The flavonoid fisetin (3, 3, 4, 7-tetrahydroxyflavone) is the main component of lacquer and is found in strawberries, apples, and grapes. The lacquer, lac tree extract, has been used as Chinese medicine in Asia for thousands of years. Several recent studies have demonstrated that the flavonoid has anticancer effects against several cancer types. Our preliminary data have indicated that fisetin ...

Huntington's disease (HD) is an inherited, progressive and ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by psychiatric, cognitive and motor symptoms. Among the pathways implicated in HD are those involving mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling and particularly the Ras-extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) cascade. Studies in both cells and animal models suggest t...

Introduction Cigarette smoke (CS) exposure is the leading risk factor for COPD-emphysema pathogenesis. A common characteristic of COPD is impaired phagocytosis that causes frequent exacerbations in patients leading to increased morbidity. However, the underlying mechanism is unclear. Hence, we investigated if CS exposure causes autophagy impairment as a mechanism for diminished bacterial cleara...

p53, a tumor suppressor protein, has been proven to regulate the cell cycle, apoptosis, and DNA repair to prevent malignant transformation. MDM2 regulates activity of p53 and inhibits its binding to DNA. In the present study, we elucidated the MDM2 inhibition potential of polyphenols (Apigenin, Fisetin, Galangin and Luteolin) by MD simulation and MM/PBSA free energy calculations. All polyphenol...