Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) shows promise as a naturopathic treatment against melanoma in vivo and several elderberry fractions decrease melanoma and neuroblastoma cell proliferation in vitro

It is widely accepted that elderberry (Sambucus nigra) has many positive health benefits, some of which might slow the rate of cancer growth. The objective of this research is to identify active components of elderberry capable of modulating melanoma cell proliferation in both in vitro experiments and in an in vivo murine model. Melanoma is of interest because incidence of melanoma increases annually and treatment of melanoma is crucial before stages of metastasis. A diet including elderberry extracts may be a naturopathic strategy to slow melanoma growth in at-risk patients, including elderly and immune-suppressed individuals. In a murine model, groups of mice were given intraperitoneal injections of either sterile water (control) or sterile crude elderberry (treatment) before challenge by murine melanoma. 13 days following successful cancer cell challenge, mice were sacrificed and tumor size and weight were recorded. On average, control mice had larger tumors compared to treatment mice in both tumor size and weight. Also, two out of three control mouse tumors metastasized into the peritoneal cavity (whereas all treatment mouse tumors remained local), suggesting that crude elderberry may also decrease risk of tumor metastasis. Elderberry extracts were separated and purified. Human melanoma (MeWo) cells were supplemented with individual elderberry fractions to examine tumor suppressive activity by radioactive thymidine uptake assays. Several elderberry fractions showed in vitro evidence of decreased melanoma proliferation and were pooled based upon similar suppressive abilities. These pooled fractions suppressed human neuroblastoma (SH-545Y) and murine melanoma (B16 F10) growth in vitro, suggesting that pooled elderberry fractions are effective in suppressing multiple lines of cancers. I am currently preparing active pooled elderberry fractions to use in a similar murine model. Proper identification of melanoma-suppressing elderberry fractions may lead to diet-based strategies for natural suppression of melanoma.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2013/1036/thumbnail.jp

Sixteen years of bathymetry and waves at San Diego beaches.

Sustained, quantitative observations of nearshore waves and sand levels are essential for testing beach evolution models, but comprehensive datasets are relatively rare. We document beach profiles and concurrent waves monitored at three southern California beaches during 2001-2016. The beaches include offshore reefs, lagoon mouths, hard substrates, and cobble and sandy (medium-grained) sediments. The data span two energetic El Niño winters and four beach nourishments. Quarterly surveys of 165 total cross-shore transects (all sites) at 100 m alongshore spacing were made from the backbeach to 8 m depth. Monthly surveys of the subaerial beach were obtained at alongshore-oriented transects. The resulting dataset consists of (1) raw sand elevation data, (2) gridded elevations, (3) interpolated elevation maps with error estimates, (4) beach widths, subaerial and total sand volumes, (5) locations of hard substrate and beach nourishments, (6) water levels from a NOAA tide gauge (7) wave conditions from a buoy-driven regional wave model, and (8) time periods and reaches with alongshore uniform bathymetry, suitable for testing 1-dimensional beach profile change models

Resonances in an evolving hole in the swash zone

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of American Society of Civil Engineers for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering 138 (2012): 299–302, doi:10.1061/(ASCE)WW.1943-5460.0000136.Water oscillations observed in a 10-m diameter, 2-m deep hole excavated on the foreshore just above the low-tide line on an ocean beach are consistent with theory. When swashes first filled the initially circular hole on the rising tide, the dominant mode observed in the cross-shore velocity was consistent with a zero-order Bessel function solution (sloshing back and forth). As the tide rose and swash transported sediment, the hole diameter decreased, the water depth inside the hole remained approximately constant, and the frequency of the sloshing mode increased according to theory. About an hour after the swashes first reached the hole, it had evolved from a closed circle to a semi-circle, open to the ocean. When the hole was nearly semi-circular, the observed cross-shore velocity had two spectral peaks, one associated with the sloshing of a closed circle, the other associated with a quarter-wavelength mode in an open semi-circle, both consistent with theory. As the hole evolved further toward a fully semi-circular shape, the circular sloshing mode decreased, while the quarter-wavelength mode became dominant.The Office of Naval Research, a National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship, a National Science Foundation Career award, and a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship provided support

In-Orbit Performance of the GRACE Follow-on Laser Ranging Interferometer

The Laser Ranging Interferometer (LRI) instrument on the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Follow-On mission has provided the first laser interferometric range measurements between remote spacecraft, separated by approximately 220 km. Autonomous controls that lock the laser frequency to a cavity reference and establish the 5 degrees of freedom two-way laser link between remote spacecraft succeeded on the first attempt. Active beam pointing based on differential wave front sensing compensates spacecraft attitude fluctuations. The LRI has operated continuously without breaks in phase tracking for more than 50 days, and has shown biased range measurements similar to the primary ranging instrument based on microwaves, but with much less noise at a level of 1 nm/Hz at Fourier frequencies above 100 mHz. © 2019 authors. Published by the American Physical Society

Isolation and characterization of active elderberry fractions that inhibit melanoma growth in vitro and in vivo

