Heptaellipside A, a rare new 2,28-bidesmosidic lupane-type saponin from the leaves of .

For the first time, phytochemical constituents of the leaves of were investigated. One rare new 2,28-bidesmosidic lupane-type saponin, named heptaellipside A (), along with four other lupane-type analogs () were purified by combining differently chromatographic methods. All of the separated compounds () were communicated for the first time from .

Understanding diagnostic conversations in clinical practice: A systematic review.

Objective: Summarize frameworks to understand diagnostic conversations and assessments of diagnostic conversations in practice.

Methods: We systematically searched MEDLINE, Scopus, Cochrane, and other databases from inception to July 2022 for reports of diagnostic conversations. Two authors independently reviewed studies for eligibility, assessed methodological quality with the mixed methods appraisal tool and extracted information related to study characteristics, frameworks and components evaluated in assessments of diagnostic conversations and results.

Pre-existing cardiovascular disease, acute kidney injury, and cardiovascular outcomes in hospitalized blacks with COVID-19 infection.

Background: The Corona Virus 19 (COVID-19) infection is associated with worse outcomes in blacks, although the mechanisms are unclear. We sought to determine the significance of black race, pre-existing cardiovascular disease (pCVD), and acute kidney injury (AKI) on cardiopulmonary outcomes and in-hospital mortality of COVID-19 patients.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of blacks with/without pCVD and with/without in-hospital AKI, hospitalized within Grady Memorial Hospital in Georgia between February and July 2020, who tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on qualitative polymerase-chain-reaction assay.

Adipose MSCs Suppress MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 Breast Cancer Metastasis and EMT Pathways Leading to Dormancy via Exosomal-miRNAs Following Co-Culture Interaction.

Globally, breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women, and it remains a substantial clinical challenge due to cancer relapse. The presence of a subpopulation of dormant breast cancer cells that survived chemotherapy and metastasized to distant organs may contribute to relapse. Tumor microenvironment (TME) plays a significant role as a niche in inducing cancer cells into dormancy as well as involves in the reversible epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) into aggressive phenotype responsible for cancer-related mortality in patients.

Pineapple Vinegar Regulates Obesity-Related Genes and Alters the Gut Microbiota in High-Fat Diet (HFD) C57BL/6 Obese Mice.

Obesity is a pandemic metabolic syndrome with increasing incidences every year. Among the significant factors that lead to obesity, overconsumption of high-fat food in daily intake is always the main contributor. Functional foods have shown a positive effect on disease prevention and provide health benefits, including counteracting obesity problem.

Profiling SNP and Nucleotide Diversity to Characterize Mekong Delta Rice Landraces in Southeast Asian Populations.

Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analyses are a powerful tool to examine structure of local rice population. 3000 dataset of IRRI facilitates SNP profiling of Southeast Asian rice populations. Mekong Delta population is featured by comparisons with the other populations.

Macrophage M2 polarization induced by exosomes from adipose-derived stem cells contributes to the exosomal proangiogenic effect on mouse ischemic hindlimb.

Background: M2 macrophages and exosomes from adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) are both reported to promote angiogenesis. However, the possible synergistic effects between exogenous exosomes and endogenous M2 macrophages are poorly understood.

Methods: Exosomes were isolated from conditioned medium of normoxic and hypoxic ASCs using the combined techniques of ultrafiltration and size-exclusion chromatography and were identified with nanoparticle tracking analysis and immunoblotting for exosomal markers.

Phenotypic and microRNA characterization of the neglected CD24+ cell population in MCF-7 breast cancer 3-dimensional spheroid culture.

Background: In vitro 3-dimensional (3D) spheroid culture has been widely used as model to enrich CD44CD24 cancer stem cells (CSC) with high aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) activity. Although CD24 subpopulation was known to be present in 3D spheroids and may influence cancer drug therapies, its characteristics and CSC properties were not well defined.

Methods: In this study, CD24 population from the Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 (MCF-7) spheroid was sorted and subjected to spheroid formation test, stem cell markers immunofluorescence, invasion and migration test, as well as microRNA expression profiling.

Coconut water vinegar ameliorates recovery of acetaminophen induced liver damage in mice.

Background: Coconut water has been commonly consumed as a beverage for its multiple health benefits while vinegar has been used as common seasoning and a traditional Chinese medicine. The present study investigates the potential of coconut water vinegar in promoting recovery on acetaminophen induced liver damage.

