Luteolin, 3’, 4’, 5,7-tetrahydroxyflavone, belongs to a group of naturally occurring compounds called flavonoids that are found widely in the plant kingdom. It possesses many beneficial properties including antioxidant, antiinflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-diabetic and anti-proliferative actions. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer related deaths worldwide. Many signaling pathways are deregulated during the progression of colon cancer. In this review we aimed to analyze the protection offered by luteolin on colon cancer. During colon cancer genesis, luteolin known to reduce oxidative stress thereby protects the cell to undergo damage in vivo. Wnt/β-catenin signaling, deregulated during neoplastic development, is modified by luteolin. Hence, luteolin can be considered as a potential drug to treat CRC.

https://www.koreascience.or.kr:443/article/JAKO201429765167303.pdf

Luteolin, a bioflavonoid inhibits colorectal cancer through modulation of multiple signaling pathways: a review.

Histochemical monitoring of developmental processes is presently centered on protein-protein interactions. However, oligosaccharides have the potential to store and transmit biological information. Carbohydrate chains of cellular glycoconjugates present determinants for binding of endogenous lectins. This interaction can be relevant for developmental processes. In fact, β-galactosides and their derivatives serve as ligands for members of the lectin family of galectins. Since it is unclear to what extent functions of different galectins differ or overlap, hereby introducing redundancy into this system, monitoring of galectin presence during tissue maturation should include more than one type of galectin (galectin fingerprinting). Here, we focus on the two most frequently described ones, namely the homodimeric prototype galectin-1 and the chimera-type galectin-3, the latter one so far not characterized from bovine tissue. In the first step, we have detected its presence biochemically in addition to the abundant galectin-1 in bovine respiratory and digestive tracts during development. Evidently, diversification of the primitive foregut will not lead to an alteration of this property. Immunohistochemistry revealed clear differences in the galectins' localization profiles. Galectin-1 expression is strong in mesenchymal cells, especially smooth muscle cells, while epithelial lining harbors galectin-3. A gradual increase in staining intensity with development is especially observed in the case of galectin-3. Notably, this change is accompanied by a shift from primarily nuclear localization to the cytoplasm, an alteration not seen for galectin-1. However, nuclear presence of galectin-1 is encountered. Thus, the delineation of differences in expression of galectin-1 and -3 with respect to cell types and in the developmental course of subcellular localization argues in favor of mediation of nonoverlapping functions by these two homologous, endogenous lectins.

Galectin-1 and galectin-3 in fetal development of bovine respiratory and digestive tracts

Androgens and mammalian male reproductive tract development.

Fast shared-memory algorithms for computing the minimum spanning forest of sparse graphs

Summary form only given. Minimum spanning tree (MST) is one of the most studied combinatorial problems with practical applications in VLSI layout, wireless communication, and distributed networks, recent problems in biology and medicine such as cancer detection, medical imaging, and proteomics, and national security and bioterrorism such as detecting the spread of toxins through populations in the case of biological/chemical warfare. Most of the previous attempts for improving the speed of MST using parallel computing are too complicated to implement or perform well only on special graphs with regular structure. We design and implement four parallel MST algorithms (three variations of Boruvka plus our new approach) for arbitrary sparse graphs that for the first time give speedup when compared with the best sequential algorithm. In fact, our algorithms also solve the minimum spanning forest problem. We provide an experimental study of our algorithms on symmetric multiprocessors such as IBM's p690/Regatta and Sun's Enterprise servers. Our new implementation achieves good speedups over a wide range of input graphs with regular and irregular structures, including the graphs used by previous parallel MST studies. For example, on an arbitrary random graph with IM vertices and 20M edges, our new approach achieves a speedup of 5 using 8 processors. The source code for these algorithms is freely-available from our Web site hpc.ece.unm.edu. This work was supported in part by NSF Grants CAREER ACI-00-93039, ITR ACI-00-81404, DEB-99-10123, ITR EIA-01-21377, Biocomplexity DEB-01-20709, and ITR EF/BIO 03-31654.

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Leaf extracts of Cassia alata L (akapulko), traditionally used for treatment of a variety of diseases, were evaluated for their potential antitumor properties in vitro. MTT assays were used to examine the cytotoxic effects of crude extracts on five human cancer cell lines, namely MCF-7, derived from a breast carcinoma, SK-BR-3, another breast carcinoma, T24 a bladder carcinoma, Col 2, a colorectal carcinoma, and A549, a non- small cell lung adenocarcinoma. Hexane extracts showed remarkable cytotoxicity against MCF-7, T24, and Col 2 in a dose-dependent manner. This observation was confirmed by morphological investigation using light microscopy. Further bioassay-directed fractionation of the cytotoxic extract led to the isolation of a TLC-pure isolate labeled as f6l. Isolate f6l was further evaluated using MTT assay and morphological and biochemical investigations, which likewise showed selectivity to MCF-7, T24, and Col 2 cells with IC50 values of 16, 17, and 17 μg/ml, respectively. Isolate f6l, however, showed no cytotoxicity towards the non-cancer Chinese hamster ovarian cell line (CHO-AA8). Cytochemical investigation using DAPI staining and biochemical investigation using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL)-a method used to detect DNA fragmentation-together with caspase assay, demonstrated apoptotic cell death. Spectral characterization of isolate f6l revealed that it contained polyunsaturated fatty acid esters. Considering the cytotoxicity profile and its mode of action, f6l might represent a new promising compound with potential for development as an anticancer drug with low or no toxicity to non-cancer cells used in this study.

http://koreascience.or.kr:80/article/JAKO201321251181904.pdf

In vitro antitumor properties of an isolate from leaves of Cassia alata L.

