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Hepatitis C virus is a massive health issue affecting significant portions of the world's population. Applying data pre-processing, feature reduction techniques and generating rules based on the selected features for classification tasks are considered as important steps in the knowledge discovery in databases. Medical experts analyze the generated rules to find out the most significant rules to apply in order to classify unseen real life cases. This paper highlights a hybrid Rough-Genetic algorithm model that uses the advantages of Rough set as a powerful analysis tool to identify the most relevant attributes. Rough sets are used to generate a set of reducts which consist of a minimal set of attributes and induce a set of decision rules. On the other hand, Genetic Algorithm is used to optimize and improve the rules induced using Rough Sets for classifying studied cases for testing new medication for HCV treatment. The experimental results obtained, show that the overall classification accuracy offered by the proposed Model is a superlative result.

Cancer chemotherapies have been improved dramatically over the last two decades. In the case of human breast cancer, the combination chemotherapeutic protocol, cyclophosphamide (CPA), doxorubicin (DOX), and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) (CDF), is often used. Nevertheless, the clinical usefulness of CDF is limited by its remarkably low therapeutic window and frequent eruption of resistance. These limitations prompted our search for a more effective and safe drug candidate that may raise the therapeutic benefits for breast cancer patients. Gingerols' wide therapeutic indices as well as their high efficacy in the suppression of carcinogenesis are well established. However, no thorough study to date has profiled their antibreast cancer activities in depth. Therefore, the aims of the present study are to evaluate the antibreast cancer activities of gingerols in comparison to CDF and to gain insight into the structure activity relationships (SARs) responsible for the observed effect using a breast cancer cell model, MCF-7. Our data revealed that 6-gingerol showed the highest anticancer potency that is superior to that of CDF with IC50 = 30.4 μM. Guided by these results, semisynthetic modifications of 6-gingerol have been carried out to characterize 6-gingerol's SARs. The obtained results showed that the acquisition of free hydroxyl group in the aliphatic side chain of 6-gingerol is essential for the antibreast cancer activity. Likewise, the length of aliphatic side chain in 6-gingerol is optimum for its anticancer activity because any decrease in the side chain length resulted in a dramatic loss of anticancer activity. Additionally, allylation of phenolic group has shown antibreast cancer activity superior to that of 6-gingerol per se. Conversely, methylation or isoprenylation of phenolic group has led to a potential decrease in the anticancer activity, whereas loss of aromaticity resulted in a complete loss of 6-gingerol's cytotoxic activity. Collectively, the present results would simplify drug design to allow safer and more effective antibreast cancer pharmaceuticals to be designed.

Gossypol (8,8'-dicarboxaldehyde, 1,1',6,6',7,7'- hexahydroxy, 5,5'-diisopropyl, 3,3'-dimethyl, 2,2'- binaphthalene) was isolated from root bark of Gossypium barbadense L. var. Giza 86. Its 1,4-binaphthoquinone derivative, gossypolone, was prepared by oxidation of gossypol with FeCl 3 in acetic acid/acetone. The structures of gossypol and gossypolone were confirmed by physical and spectral data. Their antimitotic activity on Allium cepa L. root tips was investigated. The mitotic rate was markedly decreased after 3, 6 and 24 hr of incubation with 500, 250 and 125 ppm gossypol, respectively. With gossypolone, the decrease in mitotic rate was noticed after 6, 12 and 24 hr incubation with 500, 250 and 125 ppm, respectively. The decrease was irreversible in root tips incubated with 500 and 250 ppm gossypol or gossypolone. On the other hand, root tips incubated with 125 ppm gossypol or gossypolone regained normal mitotic activity after postincubation in water. Both gossypol and gossypolone markedly decreased the...

Antineoplastons, first described by Burzynski, are naturally occurring peptides and amino acid derivatives, which control neoplastic growth. Antineoplaston A-10 (3-phenylacetyl amino-2, 6-pepridinedione) is the first chemically identified antineoplaston. Here we describe the potential utility of antineoplaston A-10 as a predictive test for breast cancer. Antineoplaston A-10 level was measured in the urine of 31 breast cancer patients and 17 normal women using high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC). Significantly lower antineoplaston A-10 levels were detected among patients with breast cancer with a P value

A new series of 3,5-bis(arylidene)-4-piperidones, as chalcone analogues carrying variety of aryl and heteroaryl groups, pyrazolo[4,3-c]pyridines, pyridolo[4,3-c]pyrimidines, and pyrido[4,3-c]-pyridines, carrying an arylidene moiety, and a series of pyrano[3,2-c]pyridines, as flavone and coumarin isosteres, were synthesized and screened for their in vitro antiviral and antitumor activities at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Compounds 9 and 18 proved to be active against herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1), while compound 13 showed moderate activity against human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1). Compounds 14, 26, 28, 33, and 35 exhibited a broad spectrum antitumor activity. In addition, compounds 26, 33, and 35 proved to be of moderate selectivity toward leukemia cell lines. The pyrano[3,2-c]pyridines heterocyclic system proved to be the most active antitumors among the investigated heterocycles.

