International Journal of Advanced Biological and Biomedical Research
Volume:9 Issue: 1, Winter 2021

Postpartum depression (PPD) is one type of major depression that has harmful effects on mother, infant and family relationships. Therefore, this study investigated the protective effects of hydro-alcoholic extract of Nigella sativa on PPD in mice. In this experimental study, adult female mice were randomly divided into 6 groups (n=10): control, PPD, Nigella sativa 200, bicuculline, muscimol and fluoxetine. In all animals except in the control group, PPD was induced by progesterone withdrawal. In groups of Nigella sativa 200, bicuculline, muscimol and fluoxetine, mice received 200 mg/kg Nigella sativa, 1 mg/kg bicuculline + 200 mg/kg Nigella sativa, 0.5 mg/kg muscimol and 15 mg/kg fluoxetine, respectively. Then, after 1 hr, the forced swimming test and open field test was examined. PPD caused significant increases in the immobility times in the forced swimming test (P < 0.05). Administration of Nigella sativa, muscimol and fluoxetine attenuated depression-related behaviors in compared to the PPD group (all P < 0.05). However, combined administration bicuculline with Nigella sativa prevented antidepressant effects of this extract. Moreover, there were no significant differences in the crossing number in the open field test of all groups. Administration of Nigella sativa hydro-alcoholic extracts can be beneficial to the improvement in PPD and exerts possibly these protective effects partially through increase of gamma amino butyric acid (GABA)-A levels.

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is an important plant rich in many vitamins and antioxidant enzymes.

Tomato leaves of two cultivars (‘Peto 86’ and ‘Strain B’) were used as explant sources for callus induction. The antioxidant activity of the calli ethanol (ET) and methanol (ME)extracts were determined. The enzymatic activities were evaluated in callus cultures. Callus induced from leaf explants of tomato cultivars on the Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with various concentrations and combinations of cytokinins and auxins such as BAP (6-benzylaminopurine), NAA (1-naphthalene acetic acid), 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid), IAA (indole-3-acetic acid) and Kin (Kinetin) for rapid induction of callus and biomass growth.

The medium (M2) containing 3 mg L-1 BAP with 1 mg L-1 IAA produced the highest percentage of callus induction (PCI) (100%) in two cultivars. The relative fresh weight growth (RFWG) was reported by the fresh callus weighed after four weeks of culture and again weighed after one month of sub-culture. In both cultivars cultured on M2 medium the RFWG was (1.60) in ‘Peto 86’ and (1.47) in ‘Strain B’. The results showed that PCI and RFWG differed with the cultivars tested. The scavenging DPPH free radical activity in callus (ET) extracts exhibited a significant increase in (P < 0.05) than the activity in callus (ME) extract. The peroxidase and polyphenol oxidase activities were found in calli of both tomato cultivars. The enzymatic activities were higher in callus of ‘Peto 86’ cultivar than in callus of ‘Strain B’ cultivar.

Calli had antioxidant and enzyme activities that can be beneficial for extracting important components or for plant regeneration.

The Egyptian cotton leafworm, Spodoptera littoralis (Boisduval) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is one of the most destructive agricultural lepidopteran pests in Egypt, attacking several important crops all year round. S. littoralis can have two to seven generations per year, depending on the climate of the region; for example, changes in temperature affect all life processes of S. littoralis. The development, survival, and fecundity of S. littoralis at one of five constant temperatures as well as their effects on the biochemical impacts were investigated. The results showed that the duration of developmental stage (eggs, instars, pupae), longevity, and fecundity significantly decreased with increasing temperature from 15 to 35 ºC. Larvae emerged fastest from the eggs at 25 °C. The percentage of oviposited females was 46, 58, 74.5, 66.5, and 50% at 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35 °C, respectively. The results also showed that the fourth larval instars of S. littoralis at 25 oC had a higher level of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and free amino acids in comparison with those larvae at 35 oC. Therefore, temperature rise leads to increasing metabolic rate, and decreasing the development period. Thus, 25 °C was the optimum temperature for development, fecundity, rates of biochemical and physiological reactions of S. littoralis.

