Moringa oleifera: An apoptosis inducer in cancer cells

Moringa oleifera, usually called “wonderful tree”, has been scientifically proven to inhibit proliferation of many cancer cell types by induction of apoptosis. Apoptosis is an energy dependent process, whereby cells due for death as a result of abnormal gene mutation, ageing among others commit suicide. It is referred to as hallmark of cancer. Proliferation of cancer cells is not unconnected to deficiency in their apoptotic process such as loss of caspase activity, p53 gene mutation and imbalanced regulation of Bcl2 proteins which leads to inactivation or reduction in cancer cell apoptosis, hence, agents that are capable of inducing apoptosis in cancer cells are potential sources of effective anticancer drug. The ability of M. oleifera to trigger apoptosis in cancer cells largely depends on its phytochemicals, most especially antioxidant phenols such as gallic acid, chlorogenic acid, rutin, apigenin, astragalin, quercetin, and kampferol. These compounds act by activating pro-apoptotic protein such as caspases, TRAIL, bax, bad, and inhibiting activity of anti-apoptotic proteins like Bcl2, IAPs (inhibitor of apoptosis), FLIP. In this review, we discussed cell apoptosis and its pathways, dysregulation of apoptosis in cancer cells, and more importantly, induction of apoptosis in cancer cells by Moringa oleifera tree.Keywords: Apoptosis, cancer cells, Moringa oleifer

Accession in Centella asiatica; Current Understanding and Future Knowledge

Centella asiatica is described as a potential cure-all because of its wide usage. The accessions in Centella asiatica make standardisation important before using it. In Malaysia alone, there are more than 15 accessions of Centella asiatica with each having variation in their secondary metabolites. There are several reports from India to Korea, from Madagascar to Malaysia and from Thailand to South Africa about variations in chemical profiling of secondary metabolites and the reasons for these variations in Centella asiatica. Despite all these reports, there has been no attempt to bring all these variations together and discuss them under one heading resulting into scattered information about accession in Centella asiatica. In this review, we discuss the impact of accessions in Centella asiatica and what more need to be done to our knowledge of accession in Centella asiatica

Motor and memory function in rat models of cyanide toxicity and vascular occlusion induced ischemic injury

Although oxidative stress is characteristic of global vascular occlusion and cyanide toxicity, the pattern of cerebral metabolism reconditioning and rate of progression or reversal of neural tissue damage differ for both forms of ischemia. Thus, it is important to compare cognitive and motor functions in both models of ischemia involving cyanide treatment (CN) and vascular occlusion (VO). Adult Wistar rats (N = 30) were divided into three groups; VO (n = 12), CN (n = 12) and Control-CO (n = 6). The CN was treated with 30 mg/Kg of potassium cyanide (KCN); VO was subjected to global vascular occlusion-both for duration of 10 days. The control (CO) was fed on normal rat chow and water for the same duration. At day 10, the test and control groups (CN, VO and CO) were subjected to motor function tests (Table edge tests and Open Field Test) and memory function tests (Y-Maze and Novel object recognition) while the withdrawal groups CN-I and VO-I were subjected to the same set of tests at day 20 (the withdrawal phase). The results show that both cyanide toxicity and vascular occlusion caused a decline in motor and memory function when compared with the control. Also, the cyanide treatment produced a more rapid decline in these behavioral parameters when compared with the vascular occlusion during the treatment phase. After the withdrawal phase, cyanide treatment (CN-I) showed either an improvement or restoration of motor and memory function when compared to the CN and control. Withdrawal of vascular occlusion caused no improvement, and in some cases a decline in motor and memory function. In conclusion, cyanide toxicity caused a decline in motor and memory function after the treatment while vascular occlusion caused no significant decline in cognition and motor function at this time. After the withdrawal phase, the effect of cyanide toxicity was reduced and significant improvements were observed in the behavioral tests (motor and cognitive), while a decline in these functions were seen in the vascular occlusion group after this phase. © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

−NMDA R/+VDR pharmacological phenotype as a novel therapeutic target in relieving motor–cognitive impairments in Parkinsonism

<div><p></p><p><i>Background</i>: Parkinsonism describes Parkinson’s disease and other associated degenerative changes in the brain resulting in movement disorders. The motor cortex, extrapyramidal tracts and nigrostriatal tract are brain regions forming part of the motor neural system and are primary targets for drug or chemotoxins induced Parkinsonism. The cause of Parkinsonism has been described as wide and elusive, however, environmental toxins and drugs accounts for large percentage of spontaneous cases in humans. A common mechanism in the cause and progression of drug/chemotoxin induced Parkinsonism involves calcium signalling in; oxidative stress, autophagy, cytoskeletal instability and excitotoxicity</p><p>.<i>Aim</i>: This study sets to investigate the effect of targeting calcium controlling receptors, specifically activation of Vitamin D₃ receptor (VDR) and inhibition of N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor (NMDAR) in the motor cortex of mice model of drug induced Parkinsonism. Also we demonstrated how these interventions improved neural activity, cytoskeleton, glia/neuron count and motor–cognitive functions <i>in vivo.</i></p><p><i>Methods</i>: Adult mice were separated into six groups of <i>n</i> = 5 animals each. Body weight (5 mg/kg) of haloperidol was administered intraperitoneally for 7 days to block dopaminergic D₂ receptors and induce degeneration in the motor cortex following which an intervention of VDR agonist (VDRA), and (or) NMDAR inhibitor was administered for 7 days. A set of control animals received normal saline while a separate group of control animals received the combined intervention of VDRA and NMDAR inhibitor without prior treatment with haloperidol. Behavioral tests for motor and cognitive functions were carried out at the end of the treatment and intervention periods. Subsequently, neural activity in the motor cortex was recorded <i>in vivo</i> using unilateral wire electrodes. We also employed immunohistochemistry to demonstrate neuron, glia, neurofilament and proliferation in the motor cortex after haloperidol treatment and the intervention.</p><p><i>Result/Discussion</i>: We observed a decline in motor function and memory index in the haloperidol treatment group when compared with the control. Similarly, there was a decline in neural activity in the motor cortex (a reduced depolarization peak frequency). General cell loss (neuron and glia) and depletion of neurofilament were characteristic anatomical changes seen in the motor cortex of this group. However, Vitamin D₃ intervention facilitated an improvement in motor–cognitive function, neural activity, glia/neuron survival and neurofilament expression. NMDAR inhibition and the combined intervention improved motor–cognitive functions but not as significant as values observed in VDRA intervention. Interestingly, animals treated with the combined intervention without prior haloperidol treatment showed a decline in motor function and neural activity.</p><p><i>Conclusion</i>: Our findings suggest that calcium mediated toxicity is primary to the cause and progression of Parkinsonism and targeting receptors that primarily modulates calcium reduces the morphological and behavioral deficits in drug induced Parkinsonism. VDR activation was more effective than NMDAR inhibition and a combined intervention. We conclude that targeting VDR is key for controlling calcium toxicity in drug/chemotoxin induced Parkinsonism.</p></div