Bioactivity-guided fractionation of an alcohol extract of the soft coral Sarcophyton glaucum collected from the intertidal areas and the fringing coral reefs near Hurghada, Red Sea, Egypt resulted in the isolation of a new lactone cembrane diterpene, sarcophytolide. The structure of this compound was deduced from its spectroscopic data and by comparison of the spectral data with those of known closely related cembrane-type compounds. In antimicrobial assays, the isolated compound exhibited a good activity towards Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa , and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Sarcophytolide was found to display a strong cytoprotective effect against glutamate-induced neurotoxicity in primary cortical cells from rat embryos. Preincubation of the neurons with 1 or 10 μg/ml of sarcophytolide resulted in a significant increase of the percentage of viable cells from 33±4% (treatment of the cells with glutamate only) to 44±4 and 92±6%, respectively. Administration of sarcophytolide during the post-incubation period following glutamate treatment did not prevent neuronal cell death. Pretreatment of the cells with sarcophytolide for 30 min significantly suppressed the glutamate-caused increase in the intracellular Ca 2+ level ([Ca 2+ ] i ). Evidence is presented that the neuroprotective effect of sarcophytolide against glutamate may be partially due to an increased expression of the proto-oncogene bcl- 2. The coral secondary metabolite, sarcophytolide, might be of interest as a potential drug for treatment of neurodegenerative disorders.

The invasive growth of the introduced green alga Caulerpa taxifolia, already affecting the richness and diversity of the littoral ecosystems, has become a major ecological problem in the Mediterranean Sea. Previously, we demonstrated that the water pollutant tributyltin induces apoptosis in tissue of the marine sponge Geodia cydonium at concentrations of 3 μM and higher. Here we show that exposure of G. cydonium to low (non-toxic) concentrations of Caulerpa extract or purified caulerpin (10 μg/ml) together with low doses of tributyltin (1 μM; non-toxic), results in a strong apoptotic effect. Evidence is presented that the enhancement of toxicity of tributyltin by Caulerpa extract is at least partially caused by inhibition of the multixenobiotic resistance (MXR) pump by the algal toxin. Caulerpa extract, as well as caulerpin, strongly enhance the accumulation of the test substrate of MXR, rhodamine B, in the gills of the mussel Dreissena polymorpha, used as a model system for testing MXR-inhibiting potential.

A number of nucleobase-based barbiturates have been synthesized by combination of nucleic acid bases and heterocyclic amines and barbituric acid derivatives through green and efficient multicomponent route and one pot reaction. This approach was accomplished efficiently using aqueous medium to give the corresponding products in high yield. The newly synthesized compounds were characterized by spectral analysis (FT-IR,1H NMR,13C NMR, HMBC, and UV spectroscopy) and elemental analysis. Representative of all synthesized compounds was tested and evaluated for antioxidant, bleomycin-dependent DNA damage, and Lymphocyte Transformation studies. CompoundsTBC>TBA>TBGshowed highest lymphocyte transformation assay,TBC>TBA>BGshowed inhibitory antioxidant activity using ABTS methods, andTBC>BPA>BAMT>TBA>1,3-TBAmanifested the best protective effect against DNA damage induced by bleomycin.

Sponges (Porifera) are among the major phyla inhabiting the marine hard-substrate benthos, both in respect to the number of species and their biomass. Hence reliable biomarkers need to be developed to monitor the environmental load in those animals. Recently, the cDNA for the heat shock protein HSP70 has been isolated from the sponge Geodia cydonium and found to be a reliable indicator for temperature stress. In the present study, we have isolated the Rab GDP-dissociation inhibitor (GDI), which has previously been shown to be a key element in the intracellular traffic system. The 1521 bp long cDNA, encoding sponge GDI, has been isolated and analyzed. The deduced aa sequence ( M r = 50215) displays high homology to vertebrate, invertebrate and also yeast GDIs. Northern blot analysis revealed that the 1.6 kb sponge transcript that hybridized with the sponge GDI is down-regulated under temperature stress; in contrast, the transcription of the sponge HSP70 is strongly enhanced. Due to the high sequence conservation of the GDIs, one can assume that sponge GDI probes can be used as functional biomarkers for temperature stress, especially when applied simultaneously with the highly conserved HSP70 probes.

The new kaurane diterpene (I) and the flavones (II) are isolated from Euryops arabicus for the first time along with five known flavones.

Hepatitis C virus is a massive health issue affecting significant portions of the world’s population. Applying data pre-processing, feature reduction techniques and generating rules based on the selected features for classification tasks are considered as important steps in the knowledge discovery area in databases. Medical experts analyze the generated rules to find out the most significant rules to apply in order to classify unseen real life cases. This paper highlights a rough set as a powerful analysis tool based on granular computing framework to identify the most relevant attributes, generate a set of reducts which consist of a minimal set of attributes and induce a set of rules for classifying studied cases for testing new drugs for HCV treatment . The experimental results obtained, show that the overall classification accuracy offered by the proposed approach is highly based on generated rules during Hepatitis C treatment.