Many theories and mathematical simulations have been proposed concerning urine concentrating mechanism (UCM). Due to significant effect of the tubule and vessel architecture in concentrating mechanism, the numerical analysis of UCM through a 3-Dimensional structure might be the answer to find a better consistency between the experimental and theoretical results.

In this paper we have investigated the effects of structural characteristics of the tubules and vessels on the urine concentrating mechanism in the outer medulla (OM) by developing a simple three-dimensional mathematical model. This model is a framework to attain a converged numerical solution for the momentum and species transport equations along with their stiff and coupled boundary conditions based on standard expressions for trans-tubular solutes and water transports on tubule’s membrane.

The model structure and the number of the involved tubules have been assumed to be as simple as possible. The effects of slip boundary condition on membrane, Darcy permeability and solute’s diffusivity of the intermediate media on UCM have been studied. It has been shown that this approach can simply simulate preferential interactions and tubule’s confinement by radial diffusion coefficients.

All in all, the feasibility of the idea of completely 3-D modeling by employing the concept of diffusion coefficient and Darcy permeability has been explored and validated.

Hypercholesterolemia led cardiovascular disease (CVD) complications are plaguing the globe. In the present study,Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) high yield variety (HYV) rice named as BR5 was selected for extracting bran oil followed by fatty acid analysis and in vivo hypocholesterolemic effect of the extracted rice bran oil (RBO) for the sake of ameliorating CVD. RBO was extracted using n-Hexane followed by fatty acid analysis and anti-hypocholesterolemic study on rats against soybean oil (SBO), mustard oil (MBO) and butter oil (BTO) followed by organ function tests. Study period was four weeks. Then the rats were killed, their blood was collected and serum biochemical parameters were analyzed using semi-auto analyzer. Fattyacid analyses revealed BR5 was the best among the six HYVs of rice. Compared with the other edible oils, RBO derived from BR5 showed significantly increasing effect upon plasma total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol lowering while high density lipoprotein cholesterol increasing. Toxicological studies showed no detrimental effect of BR5 derived RBO on cardiac, renal and hepatic functions. BR5 is a rich source of RBO that provides balanced fatty acid support and exerts hypocholesterolemic effects without any detectable side effects. Consumption of BR5 derived RBO would aid in CVD amelioration.

The aim of this study was to investigate the antimicrobial effects of ethanol extractof Eremurus persicus leaves on Staphylococcus aureus under laboratory condition.

The ethanol extract of paste leaves were collected using a rotary machine. 12 strain of Staphylococcus aureus were collected from urinary tract infection of Zabol city (Iran).

The results showed that MIC and also MBC of Eremurus persicus ethanol extract against Staphylococcus aureus were 5 and 2.55 ppm, respectively.

The results of this study showed that ethanol extract of Eremurus persicus leaves has a significant antibacterial effect and can be used to deal with specific pathogenic bacteria.

C. cretica is a medicinal and ornamental halophytic plant which used for alterative, anthelmintic, tonic and aphrodisiac purposes. The purpose of this study was to detect the quercetin content in C. cretica and to evaluate the effects of exogenous application of abscisic acid and cytokinin hormones on FLS gene expression. Abscisic acid and cytokinin (BAP) was sprayed in two-stages (8 days intervals) with two different concentration of 300 and 500 ppm. Quercetin content was confirmed by HPLC analysis in aerial parts of plant. The findings revealed that gene expression of FLS increased in the second stage of abscisic acid treatment. Observation showed significant differences in gene expression between treated and control samples, at level of 1%. In the first phase, there were no significant differences between the abscisic acid treated and control samples. In addition, the cytokinin treatment (500 ppm) resulted to the expression of the FLS gene at 5% level, which implied that cytokinin affected the FLS gene expression. In this research, it was proved that the dihydroquercetin was present in C. cretica which changed to quercetin through the flavonol synthase enzyme.

