Betulinic acid as a potent and complex antitumor phytochemical: a minireview.

Betulinic acid (BA), a natural compound with a lupan skeleton, has been highly investigated in the past decade for a plethora of beneficial properties, including anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenic, immune-modulatory, and anti-HIV effects. In particular, BA has been reported to be effective in vitro against tumor cell lines of different origins, and also in vivo, in animal models of cancer. The best characterized mechanism of its antitumor effect consists of triggering apoptosis via the mitochondrial pathway.

Monoamine oxidase--a inhibition reverses endothelial dysfunction in hypertensive rat aortic rings.

Aim: Monoamine oxidases (MAOs) are mitochondrial enzymes, with 2 isoforms, A and B that convert biogenic amines to their corresponding aldehydes via a reaction that produces hydrogen peroxide. Since MAO-A is the predominant form at vascular level we hypothesized that MAO-A-dependent H2O2 production may contribute to the development of endothelial dysfunction and, MAOs inhibition could improve the vascular function, respectively.

Material And Methods: To this aim aortic rings were isolated from female adult spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and their corresponding (Wistar-Kyoto) controls.

Thermal behaviour of procaine and benzocaine Part II: compatibility study with some pharmaceutical excipients used in solid dosage forms.

Background: The compatibility study of active substances with excipients finds an important role in the domain of pharmaceutical research, being known the fact that final formulation is the one administered to the patient. In order to evaluate the compatibility between active substance and excipients, different analytical techniques can be used, based on their accuracy, reproducibility and fastness.

Results: Compatibility study of two well-known active substances, procaine and benzocaine, with four commonly used excipients, was carried out employing thermal analysis (TG/DTG/HF) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (UATR-FT-IR).

Ageing-induced decrease in cardiac mitochondrial function in healthy rats.

It is widely recognized that mitochondrial dysfunction is a key component of the multifactorial process of ageing. The effects of age on individual components of mitochondrial function vary across species and strains. In this study we investigated the oxygen consumption, the mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψ), the sensitivity of mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) to calcium overload, and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in heart mitochondria isolated from old compared with adult healthy Sprague-Dawley rats.

Betulinic acid suppresses NGAL-induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in melanoma.

Betulinic acid (BA) exhibits antitumoral activity by blocking proliferation, invasion, and angiogenesis. However, the impact of BA on epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a hallmark of cancer metastasis induced among others by neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), remains unknown. The present study aimed at determining the effect of BA on NGAL-induced EMT.

High-resolution respirometry with multiple substrates titration in permeabilized myocardial fibers.

The present study was purported to standardize the high-resolution respirometry technique for the analysis of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) in saponin-skinned cardiac fibers. Preparation of permeabilized myocardial fibers allows the assessment of respiratory function of the entire population of mitochondria in their normal intracellular position. Adult male rat ventricular bundles were permeabilized with saponin (50 microg/ml) and samples (1-3 mg wet weight) were transferred into the Oxygraph-2k (OROBOROS Instr.