Chloroform Extract of Rasagenthi Mezhugu, a Siddha Formulation, as an Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine for HPV-Positive Cervical Cancers

Rasagenthi Mezhugu (RGM) is a herbomineral formulation in the Siddha system of traditional medicine and is prescribed in the southern parts of India as a remedy for all kinds of cancers. However, scientific evidence for its therapeutic efficacy in cervical cancer is lacking, and it contains heavy metals. To overcome these limitations, RGM was extracted, and the fractions were tested on HPV-positive cervical cancer cells, ME-180 and SiHa. The extracts, free from the toxic heavy metals, affected the viability of both the cells. The chloroform fraction (cRGM) induced DNA damage and apoptosis. Mitochondria-mediated apoptosis was indicated. Though both the cells responded to the treatment, ME-180 was more responsive. Thus, this study brings up scientific evidence for the efficacy of RGM against the HPV-mediated cervical cancer cells and, if the toxic heavy metals are the limitation in its use, cRGM would be a suitable candidate as evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine for HPV-positive cervical cancers

Synthesis and Evaluation of Anisomelic acid-like Compounds for the Treatment of HPV-Mediated Carcinomas

The vast majority of cervical and 75% of oropharyngeal carcinomas are triggered by infection with a type of high-risk oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV). It is well-known that E6 and E7 oncoproteins are critical for viral-induced cancer, and hence, they represent valuable targets for therapeutic intervention in HPV-mediated cancers. Our earlier research on the cembranoid, anisomelic acid (AA) showed that, AA has the potential to induce apoptosis in HPV cells by the depletion of E6 and E7 oncoproteins. The present study describes the structure-activity relationship and the evaluation of synthetic AA like compounds, i.e simplified cembranoid-like structures, as HPV inhibitors against some papilloma cell lines. Both from experimental and computational results, we observed that these compounds induced apoptosis by the same E6/E7-based mechanism as AA, but at earlier time points, thus being far more effective than AA. Further, the data indicated that only part of the structure of AA is required for the molecular action. Based on these results, we identified some novel and potential compounds for specific treatment of HPV-associated carcinomas

Development of a Plant Based Insect Repellent : market research & customer expectations

The process of innovation refers to enhancing an existing product, process, or idea. Innovative products are developed or improved in a way that tries to solve a problem for consumers, customers, companies or society in general. One of the common and lucrative type of product innovation is the incremental type that specificially refers to incremental improvements made to existing products. A successful innovation process relies heavily on the front-end. Identifying, analyzing, and evaluating the opportunities for innovation occurs in the front-end, which is critical for innovation success. The thesis utilizes the commonly used new product development steps which comprises the fuzzy front end of innovation process. The aim of the thesis was to evaluate the market and the customer expectations for the new product that is to be developed which is the natural plant based insect repellent. The market evaluation is based on the available market research and customer expectations is studied by conducting a quantitative survey. The market research will help in understanding wherther there is a need for an improved new product and also if it has commercial potential. The survey will help us to understand the needs of the potential customers and what they expect from a product when the product is launched in the market. The online survey was made in a simple easy to answer form so that many can respond with ease and it will give an idea for the initial product prototype development. As part of this new product development the focus is to understand the market and customers so the various innovative process of the product development can be followed to ensure the product developed is a success. The study revealed the need for new improved product development in the insect repellent area and also the expectations of the customers. These data are quite useful in developing the product and improving them in the process of product development. The survey helped the team to understand the specific requirements the customers expect from an improved product and thus these will be incorporated when the product is finalized

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Nurse-led epilepsy follow-up clinic in India: Is it feasible and acceptable to patients? A pilot study

AbstractPurposeIndia has an epilepsy treatment gap of up to 90%. Shortage of doctors, especially in rural communities makes getting epilepsy treatment almost impossible for the vast majority. Nurses are relatively more in number and available even in smaller cities and villages. This pilot study investigated if a nurse-led epilepsy follow-up clinic is feasible in India and is acceptable to patients.MethodA II year Nursing postgraduate student was given 8h of didactic teaching tailored for epilepsy patient follow-up, followed by supervised observation time in the epilepsy clinic with a neurologist before conducting epilepsy follow-up clinics independently. Epilepsy patients ≥10 years of age and in follow-up for ≥6 months were included. They were independently followed-up both in the nurse-led clinic and in the neurologist's clinic. Outcome was measured in terms of interrater agreement (kappa) between the recommendations of the neurologist and the nurse in five domains. Patient satisfaction for nurse-led clinic was also evaluated.ResultsThe interrater agreement between the trained nurse and neurologist in following-up 175 enrolled patients was 76–94%; most unanimity (κ=94%) seen in identifying AED adverse effects while least agreement (κ=76%) was present regarding decisions to modify AED. The mean patient satisfaction score was 37.63±3.26 (maximum possible score 40).ConclusionIt is feasible for trained nurses to run epilepsy follow-up clinics in India and patients are likely to be satisfied with this approach

