Dodonaea viscosa Jacq. induces cytotoxicity, antiproliferative activity, and cell death in colorectal cancer cells via regulation of caspase 3 and p53.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer diagnosed worldwide and is the second leading cause of cancer-related death due to an insufficiency prognosis and is generally diagnosed in the last step of development. The Peruvian flora has a wide variety of medicinal plants with therapeutic potential in several diseases. Dodonaea viscosa Jacq. is a plant used to treat inflammatory process as well as gastrointestinal diseases. The aim of this study was to examine the cytotoxic, antiproliferative, and cell death-inducing effects of D. viscosa on colorectal cancer cells (SW480 and SW620). The hydroethanolic extract was obtained by maceration at 70% ethanol, the phytochemical constituents were identified by LC-ESI-MS. D. viscosa revealed 57 compounds some of them are: isorhamnetin, kaempferol, quercetin, methyl dodovisate B, hardwickiic acid, viscosol, and dodonic acid. Regarding the antitumoral activity, D. viscosa induced cytotoxic and antiproliferative activity in both SW480 and SW620 cancer cells, accompanied with, important changes in mitochondrial membrane potential, formation of the Sub G0/G1 population and increasing levels of apoptotic biomarkers (caspase 3 and the tumor suppressor protein p53) in the metastatic derivative cell line (SW620), suggesting an intrinsic apoptotic process after the treatment with the hydroethanolic extract of D. viscosa.

Carvacrol: An In Silico Approach of a Candidate Drug on HER2, PI3Kα, mTOR, hER-α, PR, and EGFR Receptors in the Breast Cancer.

Carvacrol is a phenol monoterpene found in aromatic plants specially in Lamiaceae family, which has been evaluated in an experimental model of breast cancer. However, any proposed mechanism based on its antitumor effect has not been reported. In our previous study, carvacrol showed a protective effect on 7,12-dimethylbenz[α]anthracene- (DMBA-) induced breast cancer in female rats. The main objective in this research was to evaluate by using in silico study the carvacrol on HER2, PI3Kα, mTOR, hER-α, PR, and EGFR receptors involved in breast cancer progression by docking analysis, molecular dynamic, and drug-likeness evaluation. A multilevel computational study to evaluate the antitumor potential of carvacrol focusing on the main targets involved in the breast cancer was carried out. The in silico study starts with protein-ligand docking of carvacrol followed by ligand pathway calculations, molecular dynamic simulations, and molecular mechanics energies combined with the Poisson-Boltzmann (MM/PBSA) calculation of the free energy of binding for carvacrol. As result, the in silico study led to the identification of carvacrol with strong binding affinity on mTOR receptor. Additionally, in silico drug-likeness index for carvacrol showed a good predicted therapeutic profile of druggability. Our findings suggest that mTOR signaling pathway could be responsible for its preventive effect in the breast cancer.

Diversidad genética de papas nativas ( Solanum spp.) del distrito de Vilcashuamán, Ayacucho- Perú, mediante AFLP / Genetic diversity of native potatoes ( Solanum spp.) from Vilcashuaman district, Ayacucho- Peru, using AFLP

En este presente trabajo, la diversidad genética de 30 morfotipos de papas nativas de Vilcashuamán (Ayacucho) fue evaluada mediante la técnica de polimorfismo de longitud de fragmentos amplificados (AFLP). La extracción de ADN se realizó con el método de CTAB modificado, usando hojas frescas de plantas de cuatro semanas de cultivo en invernadero. Partiendo de 200 mg de tejido vegetal se logró obtener entre 300 a 500 ng/μL de ADN de buena calidad. La digestión enzimática del ADN se realizó utilizando EcoRI y MseI, y se emplearon 12 combinaciones de primers, de las cuales se eligieron las dos combinaciones más polimórficas (E13 - M49 y E38 - M49). El análisis estadístico se realizó con el programa NTSYs 2.10 usando el coeficiente de Simple Matching logrando obtener valores de PIC (índice de contenido polimórfico) de 0.45 y 0.40 para las combinaciones E38 - M49 y E13 - M49, respectivamente. En total se lograron identificar 68 bandas claramente diferenciables, de las cuales el 55.8% fueron bandas polimórficas. El análisis de agrupamiento según el algoritmo UPGMA originó un dendograma con un índice de correlación cofenética de r= 0.7; a un coeficiente de similitud de 0.6; se establecieron ocho grupos genéticos y a un coeficiente de 1 no se encontraron morfotipos duplicados. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran el alto poder informativo del AFLP y la alta variabilidad de las papas nativas estudiadas.

In this article, using the Amplified Fragment Lenght Polymorphism (AFLP) technique, we evaluated the genetic diversity of 30 native potatoes morphotypes from Vilcashuaman, Ayacucho. DNA extraction was done with the modified CTAB method, using fresh leaves of greenhouse plants of two weeks age. From 200 mg of plant tissue, it was posible to obtain between 300 and 500 ng/μLof good quality DNA. The enzymatic digestion of the DNA was carried out using EcoRI and MseI, and 12 combinations of primers were used, from which the two most polymorphic combinations were chosen (E13 - M49 and E38 -M49). The statistical analysis was done with the NTSYs 2.10 program using the Simple Matching coefficient, obtaining values of PIC (polymorphic content index) of 0.45 and 0.40 for the combinations E38 - M49 and E13 - M49, respectively. In total, 68 clearly differentiable bands were identified, of which 55.8% were polymorphic bands. The cluster analysis according to the UPGMA algorithm originated a dendrogram with a cofenetic correlation index of r = 0.7; at a coefficient of similarity of 0.6, eight genetic groups were established and at a coefficient of 1, no duplicate morphotypes were found. The results obtained show the high informative power of the AFLP and the high variability of the native potatoes studied.