Protein-conformational diseases in childhood: Naturally-occurring hIAPP amyloid-oligomers and early β-cell damage in obesity and diabetes.

Background And Aims: This is the first time that obesity and diabetes mellitus (DM) as protein conformational diseases (PCD) are reported in children and they are typically diagnosed too late, when β-cell damage is evident. Here we wanted to investigate the level of naturally-ocurring or real (not synthetic) oligomeric aggregates of the human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) that we called RIAO in sera of pediatric patients with obesity and diabetes. We aimed to reduce the gap between basic biomedical research, clinical practice-health decision making and to explore whether RIAO work as a potential biomarker of early β-cell damage.

Leaf Extracts from Dillenia philippinensis Rolfe Exhibit Cytotoxic Activity to both Drug-Sensitive and Multidrug-Resistant Cancer Cells.

Background: Cancer is one of the leading causes of illness and death worldwide. Only palliative therapeutic options are available for many types of cancers, and most anticancer drugs in clinical use exhibit significant side effects. It is therefore important to develop new anticancer drugs that are more effective and less toxic.