Plants that contain anthracene-derived compounds such as anthraquinones have been reported to act as anticancer besides their use for millennia to treat constipation, but the mechanism of action is still unfolding. Therefore we pursue this study to explore a new horizon in the anticancer property of these agents with relevance to mitotic arrest. To achieve this goal, the antimitotic activity of a series of naturally occurring anthracene-derived anthraquinones including anthrone, alizarin (1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone), quinizarin (1,4-dihydroxyanthraquinone), rhein (4,5-dihydroxyanthraquinone-2-carboxylic acid), emodin (1,6,8-trihydroxy-3-methylanthraquinone), and aloe emodin (1,8-dihydroxy-3-hydroxymethylanthraquinone) were evaluated using Allium cepa root tips. Initial results revealed that the mitosis was inhibited after 3, 6, and 24 h, respectively, of incubation with 500, 250, and 125 ppm of each compound in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, alizarin at 500 ppm was proved to be the most active compound to arrest the mitosis after 24 h followed by emodin, aloe emodin, rhein, and finally quinizarin. Interestingly, this inhibition of mitosis was irreversible in root tips incubated with each compound at concentration of 500 ppm but not with 250 ppm or 125 ppm, where the roots regained their normal mitotic activity after 96 h post-incubation in water. This re-evaluation of an old remedy suggests that several bioactive anthraquinones possess promising anti-mitotic activity that may have the potential to be lead compounds for the development of a new class of multifaceted natural anticancer/antimitotic agents.

In the last few years, an increase in the number of human liver and kidney diseases in Egypt has been reported. This initiated a multidisciplinary study to disclose the possible role of aflatoxins and ochratoxins in the high incidence of hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity in Egypt.The first phase of this study was to establish a protocol to detect mycotoxins in foods and animal feeds. In four independent studies, the following results have been accomplished:1. Aflatoxins screening in over 1500 mixed animal feeds throughout Egypt.2. Ochratoxins screening in over 200 animal feeds in Mansoura.3. Multimycotoxin detection and quantification of Egyptian foods and feeds.4. Local survey for aflatoxins in over 150 food samples from Mansoura, Egypt.In the first study, a total of 1503 of commercially mixed feeds, cereal grains, milk replacers, protein concentrates and processed animal feeds were collected during the years 1991–1994 from commercial mills and animal feeding stores located throughout Egypt. Afla...

The fumonisins are a series of sphingosine-analog mycotoxins produced by the ubiquitous corn (maize) contaminant Fusarium moniliforme. The major component, fumonisin B1 (FB1), has been shown to cause leukoencephalomalacia in horses, pulmonary edema in swine and hepatocellular carcinoma, cirrhosis and chronic interstitial nephritis in rats. Consumption of corn-derived food products contaminated with F. moniliforme has been correlated with increased risk of human esophageal cancer in several epidemiological studies. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) assays using pre-column derivatization with fluorogenic reagents have been developed for FB1, and used to demonstrate that FB1 contaminates most corn and corn-derived processed food products intended for human consumption. Most types of food processing reduce FB1 levels, but they do not completely eliminate it. A sensitive bioassay for mycotoxins, including FB1 and ochratoxins, has been developed using cytotoxic effects on cultured mammalian ...

The chloroform–methanol extract of Euryops arabicus, collected from Saudi provenance, yielded a new kaurane diterpene (1) and seven methoxylated flavones (2–8), two of which are new (2 and 3). Structures of the compounds were elucidated through interpretation of spectral data of NMR, MS and comparison with literature values. All compounds were evaluated for their anti-tumor activities, employing four different cancer cell lines (WI-38, VERO, HepG2 and MCF-7), ABTS free radical scavenging and immunemodulatory effects. All metabolites had considerable antioxidant and immunestimulatory effects. All compounds showed anticancer activity with IC50 in range 10–125 μM, whilst 2 and 6 showed significant anti-proliferative activity against HepG2 (IC50 = 20 and 15 μM) and MCF-7 (IC50 = 15 and 10 μM), respectively. This effect was attributed to significant S-phase cell cycle arrest.

Three new laurene-type sesquiterpenes (I) and (II) are isolated from the organic extract of the red alga Laurencia obtusa.