Methods: Mice were injected with 250 mg/kg body weight acetaminophen for 7 days and were treated with distilled water (untreated), Silybin (positive control) and coconut water vinegar (0.

Citral induced apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 spheroid cells.

Background: Breast cancer remains a leading cause of death in women worldwide. Although breast cancer therapies have greatly advanced in recent years, many patients still develop tumour recurrence and metastasis, and eventually succumb to the disease due to chemoresistance. Citral has been reported to show cytotoxic effect on various cancer cell lines.

Dietary coconut water vinegar for improvement of obesity-associated inflammation in high-fat-diet-treated mice.

Obesity has become a serious health problem worldwide. Various types of healthy food, including vinegar, have been proposed to manage obesity. However, different types of vinegar may have different bioactivities.

Anti-obesity and anti-inflammatory effects of synthetic acetic acid vinegar and Nipa vinegar on high-fat-diet-induced obese mice.

Recently, food-based bioactive ingredients, such as vinegar, have been proposed as a potential solution to overcome the global obesity epidemic. Although acetic acid has been identified as the main component in vinegar that contributes to its anti-obesity effect, reports have shown that vinegar produced from different starting materials possess different degrees of bioactivity. This study was performed to compare the anti-obesity and anti-inflammatory effects of synthetic acetic acid vinegar and Nipa vinegar in mice fed a high-fat diet.

Phenotypic and microRNA transcriptomic profiling of the MDA-MB-231 spheroid-enriched CSCs with comparison of MCF-7 microRNA profiling dataset.

Breast cancer spheroids have been widely used as models of cancer stem cells (CSCs), yet little is known about their phenotypic characteristics and microRNAs (miRNAs) expression profiles. The objectives of this research were to evaluate the phenotypic characteristics of MDA-MB-231 spheroid-enriched cells for their CSCs properties and also to determine their miRNAs expression profile. Similar to our previously published MCF-7 spheroid, MDA-MB-231 spheroid also showed typical CSCs characteristics namely self-renewability, expression of putative CSCs-related surface markers and enhancement of drug resistance.

Susceptibility of Human Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) H103 and H376 cell lines to Retroviral OSKM mediated reprogramming.

Although numbers of cancer cell lines have been shown to be successfully reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), reprogramming Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) to pluripotency in relation to its cancer cell type and the expression pattern of pluripotent genes under later passage remain unexplored. In our study, we reprogrammed and characterised H103 and H376 oral squamous carcinoma cells using retroviral OSKM mediated method. Reprogrammed cells were characterized for their embryonic stem cells (ESCs) like morphology, pluripotent gene expression via quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), immunofluorescence staining, embryoid bodies (EB) formation and directed differentiation capacity.

Synthetic curcumin derivative DK1 possessed G2/M arrest and induced apoptosis through accumulation of intracellular ROS in MCF-7 breast cancer cells.

Aims: Curcumin is a lead compound of the rhizomes of and possess a broad range of pharmacological activities. Chemically, curcumin is 1,3-dicarbonyl class of compound, which exhibits keto-enol tautomerism. Despite of its strong biological properties, curcumin has yet been recommended as a therapeutic agent because of its poor bioavailability.

Gene Expression Analysis Reveals the Concurrent Activation of Proapoptotic and Antioxidant-Defensive Mechanisms in Flavokawain B-Treated Cervical Cancer HeLa Cells.

Flavokawain B (FKB) is known to possess promising anticancer abilities. This is demonstrated in various cancer cell lines including HeLa cells. Cervical cancer is among the most widely diagnosed cancer among women today.

Flavokawain derivative FLS induced G2/M arrest and apoptosis on breast cancer MCF-7 cell line.

Known as naturally occurring biologically active compounds, flavokawain A and B are the leading chalcones that possess anticancer properties. Another flavokawain derivative, (E)-1-(2'-Hydroxy-4',6'-dimethoxyphenyl)-3-(4-methylthio)phenyl)prop-2-ene-1-one (FLS) was characterized with (1)H-nuclear magnetic resonance, electron-impact mas spectrometry, infrared spectroscopy, and ultraviolet ((1)H NMR, EI-MS, IR, and UV) spectroscopic techniques. FLS cytotoxic efficacy against human cancer cells (MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, and MCF-10A) resulted in the reduction of IC50 values in a time- and dose-dependent mode with high specificity on MCF-7 (IC50 of 36 μM at 48 hours) against normal breast cell MCF-10A (no IC50 detected up to 180 μM at 72 hours).

