member of the pyridocarbazole family of alkaloids. It was first isolated from the bark and stem of Aspidosperma olivaceum and it has been found to possess similar antitumor activity as its 5,11-dimethyl isomer, ellipticine, and related compounds like 9-methoxyellipticine. As the main mechanism of these agents’ antineoplastic action, a stabilization of the “cleavable complex” which is formed bet...

Pandemic, epidemic and endemic infectious diseases are united by a common problem: how do we rapidly and cost-effectively identify potential pharmacological interventions to treat infections? Given the large number of emerging and neglected infectious diseases and the fact that they disproportionately afflict the poorest members of the global society, new ways of thinking are required to develo...

Increasing drug-resistant infections have drawn research interest towards examining environmental bacteria and the discovery that many factors, including elevated metal conditions, contribute to proliferation of antibiotic resistance (AR). This study examined 90 garden soils from Western Australia to evaluate predictions of antibiotic resistance genes from total metal conditions by comparing th...

The aim of this work was to determine if the inhibition or stimulation of NO synthesis modulates liver damage induced by chronic lead intoxication. Lead nitrate (3.6 mg/kg, per os) was administered one time a day for 30 days to male Wistar rats with low and high resistance to hypoxia treated simultaneously with L-arginine (600 mg/kg, i.p.) or N-nitro-L-arginine (L-NNA, 35 mg/kg, i.p.) 30 min. b...

The effect of macelignan, a phytoestrogen, on P-gp function was investigated using multidrug resistant cancer cells overexpressing P-gp (NCI/ADR-RES) and the fluorescent P-gp substrates, daunorubicin and rhodamine 123. Macelignan (40 microM) increased the cellular accumulation of daunorubicin by approximately threefold in NCI/ADR-RES cells, whereas it did not alter the cellular accumulation of ...

Chalcones (1, 3, diaryl-2-propen-1-ones), are one of the plant secondary metabolite belonging to flavonoid family and has been widely explored in past decennium for its various pharmacological activities including antimalarial activity. Plasmodium aspartate proteases and cysteine proteases are the promising targets in malarial chemotherapy to overcome the drug resistance. Chalcones supposed to ...

Enterococcus species cause increasing numbers of infections in hospitals. They contribute to the increasing mortality rates, mostly in patients with comorbidities, who suffer from severe diseases. Enterococcus resistances against most antibiotics have been described, including novel antibiotics. Therefore, there is an ongoing demand for novel types of antibiotics that may overcome bacterial res...

To determine whether current environmental lead (Pb) levels are causing any progressive changes in urinary Pb levels, 24-h urine samples were collected from 277 subjects (159 men and 118 women) in 1985, 312 subjects (155 men and 157 women) in 1993, and 311 subjects (156 men and 155 women) in 1998. All of the subjects worked in the same factory. The urinary Pb concentration was analyzed by flame...