Aquacultural Homoeopathy: A Focus on Marine Species

Homoeopathy is an alternative medical system proposed by Samuel Hahnemann in the eighteenth century. It uses highly diluted and agitated substances that derived from plants, minerals or animals, which have shown to be effective in human medicine, agronomy, veterinary, and as a novelty, in marine aquaculture. Aquacultural homoeopathy has developed rapidly in recent years, partially motivated by the misuse of powerful drugs (hormones, antibiotics, disinfectants) that when solving a problem generate undesirable side effects. In the last 10 years, scientific articles have been published on its application in freshwater fish native to Brazil, obtaining beneficial effects on growth, survival, hepatosomatic index, development of muscle fibres and lipid content in muscle. At Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste (CIBNOR, Mexico: www.cibnor.mx), we have studied the effects of homoeopathy to improve the culture of economically important marine species of molluscs, fish and shrimp. In this chapter, we show a selection of different research with preliminary or advanced results, related to the use of homoeopathy and its impact on zootechnic, biochemical, genomic and transcriptomic parameters in marine molluscs, fish and crustaceans. The results obtained suggest that homoeopathy is an eco-friendly alternative applicable in aquaculture industry to improve various productive and health aspects

Efecto de medicamentos homeopáticos sobre crecimiento, supervivencia y microbiota gastrointestinal, en juveniles del pectínido Argopecten ventricosus.

Objetivo. Estudiar el efecto de medicamentos homeopáticos sobre el crecimiento, supervivencia y microbiota del tracto gastrointestinal (TGI) de almeja Catarina Argopecten ventricosus. Materiales y Métodos. Se aplicaron cinco tratamientos homeopáticos derivados de bacterias [(T1) ViP-ViA 1D, (T2) ViP-ViA 7C], minerales [(T3) AcF-MsS 1D, (T4) PhA-SiT 7C], o venenos [(T5) ViT 31C] y tres controles: (C1) etanol diluido 1:99, (C2) etanol dinamizado 1C y (C3) agua destilada. La microbiota se determinó secuenciando la región V3-V5 del gen 16S rRNA. Resultados. El mayor crecimiento en longitud de la concha correspondió a T1 (117 µm d-1) y T2 (108 µm d-1), la mayor supervivencia a T3 y T5 y el mejor resultado global a T3. Las curvas de rarefacción de los grupos tratados y controles mostraron una clara separación. Se encontraron diferencias significativas (p≤0.05) entre filos (Proteobacteria > Actinobacteria > Firmicutes > Bacterloidetes> Chloroflexi y para los Géneros: Symbiobacterium > Microbacterium > Methylobacillus > Bacillus > Paenibacillus > Burkholderia > Nostoc > Methylobacterium > Leucobacter). El género Symbiobacterium fue dominante (p≤0.05) para T5, respecto a todos los tratamientos y grupos controles. La especie Microbacterium maritypicum (Actinobacteria) mostró la mayor abundancia relativa (p≤0.05) en T1 y T3 y Symbiobacterium toebii (Firmicutes) en T5 y T2 (p≤0.05), ambas con respecto al inicio del estudio T0. Conclusiones. Se presenta por primera vez la composición de la microbiota del TGI de A. ventricosus y la aplicabilidad potencial de la homeopatía para mejorar el rendimiento productivo y modular la microbiota gastrointestinal de la especie

The Improved Cytotoxic Capacity of Functionalized Nanodiamonds with Metformin in Breast and Ovarian Cancer Cell Lines

Nanodiamonds (ND-COOH) are used as drug delivery systems because of their attractive properties, as they allow for optimized transport of therapeutic agents in cellular models. Metformin (MET) is a drug used in diabetes mellitus therapy and exhibits anti-cancer properties. In this study, dispersed nanodiamonds were functionalized with metformin by directly binding them to 1,6-hexanediol (ND-MET), and their effects on the cytotoxicity of breast and ovarian cancer cells were evaluated in vitro. A simple synthesis of ND-MET was performed and characterized using FT-IR, XPS, Boehm titration, RAMAN, XDR, TEM, and dynamic light scattering (DLS). Data showed an increased intensity of the C-N bond band, indicating the presence of metformin in ND-MET. We detected signals at 1427 cm−1 and 1288 cm−1 corresponding to the C-N and C-H bonds, and adsorptions at 1061 cm−1 and 3208 cm−1 corresponding to the N-O and N-H bonds, respectively. The deconvolution of the C1s binding energy was also found at 286.24 eV. The biological effects of ND-MET were tested in both SKOV3 ovarian cancer and Hs-578T and MDA-MB-231 triple-negative breast cancer cell lines. In SKOV3 cells, the IC50 for the ND-MET complex was 35 ± 14 µg/mL, while for Hs-578T and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells, the IC50 for ND-MET was 759 ± 44 µg/mL and 454 ± 49 µg/mL, respectively. Our data showed that ND-MET could be used as an intracellular delivery system for metformin in cancer cells. Cell viability assays evidenced a reduced viability of all cell lines in a time and dose-dependent manner, with a significant sensitivity observed in SKOV3 ovarian cancer cells treated with ND-MET