Fatty-monastrol derivatives and its cytotoxic effect against melanoma cell growth.

Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer due to the occurrence of metastases. This work is aimed at studying the effects of the insertion of palmitic and oleic acid chain into monastrol in the melanoma cell line, B16F10. Cells were treated with monastrol, palmitic-monastrol or oleic-monastrol for periods of 0, 24, 48 and 72 h, and the cytotoxic effect was observed for palmitic-monastrol and oleic-monastrol after 24 h. For monastrol the effects were observed in 48 h on B16F10 cells, and in 24 h for a non-tumour cell line, melan-a. In this cell line, fatty-monastrol derivatives were cytotoxic after 24 h of exposure in the same concentrations as B16F10. However, oleic-monastrol inhibited cell growth at 20µM only after 72 h, in contrast to the B16F10 cell line, in which oleic-monastrol inhibited cell growth at 48 h, showing that at least in this structural modification, melan-a was less sensitive than B16F10. The ability of compounds to induce apoptosis and/or necrosis was measured, and it was observed that monastrol induces apoptosis within 24 h. However, the cells treated with fatty-monastrol derivatives did not remain adhered on the well plate after 3 h of treatment. At this time point, these cells still emitted fluorescence indicating viable cells, suggesting a possible effect of palmitic- and oleic-monastrol in the adhesion proteins found on the cell membrane.

Toxocara canis: Larvicidal activity of fatty acid amides.

Considering the therapeutic potential of fatty acid amides, the present study aimed to evaluate their in vitro activity against Toxocara canis larvae and their cytotoxicity for the first time. Linoleylpyrrolidilamide was the most potent, with a minimal larvicidal concentration (MLC) of 0.05 mg/mL and 27% cytotoxicity against murine peritoneal macrophages C57BL/6 mice, as assessed by the MTT assay.

Anti-MDR and antitumoral action of acetylsalicylic acid on leukaemic cells.

ASA (acetylsalicylic acid) is an NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug). ASA has gained attention as a potential chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agent for several neoplasms. The aim of this study was to analyse the possible antitumoural effects of ASA in two erythroleukaemic cell lines, with or without the MDR (multidrug resistance) phenotype. The mechanism of action of different concentrations of ASA were compared in K562 (non-MDR) and Lucena (MDR) cells by analysing cell viability, apoptosis and necrosis, intracellular ROS (reactive oxygen species) formation and bcl-2, p53 and cox-2 gene expression. ASA inhibited the cellular proliferation or induced toxicity in K562 and Lucena cell lines, irrespective of the MDR phenotype. The ASA treatment provoked death by apoptosis and necrosis in K562 cells and only by necrosis in Lucena cells. ASA also showed antioxidant activity in both cell lines. The bcl-2, p53 and cox-2 genes in both cell lines treated with ASA seem to exhibit different patterns of expression. However, normal lymphocytes treated with the same ASA concentrations were more resistant than tumoral cells. The results of this work show that both cell lines responded to treatment with ASA, demonstrating a possible antitumoral and anti-MDR role for this drug.

Synthesis and antituberculosis activity of new fatty acid amides.

This work reports the synthesis of new fatty acid amides from C16:0, 18:0, 18:1, 18:1 (OH), and 18:2 fatty acids families with cyclic and acyclic amines and demonstrate for the first time the activity of these compounds as antituberculosis agents against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H(37)Rv, M. tuberculosis rifampicin resistance (ATCC 35338), and M. tuberculosis isoniazid resistance (ATCC 35822). The fatty acid amides derivate from ricinoleic acid were the most potent one among a series of tested compounds, with a MIC 6.25 microg/mL for resistance strains.