Apoptosis triggered by exogenous and endogenous stimuli such as ultraviolet radiation, oxidative stress, and genotoxic chemicals is a crucial phenomenon within biological systems. DNA damage activates and stabilizes p53 in nucleus and cytoplasm and regulates other proteins that stimulate intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic pathways. Apoptosis is morphologically distinct from that of necrosis and ...

Bone is the most common target organ of metastasis of breast cancers. This produces considerable morbidity due to skeletal-related events, and severely reduces the quality of life. Increased osteoclast activity is implicated in breast cancer outgrowth in the bone microenvironment. Our previous observation of an anti-osteoclastic activity of hypericin, a natural plant compound, led us to investi...

Hypericum perforatum (St John's wort) is a well known medicinal plant used in many pharmaceutical formulations and its main active compound is hypericin. The purpose of our study was to examine the plasma level of hypericin upon long term mice treatment with Hyperici herba extract. A reversible hyperthermia was recorded upon 2 hours of the extract administration, both in males and females. Hype...

Hypericin, an antidepressant and antiviral agent being evaluated in phase I and II trials for patients with HIV infection, is known to be a potent protein kinase C inhibitor. We have investigated its effects on cellular response to radiation via a tetrazolium-formazan cell growth rate assay using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide and clonogenic assay in three human g...

The exact cellular target for the potent anti-cancer agent hypericin has not yet been determined; this thus encourages the application of computational chemistry tools to be employed in order to provide insights that can be employed in further drug development studies. In the present study computational docking and molecular dynamics simulations are applied to investigate possible interactions ...

Purpose Excessive production of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) by tumor-like synoviocytes contributes to joint destruction in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Having previously demonstrated that curcuminoid-only and essential oil-only fractions of turmeric prevent joint destruction in an animal model of RA, we hypothesized that synoviocyte PTHrP production could be one signaling pathway ...

BACKGROUND Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) display potent therapeutic efficacy in animal models of arthritis and suppress inflammatory cytokine production in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synovial macrophages and tissue. OBJECTIVES To determine the molecular mechanisms contributing to the suppressive effects of HDACi on RA synovial cell activation, using interleukin 6 (IL-6) regulation as ...

Invasion of fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLSs) is critical in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The metalloproteinases (MMPs) and activator of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) pathway play a critical role in RA-FLS invasion induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The present study aimed to explore the anti-invasive activity of celastrol on LPS-stimulated human RA...