NATURAL RESOURCES FROM PLANTS IN THE TREATMENT OF CANCER: AN UPDATE

Cancer has become the second leading cause of death worldwide. The incidences of cancer are rising at an alarming rate but it can be reduced and controlled by evidence-based strategies for cancer prevention, early detection, and management of patients with cancer. Historically, it is proven that plants and their metabolites have great potential in the treatment of various acute diseases as well as chronic disorders. The novel bioactive compounds from many plants are being studied as potential therapeutic agents because of their high activity and low toxicity. This review gives a comprehensive description of such medicinal plants which have been studied as potentially effective against cancer

NF-kB transcription factor: a key player in the generation of immune response

Activation of the immune system is a multistep process. The transcription factor nuclear factor-kappa B (NFkB), has been one of the most widely studied molecules in the immune system, as it is activated by a variety of stimuli and it in turn controls diverse genes and biological responses. It is an evolutionarily conserved molecule that coordinates the organism’s response to infection, stress and injury. It plays a major role in the induction of pro-inflammatory genes and affects the various cells involved in immune response as well as affects the generation of innate and adaptive immune response. It is also a target for drugs used in treatment of various inflammatory diseases

Nitric Oxide and Immune Response

310-319Nitric oxide (NO), initially described as a physiological mediator of endothelial cell relaxation plays an important role in hypotension. It is an intercellular messenger and has been recognized as one of the most versatile players in the immune system. Cells of the innate immune system – macrophages, neutrophils and natural killer (NK) cells use pattern recognition receptors to recognize molecular patterns associated with pathogens. Activated macrophages then inhibit pathogen replication by releasing a variety of effector molecules, including NO. In addition to macrophages, a large number of other immune system cells produce and respond to NO. Thus, NO is important as a toxic defense molecule against infectious organisms. It also regulates the functional activity, growth and death of many immune and inflammatory cell types including macrophages, T lymphocytes, antigen-presenting cells, mast cells, neutrophils and NK cells. However, the role of NO in non-specific and specific immunity in vivo and in immunologically mediated diseases and inflammation is poorly understood. This review discusses the role of NO in immune response and inflammation and its mechanisms of action in these processes

MOLECULAR DOCKING STUDIES OF CURCUMA LONGA AND ALOE VERA FOR THEIR POTENTIAL ANTICANCER EFFECTS

 Objective: In this paper, docking study is presented to use these phytocompounds for their prospective role in various types of cancers.Methods: A group of the different set of phytocompounds (aloesin, barbaloin, curcumin, and emodin) were taken and docked into the active sites of Topoisomerase I, a 91-kDa monomer (having 765 amino acids), is encoded by a single copy gene (Top 1) located on chromosome 20q12–13.2 using Autodock4 Software. The docking studies of the selected proteins were also docked to study the anticancerous property of the selected phytocompounds.Result: These studies were based on binding energy, docking energy and other relevant scores that revealed emodin could be the potential lead molecule for the inhibition of signal potent for different types of cancer. Furthermore, the important residues for potential drug target were identified.Conclusion: This paper is an initial step toward a rational design of novel selective and potent phytocompounds inhibitors for the treatment of deadly disease cancer