Summary

Morphometry is well-established in tumour pathology. To evaluate its potential usefulness for description of developmental processes, histological slides from paraffin-embedded specimens of 67 human fetal lungs were Feulgen-stained, and morphometric characteristics of nuclei of epithelial pulmonary cells were analysed with an automated image analysis system. The measured cytometric features comprised of integrated optical density (IOD), S-phase-related IOD fraction, IOD entropy and nuclear area. Histometric features of the specimens were based upon the minimum spanning tree (MST) and included distances between neighboring epithelial cells, between epithelial cells and neighboring lymphocytes, and assessment of MST entropy. Notably, certain parameters revealed a non-uniform level during prenatal development. S-phase-related IOD fraction increased from 5% to 8% between 14 and 16 weeks of gestation, then declined to 6% until birth. The IOD entropy steadily increased during development, whereas the extent of nuclear area remained constant. In accordance with an increase of the S-phase-related fraction the MST entropy displayed a singular peak between 14 and 16 weeks of gestation, which is probably associated with development of glandular structures in the lung. Correlation of expression of binding sites for markers, presumably involved in functional aspects of development, with such alterations, is shown for binding capacities of biotinylated fucoidan and the S-phase-related fraction. This may be helpful to infer immunoor ligando histochemically defined tissue sites with potential physiological significance in morphometrically distinguished periods of development.

Application of Computer-assisted Morphometry to the Analysis of Prenatal Development of Human Lung

The study of the external genitalia is divided into 2 developmental stages: the formation and growth of a bipotential genital tubercle (GT) and the sexual differentiation of the male and female GT. The sexually dimorphic processes, which occur during the second part of GT differentiation, are suggested to be governed by androgen signaling and more recently crosstalk with other signaling factors. The process of elucidating the regulatory mechanisms of hormone signaling towards other signaling networks in the GT is still in its early stages. Nevertheless, it is becoming a productive area of research. This review summarizes various studies on the development of the murine GT and the defining characteristics of a masculinized GT and presents the different signaling pathways possibly involved during masculinization.

Development of the external genitalia and their sexual dimorphic regulation in mice.

Free radicals have significant effects on the structure and general function of the cell. They play a role in the body’s defense against infection by microorganisms. At the same time, they cause a number of diseases by inducing damage to DNA and other important biomolecules. Hence, the search for additional free radical scavengers or antioxidants, especially from plant sources, is of prime importance. Leaf extracts from Cassia alata L. (locally known as ‘akapulko’), traditionally used for the treatment of a variety of diseases, were evaluated as free radical scavengers using the diphenyl picryl hydrazyl hydrochloride (DPPH) assay. The ethyl acetate (EtOAc) fraction showed scavenging activity of 100%, comparable to gallic acid, a widely used antioxidant. Repeated column fractionation of the EtOAc fraction yielded a new indole alkaloid, 1-(4’-hydroxyphenyl)-2,4,6-trihydroxy-indole-3-carboxylic acid, which demonstrated a dose-dependent scavenging activity against DPPH with an IC50 of 0.0311 μM ± 0.002, indicating strong antioxidant potential.

Antioxidant activity of a new indole alkaloid from Cassia alata L.

Aldose reductase is an enzyme in the polyol pathway which is associated in the progression of diabetic complications. In this study, we evaluated the inhibitory activity of Cirsium japonicum var. maackii pappus (CJP) against rat lens aldose reductase (RLAR). The ethanolic extract, fractions and isolated flavonoids were subjected to an RLAR assay. Isolation of chloroform (CHCl3) and ethyl acetate (EtOAc) fractions led to the identification of four flavonoids: hispidulin (1), cirsimaritin (2), apigenin (3), and cirsimarin (4). The RLAR assay results suggested that the EtOAc fraction and flavonoids 1 and 3 promoted better AR inhibition than did TMG (control). The half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of compounds 1 and 3 was 0.77 and 3.19 μM, respectively. A simultaneous determination of flavonoid content using HPLC–UV indicated that CJP contained large amounts of compounds 2 and 3 (1.65 and 1.84 mg/g, respectively). Flavonoids from Cirsium species have been widely reported to show various pharmacological activities. This study indicated that CJP has the potential to prevent diabetic complications and was a potential source of flavonoids.

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Sonia D. Jacinto

Papers

In vitro antitumor properties of an isolate from leaves of Cassia alata L.

Application of Computer-assisted Morphometry to the Analysis of Prenatal Development of Human Lung

Development of the external genitalia and their sexual dimorphic regulation in mice.

Antioxidant activity of a new indole alkaloid from Cassia alata L.

Erratum to: Flavonoids from Cirsium japonicum var. maackii pappus as inhibitors of aldose reductase and their simultaneous determination