Aims and Scope
Recent Articles
Evaluation of Safety, Antileishmanial, and Chemistry of Ethanolic Leaves Extracts of Seven Medicinal Plants: An In-vitro Study
Nargis Shaheen, Naveeda Akhter Qureshi, Attiya Iqbal, Asma Ashraf, Huma FatimaBackground:
Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease that currently affects people among 98 countries and causes significant morbidity and mortality. Current chemotherapeutic intervention is unsatisfactory and has various limitations that highlight the necessity to develop safe and effective therapeutic approaches from natural products.
Objective:
The main objective of current study was the evaluation of the antileishmanial activity along with toxicity assessment of selected plant extracts.
Methods:
The ethanolic leaves extracts of selected plants were evaluated for their qualitative and quantitative phytochemical screening by standard protocols. The antioxidant potential of plant extracts was determined by total antioxidant capacity, ferric reducing power and DPPH radical scavenging assays. The cytotoxicity analysis using brine shrimp lethality assay and in-vitro antileishmanial activity against promastigotes of L. tropica (Accession# MN891719) were also evaluated.
Results:
The preliminary examination of crude extracts revealed that P. armeniaca showed the highest total phenolic and flavonoid content (279.62±5.40µgGAE/mgDW and 205.70 ±2.41µgQA/mgDW, respectively), among others. P. armeniaca showed strongest antioxidants (120.37±4.90 µgAAE/mgDW) and FRP values (278.71±1.03µgAAE/mgDW). All the plant extracts showed cytotoxicity in safety range >1000µg/ml except F. glomerata having LC50 values of 454.34 µg/ml. In the present study, P. communis and P. pashia showed some level of activity (LC50 56.68 and 60.95µg/ml respectively) while P. armeniaca demonstrated the highest antileishmanial activity (LC50 16.18µg/ml).
Conclusion:
The findings are highly encouraging so, further and extensive investigations of P. arminica should be carried out; especially bio guided fractionation to identify the active fraction and further chemical characterization of structure.
November 20, 2020
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Synthesis, Characterization of Mixed Cu(II) Pyridyl Tetrazoles and 1,10-Phenanthroline Complexes - DFT and Biological Activity
Ch. Himasekar, Sheik Mustafa, Manabolu S. Babu
Background:
Mixed ligand copper complexes with 1,10-phenanthroline show good chemical nuclease activity and anticancer activity. Recently, tetrazole derivatives are also promising candidates for anticancer activity. Hence, it is significant to study the DNA binding and anticancer activity of two active N-donor ligands and their copper complexes.
Objectives:
The main objective of this study was to investigate the regioisomeric mixed ligand copper complexes response with calf thymus DNA binding and anti-toxic activity against MCF-7 cell line.
Methods:
The DNA binding interactions of complexes 1-4 with calf thymus DNA (CT-DNA) were monitored by UV/VIS spectroscopy. The absorption spectra of the Cu complexes are compared with and without CT-DNA at 400-450 nm. The cell proliferation was measured by using the standard 2,3-bis(2-methoxy-4-nitro-5-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium- 5-carboxanilide (XTT) assay with four different concentrations of the compounds (5, 10, 50, and 100 mm) and cisplatin (as a positive control) was tested in triplicate for 48 h. The results obtained by the XTTassay are expressed as the average standard deviation of two experiments. The IC50 values of the complexes exhibited differential and dose-dependent inhibitory activities on the growth of MCF-7 cancer cells.
Results:
Based on the elemental analysis, molar conductance, magnetic moments, mass, electronic, ESR and IR spectral data, the copper is coordinated by N-atoms of 1,10- phenanthroline and pyridyl tetrazole with octahedral structure. DFT calculations of HOMO and LUMO studies showed that electron density is localized on pyridyl tetrazole ring and phenanthroline ring. The calculated DNA binding constant (Kb) values of 1-4 complexes are in the range 4.2 - 7.6 x104M-1 (Table 4) with similar binding affinity to reported copper tetrazole derivative complexes. The 1-4 complexes with CT DNA interaction are through planar phenanthroline and pyridyl tetrazole ring likely via π-stacking interactions. The IC50 values of complexes show excellent activity with 24(± 0.5); 18(± 0.5); 20(±0.5); (±0.5) and 38 (±0.8) for 1, 2, 3, 4 and cis platin complexes, respectively. After 72 h of the treatment of 1 on MCF-7 cell, IC50 values hinder the cell growth upto 24(± 0.5) µg/ml at 5 µM concentration range (Fig. 5). It is apparent from IC50 values that the order inhibition is 1 > 3 >2 > 4.
Conclusion:
Experimental results are highly encouraging to explore the mixed ligand regio isomeric copper complexes which have shown the parallel result with Cisplatin. By proper structural modification of pyridyl tetrazole ligand, substituent better anticancer agents can be prepared.
January 28, 2019