The fumonisins, a series of sphingosine-analog mycotoxins produced by the ubiquitous corn contaminant Fusarium moniliforme, are an important food safety concern because they are tumor promoters with sufficient chemical stability to persist through normal food processing. Removing propane-1,2,3-tricarboxylic acid side chains produces hydrolyzed fumonisins (HF), including HFB 1 and HFB 2 , which retain biological activity. Detection of hydrolyzed fumonisins in food products has created a need for efficient methods to prepare them for use as analytical standards. In the present study conversion of the more abundant HFB 1 to HFB 2 was accomplished by selectively protecting the hydroxyl groups to be retained as the bis(acetonide), deoxygenating the remaining free hydroxyl, and removing the blocking groups. Deoxygenation was accomplished by two methods : (i) free radical-initiated homolytic cleavage of the O-phenoxythiocarbonyl ester in the presence of tributyltin hydride and (ii) LiAlH 4 reduction of the tosylate ester.

Fumonisin B 1 and AAL toxin T A are sphingosine-analog mycotoxins characterized by propane-1,2,3-tricarboxylic acid side chains esterified to alkylamine backbones. The absolute configuration of all stereogenic centers in the backbones is known. Using chiral gas chromatography methodology we have determined the absolute configuration at C-3′ in the side chains to be S, thereby completing structure determination of both toxins.

Summary A series of 2-substituted amino-3-aminocyclopenteno or cyclohexeno[ b ]thieno[2,3- d ]-3,4-dihydropyrimidin-4-ones has been synthesized by reacting the corresponding thioureido derivatives with hydrazine hydrate. The thienoprimidine analogues obtained were further used to prepare their arylideneamino, thienotriazolopyrimidine or 2-methylthienotriazolopyrimidine derivatives. The prepared compounds were screened for antimicrobial, antiviral and cytotoxic activity. Some of the tested compounds showed promising activity. Detailed syntheses and spectroscopic and biological data are reported.

A series of 1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives carrying different pharmacophores and heterocyclic rings that are relevant to potential antitumor and cytotoxic activities is synthesized starting from hitherto unreported 5-cyanomethyloxadiazole (II).

Sixty-two Egyptian food and medicinal preparations were extensively examined for antimutagenic/anticarcinogenic activity using short-term and host-mediated assays. The antimutagenic activity of the substances examined was ranked as follows: thirteen (strong), seven (mild) and five (weak) after metabolic activation. Metabolic activation seems to be necessary for most antimutagenic substances in this study, e.g. radish inhibits 29% of mutagenicity produced in direct antimutagenic assay and inhibits 89% of mutagenicity induced in host-mediated assay.

A total of 1503 of commercially mixed feeds, cereal grains, milk replacers, protein concentrates and processed animal feeds were collected during the years 1991-1994 from commercial mills and animal feeding stores located throughout Egypt. Aflatoxins were detected in 619 (41%) samples. The presence of aflatoxins in the range of 1-2000 ppb was evidenced in the positively tested samples. The commercially mixed feeds were found to be more contaminated with aflatoxins than were in the cereal grains. Poultry rations showed the highest % of aflatoxins (55%) among the total tested (362) samples. On the other hand milk replacer proved to have the lowest aflatoxins contamination (7%). These results may explain the recent increase of some diseases as hepatocellular carcinoma and nephropathy among animals and humans in Egypt.

The synthetic strategies and characterization of some novel 1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives carrying different pharmacophores and heterocyclic rings that are relevant to potential antitumor and cytotoxic activities are described. The antitumor activities of the newly synthesized compounds were evaluated according to the protocol of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in-vitro disease-oriented human cells screening panel assay. The results revealed that five compounds, namely 2, 7a, 11a, 12b, and 17; displayed promising in-vitro antitumor activity in the 4-cell lines assay. Incorporating a thiazole ring to 1,3,4-oxadiazole skeleton resulted in better antitumor activities than those displayed by the pyrazole and thiophene ring systems. Transformation of 1,3,4-oxadiazole 2 to N-(6-amino-7H-pyrazolo[5,1-c][1,2,4]triazol-3-yl)benzamide (15) diminished the antitumor activity.

Starting from imidazolyl substituted ketone (I) a series of novel thiazole, arylidiene, and coumarin derivatives are synthesized and screened for their biological activities.

The biological activity of compounds (I) is relatively high in all types of assays (bleomycin-dependent DNA damage, cytotoxicity against WI-38, HepG2, MCF-7 cells and antioxidant activity).

In the present work, 1-(5-methyl-2-phenyl-1H-imidazol-4-yl)ethanone 1 was prepared and used as a precursor for the synthesis of new thiazole, arylidiene and coumarin derivatives. The antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-hemolytic, and cytotoxic activities of new compounds have been screened. Compound 12 showed an excellent antibacterial activity for all the tested bacteria with minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) ranged between 21.9 and 43.8 μg/mL. While, compounds 2, 8 and 10a were the best antioxidant reagents using the DPPH method. Compounds 6a and 10b proved to exhibit potent antioxidative activity as reflected in the ability to inhibit lipid per-oxidation in rat brain and kidney homogenates and rate erythrocyte hemolysis. Compounds 6a proved to have the highest cytotoxic activity (81.9%) followed by 2, 6c, 7b and 12 using in vitro Ehrlich ascites assay. The details synthetic methods, spectroscopic data and biological results are recorded.

