ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Donis a medicinal plant species belonging to the Apocynaceae family, which produces vinblastine and vincristine along with 100 other monoterpenoid indole alkaloids. The process of biosynthesis of C. roseus alkaloids is complex, in which many genes, enzymes, and regulators are involved. Induced mutations may be considered as a potential source for producing a higher amount of vinblastine and vincristine in this plant species. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to examine the effects of different treatments utilized on the induced genetic changes in C. roseus plants and enzyme activities. METHODS AND RESULTS: Spermine, jasmonic acid, methyjasmonate, putrescine, and cold plasma treatments were used for seed treatments. Different molecular markers, namely inter simple sequence repeat, inter retrotransposon amplified polymorphism, and retrotransposon microsatellite amplified polymorphism were employed to reveal the induced genetic changes. Antioxidant enzyme activities were also studied. The treated plants showed genetic variability and a significant increase in antioxidant enzyme activity compared to the control plants. The putrescine treatment resulted in the highest level of activity in superoxidase. A significant positive correlation occurred between the molecular markers data and antioxidant enzyme activities in treated plants. CONCLUSION: Our data revealed that the different phytohormones and cold plasma treatments could induce both genetic and chemical content changes in C. roseus plants.
Subject(s)
Catharanthus/growth & development , Microsatellite Repeats , Plant Growth Regulators/pharmacology , Plasma Gases/pharmacology , Retroelements , Acetates/pharmacology , Catharanthus/drug effects , Catharanthus/genetics , Catharanthus/metabolism , Cyclopentanes/pharmacology , Gene Expression Regulation, Plant/drug effects , Oxylipins/pharmacology , Plant Proteins/metabolism , Plants, Medicinal/drug effects , Plants, Medicinal/genetics , Plants, Medicinal/growth & development , Plants, Medicinal/metabolism , Putrescine/pharmacology , Seeds/drug effects , Seeds/genetics , Seeds/growth & development , Seeds/metabolism , Spermine/pharmacology , Superoxide Dismutase/metabolismABSTRACT
HSV-1 is associated with oral lesions. Recently, anti-herpetic activity of different plant species has been investigated. In this study, the effects of Artemisia aucheri aqueous extract on the HSV-1 virus-infected Vero cells were assessed. The highest cell viability occurred in plant aqueous extracts was with a concentration of 75 µg/mL, 1-2 h before viral infection. The IC50 of the aqueous extract of 24.7 µg/ml was calculated. Most percentage of infected cell inhibition (89.6%) was with the chloroform fraction in concentration of 75 µg/ml, and the least percentage of infected cell inhibition (21.7%) was in concentration of 12.5 µg/ml with the ethyl acetate fraction in comparison with untreated control. Moreover, Q-PCR results revealed that the expression of genes UL46 and US6 were significantly reduced in the presence of different treatments utilized in the experiment. In conclusion, the present study proposes that aqueous extracts of medicinal plant Artemisia aucheri have anti-viral property and may be considered as a remedy for HSV-1 treatment.
Subject(s)
Artemisia , Herpes Simplex , Herpesvirus 1, Human , Animals , Antigens, Viral , Antiviral Agents/pharmacology , Chlorocebus aethiops , Herpesvirus 1, Human/genetics , Humans , Plant Extracts/pharmacology , Vero Cells , Viral ProteinsABSTRACT
Drug-resistant strains of Helicobacter pylori and poor treatment response are the main reasons for the failure in eradicating it in patients. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) have an inhibitory effect on bacterial growth. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of PUFA in combination with standard triple therapy on apoptosis in H. pylori infected subjects with dyspeptic symptoms. This study was a double-blind clinical trial in which 34 H. pylori infected subjects with dyspeptic symptoms were randomly divided into two groups of 17 patients. The control group received standard triple therapy (amoxicillin, clarithromycin and omeprazole) and the experimental group received the standard therapy and PUFA for two weeks. Gene expression levels of caspase-3, BCL-2 and Bad proteins were studied with real-time PCR, while protein levels were quantified in frozen sections and using immunohistochemistry. Compared with the control group, a significant increase (p < 0.01) was observed in the expression of caspase-3 and Bad genes and a significant reduction (p < 0.05) in the expression of Bcl-2 gene. The protein level of active caspase-3 and Bad protein was significantly increased and the level of Bcl-2 protein was significantly decreased (p < 0.05). The results of this study show that oral administration of PUFA in combination with the standard triple therapy increased apoptosis in H. pylori-infected patients with dyspeptic symptoms. This increase in apoptosis may partly reduce drug resistance in these patients. Our results suggest inclusion of a dietary PUFA containing fatty acid supplement may improve treatment of patients that are refractory to the standard triple therapy.