MiRNA Transcriptome Profiling of Spheroid-Enriched Cells with Cancer Stem Cell Properties in Human Breast MCF-7 Cell Line.

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide as most patients often suffer cancer relapse. The reason is often attributed to the presence of cancer stem cells (CSCs). Recent studies revealed that dysregulation of microRNA (miRNA) are closely linked to breast cancer recurrence and metastasis.

Probable impact of age and hypoxia on proliferation and microRNA expression profile of bone marrow-derived human mesenchymal stem cells.

Decline in the therapeutic potential of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) is often seen with older donors as compared to young. Although hypoxia is known as an approach to improve the therapeutic potential of MSC in term of cell proliferation and differentiation capacity, its effects on MSC from aged donors have not been well studied. To evaluate the influence of hypoxia on different age groups, MSC from young (<30 years) and aged (>60 years) donors were expanded under hypoxic (5% O2) and normal (20% O2) culture conditions.

Chemopreventive and immunomodulatory effects of Murraya koenigii aqueous extract on 4T1 breast cancer cell-challenged mice.

Background: The progression of breast cancer is increasing at an alarming rate, particularly in western countries. Meanwhile, the lower incidence in Asian countries could be attributed to the heavy incorporation of green leaves vegetables or spices in their diets. Murraya koenigii (MK) or often times known as curry leaves are common spice used mostly in tropical countries.

Brewers' rice modulates oxidative stress in azoxymethane-mediated colon carcinogenesis in rats.

Aim: To investigate the mechanistic action of brewers' rice in regulating the Wnt/nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB)/Nrf2-signaling pathways during colon carcinogenesis in male Sprague-Dawley rats.

Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into the following five groups (six rats in each group): (G1) normal, (G2) azoxymethane (AOM) alone, (G3) AOM + 10% (weight (w)/weight (w)) brewers' rice, (G4) AOM + 20% (w/w) brewers' rice, and (G5) AOM + 40% (w/w) brewers' rice. They were intraperitoneally administered 15 mg/kg body weight of AOM in saline once weekly over a two-week period and treated with an American Institute of Nutrition (AIN)-93G diet containing 10%, 20%, and 40% (w/w) brewers' rice.

Water extract of brewers' rice induces apoptosis in human colorectal cancer cells via activation of caspase-3 and caspase-8 and downregulates the Wnt/β-catenin downstream signaling pathway in brewers' rice-treated rats with azoxymethane-induced colon carcinogenesis.

Background: Brewers' rice, is locally known as temukut, is a mixture of broken rice, rice bran, and rice germ. The current study is an extension of our previous work, which demonstrated that water extract of brewers' rice (WBR) induced apoptosis in human colorectal cancer (HT-29) cells. We also identified that brewers' rice was effective in reducing the tumor incidence and multiplicity in azoxymethane (AOM)-injected colon cancer rats.

Synthesis of an anthraquinone derivative (DHAQC) and its effect on induction of G2/M arrest and apoptosis in breast cancer MCF-7 cell line.

Anthraquinones are an important class of naturally occurring biologically active compounds. In this study, anthraquinone derivative 1,3-dihydroxy-9,10-anthraquinone-2- carboxylic acid (DHAQC) (2) was synthesized with 32% yield through the Friedel-Crafts condensation reaction. The mechanisms of cytotoxicity of DHAQC (2) in human breast cancer MCF-7 cells were further investigated.

Overexpression of the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) TAPETUM DEVELOPMENT1-like Eg707 in rice affects cell division and differentiation and reduces fertility.

The functional analysis of the TAPETUM DEVELOPMENT1-like analog Eg707 of oil palm was carried out in rice by over-expressing Eg707 under the control of a double cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter. Ectopic expression of Eg707 in rice induced dark green and matured compact brownish calli compared to pale wild type and negative control calli. Regenerated transgenic rice plants exhibited a reduction in organ size and plant height, rolled, erect leaves, less tillers, increased chlorophyll content, and reduced fertility with smaller green seeds.