Summary A series of 2-substituted amino-3-aminocyclopenteno or cyclohexeno[ b ]thieno[2,3- d ]-3,4-dihydropyrimidin-4-ones has been synthesized by reacting the corresponding thioureido derivatives with hydrazine hydrate. The thienoprimidine analogues obtained were further used to prepare their arylideneamino, thienotriazolopyrimidine or 2-methylthienotriazolopyrimidine derivatives. The prepared compounds were screened for antimicrobial, antiviral and cytotoxic activity. Some of the tested compounds showed promising activity. Detailed syntheses and spectroscopic and biological data are reported.

The reaction of benzoyl hydrazine 1a or benzothiazole-2-carbohydrazide 1b with 2-oxo-N-arylpropanehydrazonoyl chlorides 2a-d yielded (1Z,2E)-2-[(benzoyl/benzothiazol-2-oyl)hydrazono]-N-(aryl)propanehydrazonoyl chlorides 3a-e. The reaction of 3a-c with sodium benzenesulphinate furnished sulphones 5a-c while the reaction of 5d, e with hydroxyl amine afforded hydroxomoyl derivatives 6a, b. The one-pot sterioselective reaction of N-(aryl)propanehydrazonoyl chlorides 3 with certain aromatic aldehydes in the presence of piperidine resulted in the formation of (1E,2Z,3E)-1-(piperidin-1-yl)-1-(arylhydrazono)-2-[(benzoyl/benzothiazol-2-oyl)hydrazono]-4-(aryl1)-but-3-enes 7a-g. X-ray analysis of piperidinyl amidrazone 7g showed a conversion of its geometrical structure with respect to that of compound 3 and confirmed the stereoselectivity of the latter reaction. The piperidinyl amidrazones 7a-g possessed a significant antiviral activity against herpes simplex viruses (HSV-1). Compound 7d reduced the number of viral plaques of herpes simplex type-1 (HSV-1) by 67%, with respect to the effect of reference drug Aphidicolin.

The reaction of 2-naphthaloxyacetic acid with thiosemicarbazide in the presence of phosphoryl chloride, followed by treatment with phenacylbromides, led to the formation of imidazo[2,1-b][1,3,4]thiadiazoles 3a-c. 2-(Naphthalen-3-yloxy)acetohydrazide 4 on treatment with ethyl 2-(2-arylhydrazono)-3-oxobutanoates (5a-c), 2-methoxymethylene)malononitrile, or ethyl 2-cyano-3,3-bis(methylthio)acrylate led to the formation of substituted pyrazoles 6-8. The reaction of the hydrazide 4 with hydrazonoyl chlorides 9a-c and 1,2,4,5-benzene tetracarboxylic-1,2:4,5-dianhydride produced bis-diazo compounds 10a-c and dimide 11 respectively. All new compounds were tested for their protective activity against DNA damage induced by bleomycin-iron complex. Compound 2 showed the greatest protection against DNA damage, thus diminishing chromogen formation between the damaged DNA and thiobarbituric acid.

2-Amino-5-acetyl-4-methyl-thiophene-3-carboxylic acid ethyl ester (1) and 5-acetyl-2-amino-4-methylthiophene-3-carbohydrazide (2) were synthesized and used as starting materials for the synthesis of new series of 1-(5-amino-4-(3,5-dimethyl-1H-pyrazole-1-carbonyl)-3-methylthiophen-2-yl) ethanone (3a), 1-(5-amino-4-(4-chloro-3,5-dimethyl-1H-pyrazole-1-carbonyl)-3-methylthiophen-2-yl) ethanone (3b), 1-(4-methyl-2-amino-5-acetylthiophene-3-carbonyl)pyrazolidine-3,5-dione (4), (Z)-N'-(4-methyl-2-amino-5-acetylthiophene-3-carbonyl) formohydrazonic acid (5a), (Z)-ethyl-N'-4-methyl-2-amino-5-acetylthiophene-3-carbonylformo hydrazonate (5b), 6-acetyl-3-amino-2,5-dimethylthieno[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4(3H)-one (8), 5-methyl-3-amino-2-mercapto-6-acetylthieno [2,3-d]pyrimidin-4(3H)-one (10) and 5-methyl-6-acetyl-2-thioxo-2,3-dihydrothieno[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4(1H)-one (12) as potential antioxidant and antitumor agents. Pharmacological tests showed that compounds 6a, 6b, 8, 10 and 12 exhibited significant antitumor and antioxidant activity.

