Cigarette smoking is one of the main risk factors for premature human death associated to a variety of respiratory and vascular diseases, and cancer due to containing Hundreds of toxicants. Rat mitochondria were obtained by differential ultracentrifugation and incubated with different concentrations (1, 10 and 100%) of standardized cigarette smoke extract (CSE). Our results showed that cigarett...

Previous studies demonstrated that CSE induces oxidative stress and its consequences on isolated mitochondria obtained from lung, heart and brain which may provide insight into the role of CSE in human health and disease. The present study was carried out to further characterize and compare toxic effect of CSE extract on isolated mitochondria obtained from either a directly contacting tissue (i...

The mechanisms of the mitochondrial toxicity of AZT (azidothymidine; zidovudine) are not clear. The two main contenders are the incorporation of phosphorylated AZT into the mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) and the competitive inhibition of natural deoxynucleotide metabolism. We have built a computational model of AZT metabolism in mitochondria in order to better understand these toxicity mechanisms. T...

Flavan-3-ol derivatives are polyphenolic compounds with multifunctional properties. One of the flavan-3-ol derivatives, green tea catechin epigallocatechin gallate, is known to have anticancer activity as one its We studied synthesis and conducted structure-activity relationship studies; we found that fluorinated exhibited high toxicity against HeLa A549 cells. It was confirmed cytotoxicity aff...

We report the discovery of a fluorogenic dye, N(1),N(3)-di(2-aminidonaphthalen-6-yl) propane-1,3-diamine, MitoBlue, which selectively stains functional mitochondria while displaying low toxicity, bright blue emission, and high resistance to photobleaching. Additionally, we show that a biotin-labeled MitoBlue derivative can be used as a handle for the delivery of streptavidin-tagged species to t...

metals can cause oxidative stress by increasing the formation of reactive oxygen species (ros), which make antioxidants incapable of defiance against growing amounts of free radicals. metal toxicity is related to their oxidative state and reactivity with other compounds. however, several reports about metals have been published in the recent years. mitochondria, as a site of cellular oxygen con...

Arsenic exposure mainly through food and water has been shown to be associated with increased incidence of numerous cancers and non-cancer harmful health. It is also used in cancer chemotherapy and treatment of several cancer types due to its apoptogenic effects in the various cancer and normal cell lines. We have already reported that liver is the storage site and important target organ in As ...