Cytotoxic effect of a polymer-copper(II) complex containing 2,2 '-bipyridyl ligand on human lung cancer cells

The cytotoxic activity of the polymer-copper(II) complex, [Cu(bpy)(2)(BPEI)]Cl-2 center dot 4H(2)O (bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine, BPEI = branched polyethyleneimine) on NCI-H460 human lung cancer cells was determined adopting MTT assay and specific staining techniques. Many of the cultured NCI-H460 cancer cells treated with this complex suffered loss of viability and death mostly through apoptosis and/or necrosis as evidenced by the changes in the nuclear morphology and cytoplasmic features

Targeted delivery of a novel anticancer compound anisomelic acid using chitosan-coated porous silica nanorods for enhancing the apoptotic effect

Targeted cancer therapies are currently a strong focus in biomedical research. The most common approach is to use nanocarrier-based targeting to specifically deliver conventional anticancer drugs to enhance their therapeutic efficacy, increase bioavailability, and decrease the side-effects on normal cells. A step further towards higher specificity and efficacy would be to employ specific novel drugs along with specific nanocarrier-based targeting. Our recent studies have demonstrated that a plant-derived diterpenoid compound, anisomelic acid (AA), induces apoptosis in cervical cancer cells. In this work, we describe the development of a folic acid (FA)-targeted AA delivery system using chitosan-coated rod-shaped mesoporous silica particles (Chitosan-NR-MSP). The cellular internalization and uptake enhancement of the FA-Chitosan-NR-MSP towards cancerous folate receptor (FR)-positive (SiHa and HeLa) and/or normal FR-negative (HEK 293) cells were assessed, which indicated that the intracellular uptake of FA-conjugated Chitosan-NR-MSP was more target-specific. Furthermore, the induction of apoptosis by AA-loaded chitosan-coated rod-shaped particles on SiHa cells was studied. By employing caspase-3 activation and PARP cleavage as measure of apoptosis, the FA-particle mediated AA treatment was clearly more effective, significantly enhancing apoptosis in comparison to non-targeted Chitosan-NR-MSP or free AA in SiHa cells, suggesting that the FA-Chitosan-NR-MSPs can be potentially utilized as a drug delivery system for cervical cancer treatment.Funding Agencies|Sigrid Juselius Foundation; Center of Excellence for Functional Materials; Nanolith Sverige AB; Academy of Finland [140193, 260599, 278812]</p

Human serum albumin binding and cytotoxicity studies of surfactant–cobalt(III) complex containing 1,10-phenanthroline ligand

The characteristics of the binding reaction of surfactant-cobalt(III) complex, cis-[Co(phen)(2)(C14H29NH2)]Cl-2 center dot 3H(2)O (phen =1,10-phenanthroline, C14H29NH2 = tetradecylamine) with human serum albumin (HSA) were studied by fluorescence and UV-vis absorption spectroscopy. In addition, the effect of the surfactant-cobalt(III) complex on the conformation of HSA was analysed using synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy. The experimental results showed that surfactant-cobalt( Ill) complex caused the fluorescence quenching of HSA through a combination of static and dynamic quenching. The number of binding sites (n) and apparent binding constant (K-a) of surfactant-cobalt(III) complex (above and below the critical micelle concentration (cmc) were determined at various temperatures. According to the thermodynamic parameters, it is likely that hydrophobic interactions are involved in the binding process. The cancer chemotherapeutic potential of surfactant-cobalt(III) complex on ME-180 cervical cancer cell was determined using MTT assay and specific staining techniques. The complex affected the viability of the cells significantly and the cells succumbed through an apoptosis process as seen in the nuclear morphology and cytoplasmic features. In addition, single-cell electrophoresis indicated DNA damage. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved