Determination of chemical components of the endemic species Allium turcicum L. plant extract by LC-MS/MS and evaluation of medicinal potentials

The Allium turcicum L. (Zuzubak) plant as a cultivated vegetable have various health benefits and consumed as a food. Due to the shortcoming evidence in literature and the importance of this plant in folk medicine, in the present study, for the first time, we evaluated the bioactive profile of components (using LC-MS/MS), cytotoxicity, anticancer, antioxidant, and antibacterial prospectives of Zuzubak methanol extract. Reported results show that the extract is rich in bioactive compounds and has anticancer activity with breast cancer cells (MCF-7), human prostate cancer cells (DU-145), and Human osteosarcoma cancer Cell lines of (IC50) in dose dependent manner in the concentration range of 31.25 μg/mL and 2000 μg/mL for 24 and 48 h. Western blotting results determined that the extract significantly suppressed the growth of U2OS, MCF-7, and DU-145 cancer cells by down expression of Ang-1 (angiogenic protein) and Beclin-1 (autophagy protein) and overexpression of Bax (a proapoptotic protein). The oxidative stress indices showed a reduction in RPE-1 and MCF-7 cells and an upsurge in U2OS and DU-145 cells. Additionally, the antimicrobial assay showed suppression of the growth of various pathogenic microorganisms in 4.00-8.00 μg/concentrations of Zuzubak extract using the microdilution method. The phytochemicals identified showed promising anticancer, antioxidant effects, and antimicrobial properties, representing a valuable herbal source for drug development studies.

Ocular biometry characteristics and its relationship with age, gender, spherical equivalent in Turkish children

Background

Studying ocular biometric parameters in different populations and determining the relationship with personal characteristics can provide valuable information about ocular growth and help provide a better understanding of refractive errors.

Aims

To describe distributions of ocular biometry and to evaluate its associations with age, gender, spheric equivalent in Turkish children.

Patients and Methods

In this prospective study 344 children aged 3-14 years were evaluated. Parameters studied included axial length (AL), anterior chamber depth (ACD), and mean corneal radius (CR) measured with optical biometry. Cycloplegic refraction values were obtained using autorefractometer. The change of biometric parameters according to age and gender were evaluated. The relationship between ocular biometry parameters with refraction and age was analyzed by linear regression.

Results

Mean spherical equivalent (SE), AL, ACD and AL/CR observed to be lowest in the preschooler group (P < 0.001). SE reduced with age, and a weak correlation observed between SE and age (r = -0.333). AL and ACD had moderate and weak positive correlations with age respectively (r = 0.511; r = 0.304). There were negative correlations between SE with AL, ACD and AL/CR (r = -0.826; r = -0.540; r = -0.886). The strongest correlation with SE among these parameters was identified for AL/CR. AL and ACD were higher in boys, while the CR was lower in girls (p < 0.001).

Conclusion

While AL in children in late schooler group is higher than European countries, it shows similar characteristics in early schooler group. In addition AL is lower in all age groups than Asian population sexcept preschooler group. With age AL increases, SE decreases and AL plays a key role in refractive development.

Comparison of the protective effects of selective endothelin-a receptor antagonist, ambrisentan, and dual endothelin-A/B receptor antagonist, bosentan, in experimental renal ischemia reperfusion injury

AIM

This study aims to compare the protective effects of ambrisentan, a selective endothelin typeA receptor antagonist, and bosentan, a dual endothelin typeA/B receptor antagonist, on experimental renal ischemia reperfusion injury.

METHOD

The study sample consisted of 21 female rats, which were divided into 3 groups: Control, Ambrisentan and Bosentan. For the ischemia-reperfusion injury model, left‑kidney nephrectomy was performed after sacrificing the animals. In the immunohistochemical examination, caspase-3 was examined, and then the apoptotic index was determined. In the biochemical examination, the activities of malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase, and the levels of nitrite (NOx), TNF-α, and IL-1β were determined.

RESULTS

There were statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of total injury score grade in range of 0‒3 (p=0.001).The glomerular and tubular apoptotic indices were higher in the control group as compared to those of the ambrisentan and bosentan groups (p=0.001).There were no statistically significant differences in terms of SOD, CAT, GPx, MDA, IL-1β and TNF-α measurements among the groups (p>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

In the experimentally created renal ischemia reperfusion model, both ambrisentan and bosentan increased the NOx level, decreased the apoptosis, and protected the kidney from renal ischemia reperfusion injury. However, no significant superiority was found between ambrisentan and bosentan in terms of their protective effects (Tab. 3, Fig. 2, Ref. 31).

Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in obstructive sleep apnea; a multi center, retrospective study

OBJECTIVE

Systemic inflammation is important in pathophysiology of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and its comorbidity. Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (N/L ratio) is a novel inflammation index that has been shown to independently predict poor clinical outcomes. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the role of N/L ratio in OSA patients and comparing with other well-known inflammatory marker, C-reactive protein (CRP).

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We conducted a retrospective analysis of 481 patients with mild, moderate and severe OSA (163,158 and 160 patients, respectively) and leukocyte profiles of 80 sex-, age- and body mass index- matched healthy controls. Patients were excluded if they had underlying cancer, chronic inflammatory disease, any systemic infection, uncontrolled hypertension and diabetes mellitus, a known acute coronary syndrome, valvular heart disease, a known thyroid, renal or hepatic dysfunction.

RESULTS

We found that N/L Ratio in severe OSA patients was significantly higher compared with mild, moderate, OSA patients and healthy controls (p < 0.001). However, there was no difference between mild and moderate OSA patients (p = 0.636). There was also no significant difference between mild-moderate OSA patients and healthy groups (p = 0.150). CRP levels were not different in all OSA stages (p = 0.595). By Spearman correlation, there was no correlation between CRP and N/L ratio.

CONCLUSIONS

N/L ratio, which is quick, cheap, easily measurable novel inflammatory marker with routine complete blood count analysis, is a surrogate marker of obstructive sleep apnea severity.

Soluble vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 (sVEGFR-1) is decreased in lung cancer patients showing progression: a pilot study

Tumor growth and metastasis depend on angiogenesis, and the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is known to be one of the most important angiogenic factors although the knowledge about its receptors is limited. We, therefore, investigated the treatment-related changes both in the level of the soluble vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 (sVEGFR-1) in the serum by ELISA and the expression of VEGFR-1 in cancer tissues by immunohistochemistry. The serum levels were studied in 38 lung cancer patients, and 55 control subjects (21 benign disease and 34 healthy subjects) before the chemotherapy. The treatment-related changes in serum sVEGFR-1 were evaluated in 15 patients 24 and 48 hours after treatment. In addition to serum analysis, the tissue expressions were evaluated in 32 patients before treatment. The treatment-related changes in tissue VEGFR-1 expressions were evaluated in only 12 patients 24 hours after treatment. We observed no significant difference in terms of serum sVEGFR-1 levels between malignant and nonmalignant groups (p > 0.05). There were no significant differences in the levels of sVEGFR-1 before and after treatment (p > 0.05). However, there was a significant difference between sVEGFR-1 levels in the groups (regressive, stable, progressive) classified according to the response to therapy (p = 0.043). A significant difference also was present between the expression levels of tissue VEGFR-1 in the same groups (p = 0.037). As a conclusion, we suggest that prechemotherapy sVEGFR-1 can be helpful for prediction of long-term response to therapy, but it should be studied in larger groups to elucidate its benefit in clinics.