Publications

Commonly used antibiotics use multiple administrations for providing a continuous bactericidal effect but can increase systemic toxicity, as well as lead to bacterial drug resistance. The use of plant-based antibacterial compounds in combination with conventional antibiotics to treat drug-resistant infections could be an alternative to overcoming the problem of bacterial resistance. The combination of antibiotics with plant-based antibacterial compounds has shown synergistic advantages due to the inhibition of drug efflux and the presence of alternative mechanisms of action. Moreover, the nanoencapsulation of antibiotics is another effective technique to overcome antibiotic resistance. Nano-encapsulated antimicrobials have a better performance in comparison with traditional antibiotics due to their small size which leads to better interaction with bacterial cells. The different nanocarriers are effective in efficiently administering antibiotics by improving pharmacokinetics and accumulation while reducing the adverse effects. Additionally, the surface engineering of nanocarriers provides benefits such as targeting and modulating various resistance mechanisms. Furthermore, most nanocarriers are suitable platforms for co-loading of plant-based antibacterial compounds and traditional antibiotics to provide synergistic effects. This study outlines recent attempts to combat infectious diseases, with a focus on the use of plant-based nanoantibiotics as novel tools to address today’s issues in infectious disease treatment.

<b><i>Significance:</i></b> Cancer is related to redox biology from many points of view, such as initiation and promotion, metabolism and growth, invasion and metastasis, vascularization, or through the interaction with the immune system. In addition, this extremely complex relationship depends on the redox homeostasis of each cellular compartment, which might be used to fight cancer. <b><i>Recent Advances:</i></b> New ways of modulating specific and little explored aspects of redox biology have been revealed, as well as new delivery methods or uses of previously known treatments against cancer. Here, we review the latest experimental evidence regarding redox biology in cancer treatment and analyze its potential impact in the development of improved and more effective antineoplastic therapies. <b><i>Critical Issues:</i></b> A critical issue that deserves particular attention is the understanding that both extremes of redox biology (<i>i.e.</i>, oxidative stress [OS] and reductive stress) might be useful or harmful in relation to cancer prevention and treatment. <b><i>Future Directions:</i></b> Additional research is needed to understand how to selectively induce reductive or OS adequately to avoid cancer proliferation or to induce cancer cell death.

Edible flowers are receiving renewed interest as rich sources of bioactive compounds. Ethanol extracts of eight edible flowers were phytochemically characterized and investigated for their bioactivity. Rutin, quercetin, luteolin, kaempferol, and myricetin were selected as standards and quantified by HPLC. The fatty acid profile was analyzed by GC and GC-MS. Antioxidant properties were evaluated by using different in vitro tests. The hypoglycemic effects were investigated via the inhibition of α-amylase and α-glucosidase. Sambucus nigra exhibited the highest radical-scavenging activity (IC50 of 1.4 μg/mL), followed by Hedysarum coronarium (IC50 of 1.6 μg/mL). Both species contained high quercetin and rutin contents. S. nigra extract exerted the highest activity in preventing lipid oxidation. Malva sylvestris extract inhibited both α-amylase and α-glucosidase with IC50 values of 7.8 and 11.3 μg/mL, respectively. These findings support the consumption of edible flowers as functional foods and their use as sources of natural antioxidants by the food industry.

Micellar systems consisting of a surfactant and an additive such as an organic salt or an acid usually self-organize as a series of worm-like micelles that ultimately form a micellar network. The nature of the additive influences micellar structure and properties such as aggregate lifetime. For ionic surfactants such as sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), CMC decreases with increasing temperature to a minimum in the low-temperature region beyond which it exhibits the opposite trend. The presence of additives in a surfactant micellar system also modifies monomer interactions in aggregates, thereby altering CMC and conductance. Because the standard deviation of β was always lower than 10%, its slight decrease with increasing temperature was not significant. However, the absolute value of Gibbs free enthalpy, a thermodynamic potential that can be used to calculate the maximum of reversible work, increased with increasing temperature and caffeic acid concentration. Micellization in the presence of caffeic acid was an endothermic process, which was entropically controlled. The enthalpy and enthropy positive values resulted from melting of “icebergs” or “flickering clusters” around the surfactant, leading to increased packing of hydrocarbon chains within the micellar core in a non-random manner. This can be possibly explained by caffeic acid governing the 3D matrix structure of water around the micellar aggregates. The fact that both enthalpy and entropy were positive testifies to the importance of hydrophobic interactions as a major driving force for micellization. Micellar systems allow the service life of some products to be extended without the need to increase the amounts of post-harvest storage preservatives used. If a surfactant is not an allowed ingredient or food additive, carefully washing it off before the product is consumed can avoid any associated risks. In this work, we examined the influence of temperature and SDS concentration on the properties of SDS–caffeic acid micellar systems. Micellar properties can be modified with various additives to develop new uses for micelles. This allows smaller amounts of additives to be used without detracting from their benefits.

Natural color polymorphisms are widespread across animal species and usually have a simple genetic basis. This makes them an ideal system to study the evolutionary mechanisms responsible for maintaining biodiversity. In some populations of the intertidal snail Littorina fabalis , variation in shell color has remained stable for years, but the mechanisms responsible are unknown. Previous studies suggest that this stability could be caused by frequency-dependent sexual selection, but this hypothesis has not been tested. We analyzed shell color polymorphism in mating pairs and surrounding unmated individuals in two different populations of L. fabalis to estimate sexual fitness for color, as well as assortative mating. The estimated effective population size from neutral markers allowed us to disregard genetic drift as the main source of color frequency changes across generations. Shell color frequency was significantly correlated with sexual fitness showing a pattern of negative frequency dependent selection with high disassortative mating for color. The results suggested a contribution of male mate choice to maintain the polymorphism. Finally, the implementation of a multi-model inference approach based on information theory allowed us to test for the relative contribution of mate choice and mate competition to explain the maintenance of color polymorphism in this snail species.

Receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE) is a multifunctional receptor binds a broad spectrum of ligands and mediates responses to cell damage and stress conditions. It also activates programs leading to acute and chronic inflammation and implicated in several pathological diseases, including cancer. In this review, we presented the non-enzymatic reaction of reducing sugar with the amino groups of proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. This reaction initiates a complex series of rearrangements and dehydrations, and then produces a class of irreversibly cross-linked heterogeneous fluorescent moieties, termed advanced glycation end products (AGEs). There is a growing body of evidence that interaction of processes food-related AGEs with a cell surface receptor RAGE brings out the generation of oxidative stress and subsequently evokes proliferative, angiogenic and inflammatory reactions, thereby being involved in the development and progression of various types of cancers. This review is an insightful assessment of molecular mechanisms through which RAGE signaling contributes to the enhancement and survival of the tumorigenic cell. Here we summarize the procurement of individual ligands of RAGE like amphoterin, calcium-binding proteins, and resultant mediation of RAGE signaling pathway, which partially can elucidate the elevated risk of several cancers. Besides, we summarize many factors or conditions including APE1 (apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1), retinol mutations, retinoblastoma (Rb), proteinase 3 (PR3) hypoxia and so on through which RAGE signaling presents an establishment of cancerous environment. Additionally, we also reviewed some recent findings that give shreds of evidence for presenting the role of RAGE and its ligands in the advanced stage of cancers.