against fotemustine in the somatic mutation and recombination test (SMART) in Drosophila melanogaster. Third-instar larvae that were trans-heterozygous for the two genetic markers mwh and flr were treated at different concentrations (2, 4, and 8 microg/ml for fotemustine and, 1, 2, and 4 microg/ml for amifostine) of the test compounds; for the antimutagenicity study, 8 microg/ml fotemustine plus 1 and 2 microg/ml amifostine were tested. Fotemustine showed mutagenic and recombinagenic effects in both genotypes in the wing-spot test. Amifostine significantly reduced the mutagenic and recombinagenic effects of fotemustine.
