Resistance toward cytotoxic drugs is one of the primary causes for therapeutic failure in cancer therapy. DNA repair mechanisms as well as deficient caspases activation play a critical role in apoptosis resistance of tumor cells toward anticancer drug treatment. Here, we discovered that deficient caspases activation in apoptosis-resistant cancer cells depends on DNA-ligase IV and DNA-protein ki...

Conducting cell apoptosis pathways is a novel strategy in cancer treatment. This study aimed to explain that C. botrys essential oil could induce apoptosis and arrest the cell cycle in HeLa cells. Cytotoxic and apoptogenic effects of the essential oil of Jerusalem-oak (Chenopodium botrys L.), which was obtained from the aerial parts of the plant, were evaluated in HeLa cells. Cell viability was...

Etoposide (VP-16), one of the topoisomerase II (TopoII) inhibitors, interferes with TopoII by inducing the formation of and stabilizing a cleavable enzyme-DNA complex. VP-16 has been demonstrated to induce apoptosis in murine thymocytes. To clarify the mechanism of action of VP-16, we examined the in vitro effect of a non-cleavable-complex-forming type TopoII inhibitor, ICRF-193 which inhibits ...

Apoptosis or programmed cell death is a gene regulated phenomenon which is important in both physiological and pathological conditions. It is characterized by distinct morphological features including chromatin condensation, cell and nuclear shrinkage, membrane blebbing and oligonucleosomal DNA fragmentation. Although, two major apoptotic pathways including 1) the death receptor (extrinsic) and...

Background: Quantification of radiation-induced apoptosis in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) has been proposed as a possible screening test for cancer-prone individuals and also for the prediction of normal tissue responses after radiotherapy. Materials and Methods: The neutral version of the comet assay (single-cell gel electrophoresis) was used 24, 48, 72 hours after irradiation ...

Semen analysis is the frontline and old reliable test in the assessment of male fertility, but it failed to provide absolute prediction of sperm function and its fertilizing ability. A wide variety of internal and external factors affect sperm function without discernible and significant effects on semen analysis. Oxygen toxicity and oxidative stress (OS) are inherent challenge of living cells ...

Objective(s): Semiconductor zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) have unique properties, such as inherent selectivity and photosensitization effects under ultraviolet (UV) radiation. ZnO NPs serve as promising anticancer agents. However, UV radiation limits their penetration into the body. In most clinical settings, it is essential to use high-energy photons in the treatment of deep-seated tumors...