Combination therapy increases the efficacy of docetaxel, vinblastine and tamoxifen in cancer cells.

Introduction: Developing novel strategies to increase the efficacy of chemotherapy is an urgent need. We investigated the impact of combination therapy with docetaxel, or vinblastine with tamoxifen in inhibition of proliferation and induction of apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 and H1299 cells.

Materials And Methods: Cell proliferation was assessed by MTT assay and the percentage of apoptotic cells was measured using DAPI staining.

The main relaxant constituents of Nigella sativa methanolic fraction on Guinea pig tracheal chains.

Our previous studies demonstrated the preventive effect of Nigella sativa extract on asthma and water-soluble substances of this extract, especially its methanol fraction were responsible for this relaxation on contracted tracheal chains of guinea pigs. For the first time, the present study has been conducted to determine the main constituents of its methanolic extract. Four constituents of 20%-methanolic fraction, consisting of two flavonoids (20-20% and 21-20% fractions) and two polysaccharides (1-20% and 2-20% fractions), were purified by analytical and preparative HPLC.