sakineh kazemi noureini

Epilobium parviflorum, the willow-herb, extracts contain strong antioxidant compounds and inhibit few types of cancer cell. This study investigates for the first time the effect of its extracts on the growth of human liver cells HepG2, also under oxidative stress.

Methanolic extract of roots, shoots and flowers was prepared separately. Cell viability was assessed by MTT method after 48 hours of treatments with extracts and then with or without hydrogen peroxide treatment. The antioxidant capacity of the extracts as well as the activities of transaminases, superoxide dismutase and lipid peroxidase were measured in the treated cells.

None of the extracts showed cytotoxicty against HepG2 cells, nevertheless cell viability in treatment with aerial and root extracts was significantly increased (P<0.05). In the oxidative stress model, the survival of cells pretreated with extracts, especially methanolic extracts of aerial parts, increased significantly (P<0.05). Pretreatment with this extract in cells under oxidative stress decreased the concentration of MDA and the activity of intracellular ALT and AST enzymes and also increased the activity of superoxide dismutase enzyme compared to the control. The antioxidant capacity of the extracts was comparable to that of Trolux.

Methanolic extract of Epilobium parviflorum showed no cytotoxicity on HepG2 cells and probably protect human liver cells against oxidative stress. It can be a valuable suggestion for preventing liver damages.

The increased effects of UV radiation are observed as a result of the reduced ozone layer with increasing atmospheric pollution. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of UV radiations on growth and some physiological and biochemical parameters of Portulaca oleracea L. Experiments were performed under controlled greenhouse conditions using a completely randomized design with three replications. Purslane plants were treated with UV rays (UV-A at three times 20, 40 and 60 minutes, UV-B at three times 20, 40 and 60 minutes, and UV-C at five times 10, 20, 30, 40, 60 minutes). The results indicated that changes in root growth were not significant, but shoot length, wet and dry weight of plant increased compared to control in the three groups treated with 60 min UV-A, 60 min UV-B and 10 min UV-C. the treatment with 60 min UV-B increased the activity of defense enzymes, phenolic, flavonoid and antioxidant contents significantly more than the other UV treatments. In general, the results indicate that the purslane plant is sensitive to UV radiation. However, applying controlled UV light can provide a new alternative strategy to increase crop productivity, that is the same application of 60 min UV-B as a novel plant growth booster, in comparison with UV-A and UV-C treatment.

Traditional medicine is inspiring in drug development research. Epilobium parviflorum extracts have shown promising therapeutic effects on prostate cancer cells. The similarities between breast and prostate cancers at molecular and metabolic levels prompted us to explore its effects on human breast cancer.

The root, aerial parts and flowers of the plant were, collected and dried separately at ambient temperature and away from direct sunlight. The aquatic and methanolic extracts of each part was prepared. The effect of each extract on the growth of MCF-7 breast carcinoma cells and HEK293 normal cell line was evaluated, using MTT assay. Each experiment was repeated at least three times independently. The IC50 values for each treatment time point were analyzed, using ANOVA at P<0.05.

While none of the extracts had considerable toxicity on normal HEK293 cells, some of them showed varying levels of toxicity on the MCF-7 cells. The methanolic extracts were more cytotoxic than the aqueous counterpart. The roots’ methanolic extract showed the strongest cytotoxicity on the MCF-7 cells in a dose and exposure time dependent manner. The IC50 after 48 hours of treatment was determined at 73µg/ml.  

This study is the first to demonstrate that Epilobium parviflorum had a strong growth inhibiting property on MCF-7 cell line, as a potential model to treat human breast cancer cells. The most cytotoxic effect was noted for the methanolic root extract. Determination of the effective biochemical constituents of the extract against cancer cells is the focus of our future research.

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the molecule encoding the genetic instructions used in the growth and functioning of all living organisms and is very appropriate for biological information storage. Todays, the DNA sequences are regarded as sources for detecting the species and their phylogenetic relationships. Despite the modern technologies including the next generation sequencing and DNA barcoding, there is still a need for a fast, cheap, and reliable method for identifying species particularly in ambiguous morphologically-defined organisms. This study evaluated to see if some biophysical chemistry properties of PCR products like melting point can be used before sequencing to identify the samples of interest. Determining the melting temperature of PCR products is available in most available measurements in molecular biology labs. The present study focused on the potential use of melting temperature related to PCR products of 16S and Cyt b (highly used genes in phylogenetic studies) using a real-time PCR machine to identify different species of snakes from Iran. The preliminary results of these two genes are promising although extra steps are required to improve its sensitivity. The development of this method can be used in a rapid evaluation of species.

Crocin is a major constituent of saffron, the dried stigmas of Crocus sativus L., which is used mainly as a herbal medicine or a food coloring agent around the world. Novel publications reporting a cancer preventive effect for crocin motivated us to evaluate telomerase activity, the main cause of immortality in cancer cells, under treatment with crocin. IC50 concentration of crocin was estimated in MCF-7 cell line, a breast adenocarcinoma cancer model, by MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) test after 48 hours of treatment. A conventional telomere repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) assay and a real-time quantitative telomere repeat amplification protocol (qTRAP) assay were used to estimate relative telomerase activity in crocin-treated cells in comparison with untreated control cells. Telomerase activity in the treated cells with different concentrations of crocin up to IC50 showed an increment after administration of very low doses of crocin, whereas higher concentrations of crocin remarkably inhibited the enzyme in a dose-dependent manner. IC50 values of crocin reduced by 85% in comparison with untreated control cells. qTRAP estimations show a good correlation with the conventional assay results. Antiproliferative effect of crocin in cancer cells is probably due to strong inhibition of telomerase activity.