The carcinogenic kinase PAK1 (p21-activated kinase 1) is associated with the progression of many disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, various cancers, type-2 diabetes and hypertension. Although few synthetic PAK1 inhibitors and herbal therapeutics, such as propolis and curcumin, are available in the market, a comprehensive remedy of PAK1 related ailments is still not studied in detail. Recently, several phthalimide-metal complexes (viz. Λ-FL172, Λ-FL411, called optically active octahedral ruthenium phthalimide complex) were shown as poor inhibition potency toward PAK1. However, for a full understanding of the inhibition of PAK1 about phthalimide analogues, this study has been designed.

This manuscript presents density functional theory (DFT) based computational approaches of aryl derivatives of phthalimide. The DFT was used to calculate the equilibrium geometries, thermodynamic analysis, dipole moment, polarizability, electrostatic potential map, Mulliken, Hirshfeld, NBO population analysis, frontier molecular orbital contribution, reactivity descriptor, Fukui function analysis of phthalimide derivatives. Molecular docking and ADMET prediction were also performed.

The phthalimide derivatives were subjected to molecular docking studies, and binding affinities ranging from -7.3 to -7.7 kcal/mol against PAK1 kinase were determined. The docked ligands demonstrated stronger hydrogen bonding, electrostatic interactions, and hydrophobic interactions with PAK1 kinase. The magnitude of these contacts usually related with bond lengths and attraction forces. The derivatives with an elevated docking score were chosen against ADMET in silico, and they have an excellent oral bioavailability without observed carcinogenesis or mutagenicity affect.

These results reveal that these phthalimide derivatives might be potential inhibitors for the protein kinase PAK1.

SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus discovered in December 2019 and is responsible for pandemic disease COVID-19. In the absence of any available vaccines or drugs to combat the virus, it has caused enormous damage.

An in-silico docking approach was applied to determine potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 RNA-MTase by screening against a ligand library of FDA approved antiviral compounds.

Ten compounds including Daclatasvir, Pibrentasvir, Tenofovir, Velpatasvir, Grazoprevir, Ledipasvir, Elbasvir, Delavirdine, Nilutamide, and Ribavirin triphosphate showed a strong binding affinity with RNA-MTase of which Daclatasvir and Pibrentasvir exhibited the highest affinity. Moreover, Daclatasvir, Grazoprevir, and Tenofovir, which have recently been reported to have a binding affinity with other SARS-CoV-2 proteins, showed good binding interactions with RNA-MTase, suggesting a role to act as dual inhibitors.

The suggested antiviral compounds can tightly bind to RNA-MTase of SARS-Cov-2 and thus have the potential to be used against this deadly virus. Importantly, as FDA already approved, these drugs do not need to undergo toxicity evaluation

 

Human-amnion membrane mesenchymal stem cells (hAMSCs) are the accessible cells that can be grown in in vitro condition to produce a great number of cells required for cell therapy in medicine. Several protocols have been proposed for isolation of hAMSCs, but the most of them are multi-step and expensive. The purpose of this article was to introduce a one-step, inexpensive protocol.

 In this study human amnion membrane (hAM) was obtained from selected caesarean-sectioned births. The AM was sliced into small pieces and to isolate MSCs, it was digested only with one step instead of multi-step. Isolated cells were cultured in Dulbeco,s Modified Eagle,s Medium-Low Glucose (DMEM-LG) with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) without adding growth factors. After 80-90% confluency, the adherent cells were characterized by flow cytometry and multi- potentiality differentiation toward adipocyte-, and osteocyte -like cells.

 The results showed that hAMSCs isolated from hAM expressed CD105, CD90 and CD73 such as other MSCS, but did not express CD34 and CD45 hematopoietic markers. The osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation of the isolated cells were proven by Alizarin Red and Oil-Red-O straining, respectively.

 The results showed that the stem cells derived from the AM belonged to the mesenchymal stem cells family. Furthermore, this method made it easier and cheaper to obtain this type of stem cells.