Cell invasion and migration are required for the parent solid tumor cells to metastasize to distant organs. Microtubules form a polarized network, enabling organelle and protein movement throughout the cell. Cytoskeletal elements coordinately regulate cell’s motility, adhesion, migration, exocytosis, endocytosis, and division. Thus, microtubule disruption can be a useful target to control cancer cell invasion and metastasis. The phenolic ether methyl eugenol ( 1 ), the major component of the essential oil of the leaves of Melaleuca ericifolia Sm. (Myrtaceae), was used as a starting scaffold to design eleven new and three known anti-tubulin agents 2 – 15 using carbon–carbon coupling reactions. A computer-assisted approach was used to design these new biaryl derivatives using colchicine-binding site of tubulin as the molecular target and colchicine as an active ligand. Several derivatives showed potent inhibitory activity against MDA-MB-231 cell migration at the 1–4 μM dose range. The Z isomers, 4 and 15 were more active as invasion inhibitors compared to their structurally related E isomers, 2 and 14 . The cytotoxic activities of compounds 2 – 15 against two breast cancer cell lines MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 were evaluated. Anti-invasive activity of the semisynthetic derivatives is not due to a direct cytotoxic effect on MDA-MB-231. Analogs 2 – 15 may promote their anti-invasive activity through the induction of changes in cell morphology. A pharmacophore model was generated involving seven essential features for activity, which was consistent with a previously generated colchicine site inhibitors model.

Chemical transformation studies were conducted on betulinic acid (1), a common plant-derived lupane-type triterpene. Eleven new rationally designed derivatives of 1 (2-5 and 7-13) were synthesized based on docking studies and tested for their topoisomerase I and IIalpha inhibitory activity. Semisynthetic reactions targeted C-3, C-20, and C-28 in 1. Structures of the new compounds were confirmed by spectroscopic methods (1D and 2D NMR and MS). Compound 9, 3-O-[N-(phenylsulfonyl)carbamoyl-17beta-N-(phenylsulfonyl)amide]betulinic acid, showed 1.5-fold the activity of CPT in a topoisomerase I DNA relaxation assay. Four out of 14 betulinic acid analogues (5, 9, 11, and 12) showed 1.5-fold the activity of etoposide in a topoisomerase II assay. The new analogues exhibited better cytotoxic activities against the human colon cancer cells SW948 and HCT-116 and the breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 compared to the parent (1). Betulinic acid (1) is a potential scaffold for the design of new topoisomerase I and IIalpha inhibitors.

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is used in the household and as an ingredient in many pharmaceutical products. Tissue culture technique provides an excellent source for induction of both chemical and genetic variation in garlic. A callus was induced on root meristem cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium in the presence of kinetin, indole acetic acid, and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. Shoots with a small bulb were produced on medium containing MS salts, B vitamins, and naphthalene acetic acid. Regenerated plants were transplanted into soil, and a nondivided bulb was formed in the first somaclonal generation (SCI). Plants were normal in their phenotypes in SC2. After four cycles of field cultivation, the selected somaclones (variants) in the fourth generation showed significant differences in bulb character compared with the original plants. Mitotic division and chromosomal abnormalities were investigated in meristimic root tip cells of regenerated plants for the first and fourth regeneration and for control plants. Somaclonal variant metaphase cells had the same chromosome number (2n = 16) as those of the controls. Allicin was measured quantitatively in the regenerated clones by high-performance liquid chromatography. The results showed that some clones contained as much as 14.50 mg/g allicin, compared with 3.80 mg/g in the control plant. This finding suggests that this technique may be useful to improve the allicin content of Egyptian garlic, which could be utilized as a good source for garlic-containing pharmaceutical preparations.

The synthesis, in vivo and in vitro antitumor evaluation, and QSAR studies of some novel pyrazole analogs against Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma (EAC) cells were described. In vitro results revealed that compounds 10, 6 and 4 were the most potent analogs against EAC, respectively. Moreover, in vivo evaluation of compounds 6 and 10 proved their capability to normalize the blood picture in comparison to 5-FU, a well known anticancer drug. These novel pyrazole analogs were molecularly designed with the goal of having significant potent cytotoxic effect against EAC cells. To develop a QSAR model capable of identifying the key molecular descriptors associated with the biological activity of the novel pyrazole analogs and predicting the cytotoxic effect for other novel pyrazole analogs against EAC cells, different QSAR models, using different physicochemical and topological molecular descriptors, were developed. Different molecular descriptors were predicted solely from the chemical structures of 16 pyrazolo-diazine and triazine analogs following the prediction of the equilibrium molecular geometry of each analog at the DFT level using B88-LYP functional energy and double zeta valence polarized (DZVP) basis set. It was found that dipole moment, excitation energy, the energy value of LUMO, solvent accessible surface area, and heat of formation were the key molecular descriptors in descriping the cytotoxic effect of those compounds against EAC.

Screening studies have shown a number of microorganisms capable of transforming the stemodane diterpene, stemodin. Scale-up fermentation with Cunninghamella echinulata ATCC 9244 and Polyangium cellulosum ATCC 29610 have resulted in the production of five major metabolites that have been characterized with the use of 2D NMR techniques. These metabolites have been identified as 7β-hydroxystemodin, 7β-hydroxystemodin, 14α-hydroxystemodin, 19-hydroxystemodin and 17,19-dihydroxystemodin.