The incidence rates of melanoma continue to rise annually despite recent progression in cancer treatments. Cancer is the most prevalent amongst elderly individuals, where immunosenescence has compromised some immune function, and therefore decreased certain tumor detection abilities. Current tumor removal strategies include radiation, chemotherapy and surgical excision: treatments that aim to lower cancer cells, but may also affect normal cells in the process. In the case of chemotherapy, which targets and kills rapidly dividing cells, many immune cells are lowered as a side effect, leaving many patients immune-suppressed and more susceptible to infection. There is a need for naturopathic treatments capable of decreasing tumor cell proliferation without compromising the body\u27s normal immune function. Extracts from elderberry (Sambucus nigra) may be able to satisfy this need. Previous reports suggest that phytochemicals, such as the ones present in elderberry, may stimulate the immune response by secretion of cytokines, provide antioxidant protection to prevent cellular damage, and inhibit tumor growth directly. Our primary goal was to separate the active components of elderberry and assess their inhibitory effects on the growth of multiple cancerous and transformed cell lines, as well as characterize their effects on stimulation of T lymphocyte proliferation and IL-2 secretion in vitro. Murine melanoma model experiments were also performed with crude elderberry and elderberry fractions to analyze the tumor-suppressive activity of elderberry treatments in vivo. Spleen cell proliferation and in vivo experiments were also performed with different aged groups of mice to uncover the tumor -inhibiting and immune-inducing effects of elderberry and active elderberry fractions on aged mice. Active elderberry fractions were then preliminarily identified. All separated elderberry fractions were able to significantly suppress the growth of B16-F10 murine melanoma and SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells in vitro. Several separated fractions also inhibited growth of a human melanoma cell line, MeWo, and a transformed non-cancerous line, CHO-K1. When incubated with concanavalin A (Con A, a known mitogen) and spleen cells from a middle aged and old mouse, separated fractions of elderberry did not increase proliferation above the positive control (cells incubated with con A only) , however, they induced a larger proliferation response in the older mouse spleen cells. Three active fractions induced secretion of IL-2 from spleen cells above the positive control. In general, mice induced to produce tumors developed smaller, localized tumors when treated with crude elderberry compared to mice treated with water, whose tumors were larger and metastatic. The active elderberry fractions were too potent to be successfully implemented in an in vivo experiment, and need to be diluted for future mouse model experiments. Of the four primary anthocyanins in elderberry, cyanidin 3-sambubioside and cyanidin 3-glucoside were identified as the major tumor-inhibiting, immune-inducing components in different active fractions separated from elderberry. The positive benefits of active fractions on tumor suppression and potentially on modulation of immune-inducing mechanisms provide further support for the use of bioactive phytochemicals in preventative cancer treatment

Isolation and characterization of active elderberry fractions that inhibit melanoma growth in vitro and in vivo

The incidence rates of melanoma continue to rise annually despite recent progression in cancer treatments. Cancer is the most prevalent amongst elderly individuals, where immunosenescence has compromised some immune function, and therefore decreased certain tumor detection abilities. Current tumor removal strategies include radiation, chemotherapy and surgical excision: treatments that aim to lower cancer cells, but may also affect normal cells in the process. In the case of chemotherapy, which targets and kills rapidly dividing cells, many immune cells are lowered as a side effect, leaving many patients immune-suppressed and more susceptible to infection. There is a need for naturopathic treatments capable of decreasing tumor cell proliferation without compromising the body\u27s normal immune function. Extracts from elderberry (Sambucus nigra) may be able to satisfy this need. Previous reports suggest that phytochemicals, such as the ones present in elderberry, may stimulate the immune response by secretion of cytokines, provide antioxidant protection to prevent cellular damage, and inhibit tumor growth directly. Our primary goal was to separate the active components of elderberry and assess their inhibitory effects on the growth of multiple cancerous and transformed cell lines, as well as characterize their effects on stimulation of T lymphocyte proliferation and IL-2 secretion in vitro. Murine melanoma model experiments were also performed with crude elderberry and elderberry fractions to analyze the tumor-suppressive activity of elderberry treatments in vivo. Spleen cell proliferation and in vivo experiments were also performed with different aged groups of mice to uncover the tumor -inhibiting and immune-inducing effects of elderberry and active elderberry fractions on aged mice. Active elderberry fractions were then preliminarily identified. All separated elderberry fractions were able to significantly suppress the growth of B16-F10 murine melanoma and SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells in vitro. Several separated fractions also inhibited growth of a human melanoma cell line, MeWo, and a transformed non-cancerous line, CHO-K1. When incubated with concanavalin A (Con A, a known mitogen) and spleen cells from a middle aged and old mouse, separated fractions of elderberry did not increase proliferation above the positive control (cells incubated with con A only) , however, they induced a larger proliferation response in the older mouse spleen cells. Three active fractions induced secretion of IL-2 from spleen cells above the positive control. In general, mice induced to produce tumors developed smaller, localized tumors when treated with crude elderberry compared to mice treated with water, whose tumors were larger and metastatic. The active elderberry fractions were too potent to be successfully implemented in an in vivo experiment, and need to be diluted for future mouse model experiments. Of the four primary anthocyanins in elderberry, cyanidin 3-sambubioside and cyanidin 3-glucoside were identified as the major tumor-inhibiting, immune-inducing components in different active fractions separated from elderberry. The positive benefits of active fractions on tumor suppression and potentially on modulation of immune-inducing mechanisms provide further support for the use of bioactive phytochemicals in preventative cancer treatment