Chagas disease is responsible for a large number of human infections and many are also at risk of infection. There is no effective drug for Chagas disease treatment. The Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology at Fiocruz, Brazil, has designed three nitro analogs of the nitroimidazole-thiadiazole, megazol: two triazole analogs PTAL 05-02 and PAMT 09 and a pyrazole analog PTAL 04-09. A set of Salm...

OBJECTIVES We investigated the genotoxicity of two chemicals, methyl formate and 2-methylbutane, using male ICR mice bone marrow cells for the screening of micronucleus induction. Although these two chemicals have already been tested numerous times, a micronucleus test has not been conducted and the amounts used have recently been increased. METHODS 7 week male ICR mice were tested at dosages...

Rice bran oil extracted by supercritical CO2 extraction (RB-SCE) reportedly exhibits pharmacological activities such as antioxidant and in vivo hair growth-inducing effects. Such activities raise the possibility of the development of novel hair growth-inducing agents using RB-SCE. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential genotoxic effects of RB-SCE in three short-term mutagenicity...

Cecropia obtusifolia Bertol. (Cecropiaceae) is a tree that grows in secondary vegetation in the tropical rain forest along both coasts of Mexico. Its leaves are used in folk medicine for the treatment of diabetes mellitus type 2. The aim of the present studies was the evaluation of possible genotoxic effects of the aqueous extract from the leaves of Cecropia obtusifolia by means of two differen...

The in vitro micronucleus test is a well-known test for the screening of genotoxic compounds. However until now, most studies have been performed on either human peripheral lymphocytes or established cancer cell lines. This study provides human mesenchymal stem cells as an alternative to the conventional micronucleus test. We grew umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs) on coverslips el...

Duguetia furfuracea (St. Hil.) Benth & Hook f. (1862), popularly known as "sofre-do-rim-quem-quer" and "araticum-seco", is a shrub of the Annonaceae family that occurs in several regions of Brazil. In folk medicine the infusion of its leaves and twigs is used to treat rheumatism and renal colic, whereas the seed powder is mixed with water to treat pediculosis. Previous studies have described bi...

The genotoxic and mutagenic potential of medicinal plant Jatropha gossypifolia, was investigated in fresh water fish Channa punctatus in the present study using micronucleus assay and comet assay. Fishes were exposed at 20% and 40% of the 24 h-LC50 value of plant extract containing Apigenin (76.48 mg L ) and crude latex (22.33 mg L). Both the test chemicals induced significant (P<0.05) genotoxi...

We evaluated micronucleus and apoptosis occurrence among women with normal smears and women with different kinds of cervical abnormalities, i.e., inflammatory processes and low- and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (N = 12, N = 10 and N = 27, respectively). The sample included 59 women who were seen at a public medical service for cervical cancer prevention in Feira de Santana, Bahia...

Mercury is a toxic element which is easily absorbed after ingestion or inhalation and deposited mainly in the kidney. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of mercury chloride in rats. Female rats, aged 14 weeks, were receiving mercury chloride in oral doses of 0.068, 0.136, and 0.272 mg kg(-1) body weight (b.wt.) for five consecutive days. Three days after the last dose, the animal...