Search results for "Tea"
showing 10 items of 7074 documents
In silico drug discovery of major metabolites from spices as SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors
2020
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious illness caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), originally identified in Wuhan, China (December 2019) and has since expanded into a pandemic. Here, we investigate metabolites present in several common spices as possible inhibitors of COVID-19. Specifically, 32 compounds isolated from 14 cooking seasonings were examined as inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro), which is required for viral multiplication. Using a drug discovery approach to identify possible antiviral leads, in silico molecular docking studies were performed. Docking calculations revealed a high potency of salvianolic acid A and curcu…
Production of High Amounts of Hepatotoxin Nodularin and New Protease Inhibitors Pseudospumigins by the Brazilian Benthic Nostoc sp. CENA543
2017
Nostoc is a cyanobacterial genus, common in soils and a prolific producer of natural products. This research project aimed to explore and characterize Brazilian cyanobacteria for new bioactive compounds. Here we report the production of hepatotoxins and new protease inhibitors from benthic Nostoc sp. CENA543 isolated from a small, shallow, saline-alkaline lake in the Nhecolandia, Pantanal wetland area in Brazil. Nostoc sp. CENA543 produces exceptionally high amounts of nodularin-R. This is the first free-living Nostoc that produces nodularin at comparable levels as the toxic, bloom-forming, Nodularia spumigena. We also characterized pseudospumigins A-F, which are a novel family of linear te…
AISF position paper on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD): Updates and future directions
2017
Abstract This review summarizes our current understanding of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a multi-factorial systemic disease resulting from a complex interaction between a specific genetic background and multiple environmental/metabolic “hits”. The role of gut microbiota, lipotoxicity, inflammation and their molecular pathways is reviewed in-depth. We also discuss the epidemiology and natural history of NAFLD by pinpointing the remarkably high prevalence of NAFLD worldwide and its inherent systemic complications: hepatic (steatohepatitis, advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis), cardio-metabolic (cardiovascular disease, cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias and type 2 diabetes) and neoplastic (…
Effect of green tea extract on enteric viruses and its application as natural sanitizer
2017
In this work, the effect of green tea extract (GTE) was assessed against murine norovirus (MNV) and hepatitis A virus (HAV) at different temperatures, exposure times and pH conditions. Initially, GTE at 0.5 and 5 mg/ml were individually mixed with each virus at 5 log TCID50/ml and incubated 2 h at 37 °C at different pHs (from 5.5 to 8.5). GTE affected both viruses depending on pH with higher reductions observed in alkaline conditions. Secondly, different concentrations of GTE (0.5 and 5 mg/ml) were mixed with viral suspensions and incubated for 2 or 16 h at 4, 25 and 37 °C at pH 7.2. A concentration-, temperature- and exposure time-dependent response was showed by GTE in suspension tests, w…
The emergence of drug resistance to targeted cancer therapies: Clinical evidence.
2019
For many decades classical anti-tumor therapies included chemotherapy, radiation and surgery; however, in the last two decades, following the identification of the genomic drivers and main hallmarks of cancer, the introduction of therapies that target specific tumor-promoting oncogenic or non-oncogenic pathways, has revolutionized cancer therapeutics. Despite the significant progress in cancer therapy, clinical oncologists are often facing the primary impediment of anticancer drug resistance, as many cancer patients display either intrinsic chemoresistance from the very beginning of the therapy or after initial responses and upon repeated drug treatment cycles, acquired drug resistance deve…
Advantageous use of HepaRG cells for the screening and mechanistic study of drug-induced steatosis
2016
Only a few in vitro assays have been proposed to evaluate the steatotic potential of new drugs. The present study examines the utility of HepaRG cells as a cell-based assay system for screening drug-induced liver steatosis. A high-content screening assay was run to evaluate multiple toxicity-related cell parameters in HepaRG cells exposed to 28 compounds, including drugs reported to cause steatosis through different mechanisms and non-steatotic compounds. Lipid content was the most sensitive parameter for all the steatotic drugs, whereas no effects on lipid levels were produced by non-steatotic compounds. Apart from fat accumulation, increased ROS production and altered mitochondrial membra…
New microRNA Biomarkers for Drug-Induced Steatosis and Their Potential to Predict the Contribution of Drugs to Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
2017
Background and Aims: Drug-induced steatosis is a major reason for drug failure in clinical trials and post-marketing withdrawal; and therefore, predictive biomarkers are essential. These could be particularly relevant in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), where most patients show features of the metabolic syndrome and are prescribed with combined chronic therapies, which can contribute to fatty liver. However, specific biomarkers to assess the contribution of drugs to NAFLD are lacking. We aimed to find microRNAs (miRNAs) responsive to steatotic drugs and to investigate if they could become circulating biomarkers for drug induced steatosis. Methods: Human HepG2 cells were treated wi…
A Multi-Parametric Fluorescent Assay for the Screening and Mechanistic Study of Drug-Induced Steatosis in Liver Cells in Culture.
2017
Human hepatic cells have been used for drug safety risk evaluations throughout early development phases. They provide rapid, cost-effective early feedback to identify drug candidates with potential hepatotoxicity. This unit presents a cell-based assay to evaluate the risk of liver damage associated with steatogenic drugs. Detailed protocols for cell exposure to test compounds and for the assessment of steatosis-related cell parameters (intracellular lipid content, reactive oxygen species production, mitochondrial impairment, and cell death) are provided. A few representative results that illustrate the utility of this procedure for the screening of drug-induced steatosis are shown. © 2017 b…
A lipidomic cell-based assay for studying drug-induced phospholipidosis and steatosis
2017
Phospholipidosis and steatosis are two toxic effects, which course with overaccumulation of different classes of lipids in the liver. MS-based lipidomics has become a powerful tool for the comprehensive determination of lipids. LC-MS lipid profiling of HepG2 cells is proposed as an in vitro assay to study and anticipate phospholipidosis and steatosis. Cells with and without pre-incubation with a mixture of free fatty acids (FFA) (i.e., oleic and palmitic) were exposed to a set of well-known steatogenic and phospholipidogenic compounds. The use of FFA pre-loading accelerated the accumulation of phospholipids thus leading to a better discrimination of phospholipidosis, and magnified the lipid…
Diagnostic accuracy of elastography and magnetic resonance imaging in patients with NAFLD: A systematic review and meta-analysis
2021
[Background and Aims] Vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE), point shear wave elastography (pSWE), 2-dimensional shear wave elastography (2DSWE), magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been proposed as non-invasive tests for patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This study evaluated their diagnostic accuracy for liver fibrosis and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).