The 5,10-dihydro-2-thioxo-pyrimido[4,5-b]quinolines (2a-c) and its oxidized form 3 were prepared and used as key intermediates for the synthesis of thiazolo[3',2':1,2]pyrimido[4,5-b]-quinolines (5a-c), isoxazolo[5'',4'':4',5']thiazolo[3',2':1,2]pyrimido[4,5-b]quinolines (6a-c), 4-chloro-2-methylthio-pyrimido[4,5-b]quinoline, its amino derivatives (19-21) and 10,11,12,13-tetrahydro-5H-quino[2',3':4,5]pyrimido[6,1-b]quinazoline (22). The newly synthesized compounds were characterized by IR, NMR (1H, 13C) and mass spectral studies. Representative of the synthesized compounds was tested and evaluated for anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities. Compounds 2a-c showed the highest inhibitory anti-oxidant activity either using erythrocyte hemolysis or ABTS methods. Compounds 2a, 10b, 16, and 17a manifested the best protective effect against DNA damage induced by bleomycin. Compounds 2c, 5a, 20a, 2a, and 2b exhibited a potent anti-inflammatory activity using carrageenan-induced paw edema test in rats.

There is a wealth of evidence that hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) orchestrate most of the important events in liver fibrogenesis. After liver injury, HSCs become activated to a profibrogenic myofibroblastic phenotype and can regulate net deposition of collagens and other matrix proteins in the liver. The proliferation of HSCs is mainly stimulated by the plateletderived growth factor (PDGF). In this study, some compounds from natural resources have been tested for their activity to inhibit PDGF-driven proliferative activity of rat HSCs. Apigenin, quercetin, genistein, daidzin, and biochanin A exhibited > 75% inhibitory activity against HSC-T6. It was found that, γ-linolenic (γ-Ln), eicosapentanoic (EPA) and α- linolenic (α-Ln) acids showed a high inhibitory effect on proliferation of rat HSCs at 50 nmol/l. Cholest-4-ene-3,6-dione and stigmastone-4-en-3,6-dione are the most active steroids with inhibitory activities > 80% and this is most likely due to the presence of the 4-en-3,6-dione moiety in both compounds. These results revealed that the compounds which effectively blocked HSC proliferation may be beneficial in liver fibrosis. Structure-activity relationships (SAR) may provide a basis for rational structure modification.

Selected natural compounds were evaluated for their effects on dental caries due to different strains of Streptococcus mutans bacteria. Out of 39 tested compounds, four (catechol, emetine, quinine, and flavone) showed potent inhibitory activity on different strains of S. mutans at 6.25 microg/mL or less with inhibition of adherence50%, two compounds (5,7-dihydroxy-4'-methoxy isoflavone and ellagic acid) exhibited a moderate inhibitory effect at 12.5 microg/mL with inhibition to adherence50%, and 12 compounds exhibited weak antibacterial activity at 125 microg/mL or more with inhibition of adherence25%. These compounds represent three major classes of natural products: tannins, alkaloids, and flavonoids. Further study for possible application of these compounds as inhibitors for dental caries is underway.

The mammalian pineal hormone melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine), an aminoindole produced by the metabolism of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine), has been shown to be a potent scavenger for the highly toxic hydroxyl radical. Three substances that are very important in animal physiology (e.g., in brain metabolism) are noradrenaline, histamine, and serotonin; all three occur in plants. Here we report that serotonin, tryptamine, and melatonin were found in some edible and medicinal plants in Egypt. The results of this screening showed that the pulp of underripe and ripe yellow banana contains 5-hydroxytryptamine at concentrations of 31.4 and 18.5 ng/g, respectively. Corn, rice, barley grains, and ginger showed the highest concentrations of melatonin, at 187.8, 149.8, 87.3, 142.3 ng/100 g, respectively. On the other hand, potato samples were free from all indolamines. Pomegranate and strawberry showed a low level of indolamines (8-12 microg/g serotonin, 4-9 microg/g tryptamine, and 13-29 ng/100 g melatonin).

