فهرست مطالب hamid mahdiuni

As an important transcription factor, FOXM1 involves in various functions including the control of expression of several genes, the transition of cells into dividing phase, angiogenesis, migration and so on, and its overexpression has been reported in the different types of cancers. Therefore, this protein is a putative drug target in cancer therapy. Hitherto, many compounds and medicines have been targeted FOXM1 including FDI-6 and RCM-1 whose functions are the inhibition of FOXM1-DNA interactions. In this study, in order to inhibit FOXM1-DNA complex formation, in-vitro subset of the ZINC database was evaluated computationally. To achieve this purpose, ligand-binding pockets on the protein were explored firstly by running of MDpocket algorithm. Before computation of affinity binding energy of the compounds to the predicted pockets, the libraries (circa 260000 compounds) were screened using FAF-drugs4 web server based on the physicochemical properties. Afterwards, the passed compounds were docked on the predicted pockets of FOXM1 using AutoDock-VINA. The screening process was planned according to the affinity binding energy, structural alerts and toxic-free groups. Accordingly, the three compounds acquired the passing score with approximately the same docking energy. To differentiate and ranking of the selected compounds, the MM/PBSA approach was applied on the three ligand-FOXM1 complexes and finally, 1-Hydroxypyrene β-D-Glucuronide was picked out based on its binding free energy. The introduced ligand in this study is the promising novel hit molecule, interrupting FOXM1 interactions with its cognate DNA. However, more experimental efforts need to be performed for recognition of the discovered ligand as lead compound.

Measuring of natural antioxidants power is important in the food industry. Ferula gummosa Boiss. plant, locally called Barijeh, is a member of genus Ferula belonging to the Apiaceae family. To introduce endemic natural antioxidants, antioxidant capacity of alcoholic and hydroalcoholic extracts of aerial parts of F. gummosa Boiss. was investigated.

The primary objective of this study was to compare the antioxidant levels and activities between flower and leaf extracts of Ferula gummosa Boiss. plant by different assay methods.

The antioxidant activity of flower and leaf extracts of F. gummosa Boiss. was assessed usingferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay. In addition, phenolic content of the extracts was measured byFolin-Ciocalteu (FC) method.

Ferric reducing antioxidant power assay showed that leaf extract has more antioxidant activity compared to flower extract. DPPH assay had similar results. A slow kinetic behavior was found for methanol extracts of both tissues (EC50 of 0.21 mg/mL and 0.25 mg/mL for leaf and flower methanol extracts, respectively) which was estimated by kinetic mode of DPPH assay. The ORAC assay showed higher values for methanolic extracts compared to ethanolic extracts. Except for ORAC assay, a significant positive correlation was found between antioxidant data of ferric-reducing antioxidant power, DPPH and Folin-Ciocalteu assays.

These findings suggest that high antiradical potential and reducing power of the alcoholic and hydroalcoholic extracts of the aerial parts of F. gummosa Boiss. correspond to a high phenolic content in these plant parts. The high antioxidant activity of the F. gummosa Boiss. could propound the hydroalcoholic extracts of this plant as a therapeutic agent to prevent and treat diseases due to free radical imbalance in the body

Ferulago angulata Boiss. known in Iran as Chavir, has some bioactive compounds having antioxidant activity. Because of its antioxidant activities, it sounded Chavir extract can be a good candidate for finding chemopreventive agents having inductive apoptosis properties on cancer cells. In this study, the cytotoxic effects and proapoptotic activities of Chavir’s leaf and flower extracts were investigated on human adenocarcinoma gastric cell line (AGS). The ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay was used to determine antioxidant activity of the extract. Cytotoxic effects of the extract were performed by trypan blue and neutral red assays. For apoptosis detection, we used Annexin V staining, flow cytometry and DNA fragmentation assays. The FRAP assay results showed that antioxidant activity of leaf extract was higher than flower extract. Cytotoxicity and apoptosis–inducing activity of flower and leaf extracts changed coordinately, indicating the cytotoxicity of chavir extracts is due probably to induce apoptosis. Our results revealed that the cytotoxic effects of F. angulate Boiss. extracts on AGS cell line is close to some other plant extracts such as Rhus verniciflua Stokes (RVS) and Scutellaria litwinowii. This is the first study on cytotoxic and apoptosis–inducing effects of chavir leaf and flower extracts against AGS cell line. The Further investigation can be identification of the agent(s) by which these effects is observed.