Antiproliferative and Proapoptotic Activities of Methanolic Extracts from Ligustrum vulgare L. as an Individual Treatment and in Combination with Palladium Complex

The aim of this study is to examine the growth inhibitory effects of methanolic leaf and fruit extracts of L. vulgare on HCT-116 cells over different time periods and their synergistic effect with a Pd(apox) complex. The antiproliferative activity of plant extracts alone or in combination with the Pd(apox) complex was determined using MTT cell viability assay, where the IC50 value was used as a parameter of cytotoxicity. Results show that antiproliferative effects of L. vulgare extracts increase with extension of exposure time, with decreasing IC50 values, except for 72 h where the IC50 values for methanolic leaf extract were lower than for the fruit extract. The Pd(apox) complex alone had a weak antiproliferative effect, but combination with L. vulgare extracts caused stronger effects with lower IC50 values than with L. vulgare extracts alone. The type of cell death was explored by fluorescence microscopy using the acridin orange/ethidium bromide method. Treatments with plant extracts caused typical apoptotic morphological changes in HCT-116 cells and co-treatments with Pd(apox) complex caused higher levels of apoptotic cells than treatment with plant extracts alone. The results indicate that L. vulgare is a considerable source of natural bioactive substances with antiproliferative activity on HCT-116 cells and which have a substantial synergistic effect with the Pd(apox) complex

Stereospecific ligands and their complexes, Part VIII: Antimicrobial activity of palladium(II) complexes with 0,0'-dialkyl esters of (S,S)-ethylenediamine-N,N'-di-2-(4-methyl)-pentanoic acid

Palladium(II) complexes (1-4) of general formula [PdCl2(R2-S,S-eddp)] with bidentate N,N’-ligands, O,O'-dialkyl esters (R = ethyl, n-propyl, n-butyl and n-pentyl), of (S,S)-ethylenediamine-N,N’-di-2-(4-methyl)pentanoic acid (S,S-eddp) were prepared and characterized by microanalysis, infrared and UV/VIS spectroscopy. The ligands and its complexes were tested for their in vitro antimicrobial activity against 15 species of bacteria and fungi. Testing is performed by the microdilution method, with the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimum microbicidal concentration (MMC) being determined. The MIC values were in range from 4.9 μg cm-3 to > 5000 μg cm-3 while MMC values ranged from 78 μg cm-3 to > 5000 μg cm-3. Palladium(II) complexes [PdCl2(Ln)] (n = 1-4) have statistically significant higher activity than the corresponding ligands. The complex 4 displayed the strongest activity among all tested compounds