Zebrafish bioassay-guided isolation of antiseizure compounds from the Cameroonian medicinal plant Cyperus articulatus L.

Background: Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder affecting more than 50 million people worldwide, of whom 80% live in low- and middle-income countries. Due to the limited availability of antiseizure drugs (ASDs) in these countries, medicinal plants are the first-line treatment for most epilepsy patients. In Cameroon, a decoction of Cyperus articulatus L.

Passive Intestinal Absorption of Representative Plant Secondary Metabolites: A Physicochemical Study.

Natural products are generally ingested as part of traditional herbal decoctions or in the current diet. However, in natural product research, the bioavailability of secondary metabolites is often poorly investigated. In this work, a systematic study was carried out in order to highlight the physicochemical parameters that mainly influence the passive intestinal absorption of natural products.

HDM-PAMPA to predict gastrointestinal absorption, binding percentage, equilibrium and kinetics constants with human serum albumin and using 2 end-point measurements.

The parallel artificial membrane permeability assay (PAMPA) is a high-throughput screening (HTS) technique developed to predict passive permeability through numerous different biological membranes, such as the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), the blood brain barrier (BBB), and the dermal layer. PAMPA is based on an artificial membrane, such as hexadecane (HDM), which separates two compartments (i.e.

Human sirtuins: Structures and flexibility.

In recent years, sirtuins (SIRTs), members of histone deacetylases (HDACs) class III, have been found to modulate cellular processes related to the development of human aging-related pathologies (i.e. cancer, neurodegeneration, metabolic disorders).

A Rational Approach for the Identification of Non-Hydroxamate HDAC6-Selective Inhibitors.

The human histone deacetylase isoform 6 (HDAC6) has been demonstrated to play a major role in cell motility and aggresome formation, being interesting for the treatment of multiple tumour types and neurodegenerative conditions. Currently, most HDAC inhibitors in preclinical or clinical evaluations are non-selective inhibitors, characterised by a hydroxamate zinc-binding group (ZBG) showing off-target effects and mutagenicity. The identification of selective HDAC6 inhibitors with novel chemical properties has not been successful yet, also because of the absence of crystallographic information that makes the rational design of HDAC6 selective inhibitors difficult.