Antineoplastons are naturally occurring cytodifferentiating agents. Chemically, they are medium and small sized peptides, amino acid derivatives and organic acids, which exist in blood, tissues and urine. Antineoplaston A-10 (3-phenylacetylamino-2,6-piperidinedione) is the first chemically identified antineoplaston. Previously we have shown a strong inverse association of urinary antineoplaston A-10 with breast cancer. This study is designed to evaluate neutrophil apoptosis in patients with breast cancer at time of diagnosis and to correlate urinary antineoplaston A-10 levels with neutrophil apoptosis and to describe the direct effect of A-10 in vitro on neutrophil apoptosis in breast cancer patients. The participants were patients with a histologically confirmed diagnosis of breast cancer. Only those cases without previous treatment for breast cancer were included. Neutrophil apoptosis was assessed in breast cancer patients both morphologically and by DNA fragmentation and studied relative to healthy controls. Antineoplaston A-10 was measured using high performance liquid chromatography in urine samples collected from the patients. Urine samples from normal women served as controls. Direct effect of antineoplaston A-10 on neutrophil apoptosis was tested in vitro after adding A-10 at a concentration of 10 ng/ml to the cellular suspensions of breast cancer patients. Non-treated samples served as controls. Significantly higher neutrophil apoptosis levels were detected among patients with breast cancer with a P value

International audience; The effects of fumonisin B1 (FB1) from Fusarium moniliforme on lipid peroxidation and protein and DNA syntheses were studied in monkey kidney cells (Vero cells). FB1 was found to be a potent inducer of malondialdehyde (MDA), one of the secondary products formed during lipid peroxidation. At 0.14 μM (0.1 μg/ml), FB1 induced 0.496 ± 0.1 nmoles of MDA/mg protein, compared to the control level 0.134 ± 0.01 nmoles of MDA/mg protein (P 14 μM (10 μg/ml) with an IC50 of 33 μM for both protein synthesis and DNA synthesis. These results indicate that lipid peroxidation is a very sensitive cellular response to the mycotoxin fumonisin B1 observed at concentrations lower than that required to inhibit cellular synthesis of macromolecules, protein and DNA. This oxidative damage induced by FB1 concentrations encountered in naturally contaminated foodstuffs and feed might lead to mutagenicity and genotoxicity.

Background: Siphonochalina siphonella is a marine sponge collected from saudi Red Sea water and scare study from this region. Objective: To isolate the anticancer triterpenes with potent cytotoxicity from marine sponge, Siphonochalina siphonella and state the mode of action in cancer cell lines. Materials and Methods: The sponge material was collected, extracted with organic solvent, and fractionated on different adsorbents. The structure of the pure metabolites were elucidated employing different spectroscopic techniques including 1D ( 1 H and 13 C) and 2D (COSY, HMQC and HMBC) NMR, and MS spectroscopy. Results: A new Neviotine-C (1) was obtained, along with four known metabolites (2-5). All compounds, except 5, were tested towards MCF-7, PC-3 and A549 and showed effects with IC 50 in range 7.9-87 μM, whilst, 3 showed potent anti-proliferative activity against PC-3 and A549 with IC 50 = 7.9 ± 0.120 and 8.9 ± 0.010 μM, respectively. Conclusion: Compounds (1-4) showed significant cytotoxic activities, while 3 showed potent effect. The antiproliferative of 3 was attributed to significant S-phase cell cycle arrest.

3 Three acetylenic brominated derivatives were isolated from a Red Sea sponge, Haliclona sp. One of them, 18-bromooctadeca-9(E),17(E)-dien-7,15-diynoic acid (), is a known metabolite, and the other two are new compounds, (1E,5E,12E,19E)-1,22-dibromodocosa- 1,5,12,19-tetraen-3,14,21-triyne (1) and methyl 18-bromooctadeca-9(E),17(E)-dien-7,15- diynoate (2) which was isolated for the first time as a natural metabolite. Structures of all compounds were determined based on extensive spectroscopic measurements [1D (1H, 13C and DEPT) and 2D (HSQC, HMBC and NOESY) NMR, MS, UV, and IR]. All compounds, except 3, were evaluated for their cytotoxicity employing four cancer cell lines, i.e. MCF-7 (human breast cancer), HepG2 (human hepatocellular carcinoma), WI-38 (skin carcinoma), and Vero (African green monkey kidney). Compounds 1 and 2 had potent selective antitumour activity towards MCF-7 cells with IC50 values of 32.5 and 50.8 μM, respectively

Phytochemical investigation of Aglaia duppereana flowers led to the isolation of a new rocaglamide derivative and twelve known congeners. The structure of the new compound was unambiguously elucidated by spectroscopic techniques (1D- and 2D-NMR, HRESIMS). The isolated compounds exhibited a potent cytotoxic activity against mouse lymphoma (L5178Y) cells with EC50 values ranging from 5.1 to 54.8 nM

Screening studies for microbial transformation products of stemodin [2] have identified a number of microbial metabolites. Scale-up fermentation with Rhizopus arrhizus ATCC 11145 and Streptomyces sp. NRRL 5691 have resulted in the production of five metabolites that have been characterized with the use of 2D nmr and X-ray techniques. These metabolites have been identified as 18-hydroxystemodin [6], 16,18-dihydroxystemodin [7], 8 beta-hydroxystemodin [8], 8 beta, 18-dihydroxystemodin [9], and 7 beta, 8 beta-dihydroxystemodin [10]. The antiviral activity and cytotoxicity of the isolated metabolites have been evaluated.