Pharmaceutical Sciences
Volume:19 Issue: 2, 2013

The essential oil of Maruubium persicum C. A. Mey (Lamiaceae) was obtained by hydrodistillation from aerial parts of the plant during flowering stage. The chemical analyses of the essential oil by GC/MS and GC/FID, allowed us to identify thirty three compounds, representing 94.4% of the total oil. The essential oil of M. persicum was typically a complex mixture of mainly oxygenated non-terpenoids (51.5%), sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (27.9%), oxygenated sesquiterpenes (4.8%), monoterpene hydrocarbons (9%), and oxygenated monoterpenes (1.3%). The major components of the essential oil were m-tolualdehyde (19.2%) followed by acetophenone (14.6%), germacrene D (10.5%), β-caryophyllene (7.4%), β-farnesene (6.2%), and α-pinene (4.6%). In spite of the fact that Marrubium sp. contain quite lower amounts of aliphatic and non-terpenoid fractions, M. persicum revealed rather higher proportions of non-terpenoid compounds, namely acetophenone with different isomers of tolualdehyde which are considered to be reported for the first time in the genus Marrubium

Squalene synthase (E.C, 2.5.1.21) catalyzes the reductive dimerization of two molecules of farnesyl diphosphate to squalene, so that it is involved in the first step in cholesterol biosynthesis. Inhibition of squalene synthase is under consideration as an approach of decreasing cholesterol levels in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Therefore squalene synthase is attractive object for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia and coronary heart disease. Understanding the interaction of squalene synthase binding site with inhibitors is crucial for the development of pharmaceutical agents. At this aim, computer aided drug design is an applicable method that can study theses interactions and describe significant characteristics for squalene synthase binding site recognition. In the present work, we applied the molecular docking approach for 9 inhibitors of squalene synthase. Autodock Tools 4.2 was used in order to prepare the docking runs. After the docking runs, the final binding modes of the inhibitors were selected on the basis of the highest score or in other words best fit corresponding to the complex with the lowest free energy of binding. The docking results indicate that all inhibitors bind to squalene synthase active site. Our results clearly show that non polar interactions play a significant role in determining the binding free energy. The results also demonstrated that the inhibitor binding site is a hydrophobic pocket that completely is surrounded by the hydrophobic residue. Also, it was found that the inhibitor 6 (E5700) have the lowest binding free energy (-9.01 kcal/mol). The docking results will be useful for the structure-based drug design and the development of the pharmaceutical agents to treatment of coronary heart disease.

One of the main factors which could have side effects in spermatogenesis is used in chemotherapy to treat cancer patients. It is proved that the agents affect on cells especially with high proliferation such as spermatocytes and kill them through apoptosis induction. Since gonadotropin hormones (FSH, LH) affect spermatogenesis and are suppressed by chemotherapy agents, so administration of GnRH Antagonist to protect the cells against its side effects is in researchers’ interest. Present study tried to investigate protective effects of cetrorelix in suppression of side effects of cisplatin as chemotherapy agent on the germinal epithelium. In the present study 30 male mice were divided randomly into 3 groups: Control, Experimental 1 received 2.5 mg/kg cisplatin daily intraperitonealy and Expermental 2 received cisplatin and subcutaneously injection of 0.25 mg/kg cetrorelix. Cetrorelix injection initiated 1 week before cisplatin treatment and continued at second and third weeks. After 35 days of last injection, the testes were removed and processed for histological and apoptotic analysis according to routine protocols. Histological findings of seminiferous tubules showed that in cisplatin receiving group, number of spermatogonia cells, thickness of germinal epithelium, seminiferous tubules diameter and spermatogenesis index rate (SI) were decreased. Also in some of the tubules only sertoli cells were observed. In addition, our study showed that number of apoptotic cells was increased in this group. Cetrorelix had prohibitive potential against side effects of cisplatin via morphology of seminiferous tubules and decline apoptotic cells. Cisplatin has adverse side effects on germinal epithelium by induction apoptosis and cetrorelix can protect spermatogenesis process from cisplatin adverse side effects.

The number of research publications, patents, and H-index values of each country in pharmacy related fields, could be used as scientometric indicators of pharmacy research and education. For this purpose we studied above mentioned factors for 102 counties consisting of; twenty finance ministers and central bank governors, European Union member countries, first twenty countries of the world in Human Development indices, Middle East countries, and members of Organization of the Islamic Conference. Scopus® was used to extract the bibliometric data. The correlation of some factors such as economical, educational, and research and development (R&D) indicators of the countries on the studied parameters were investigated. The results of analyses showed that studied indicators are correlated with the number of publications, H-indices, and patents. This might suggest the possibility of the further researches in the field of mathematical representation in scientometrics. Research and development in pharmacy areas are affected by expenditure and the more the expenditure, the more the outcome of research and development.

Plant essential oils and nisin have been known as antimicrobial agents that could be used to control food-borne pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli O157:H7. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial efficacies of nisin and Mentha spicata essential oil (EO) both separately and in combination, against Escherichia coli O157:H7 at different temperatures (4, 9 and 14°C), pH (5, 6 and 7) and NaCl concentrations (0, 1, 2 and 4%). The chemical components of EO were analysed by GC-MS. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of nisin and EO were assessed using a broth micro-dilution method. For combinations of the antimicrobials, the Differences in Population assay were used to determinate their effects. The dominant active components of EO were carvone (78.76%) and limonene (11.50%). The EO MIC value was 40µl/ml, but nisin did not inhibit the growth of E.coli O157:H7. The susceptibility of E.coli O157:H7 to nisin and EO was found to enhance with increasing incubation temperature, pH and NaCl concentration. Our findings demonstrate that a combination of nisin and Mentha spicata essential oil might be a potential source of preservative for the control of E.coli O157:H7 in the food industry