Ethiopian Medicinal Plants Traditionally Used for the Treatment of Cancer; Part 3: Selective Cytotoxic Activity of 22 Plants against Human Cancer Cell Lines.

Medicinal plants have been traditionally used to treat cancer in Ethiopia. However, very few studies have reported the in vitro anticancer activities of medicinal plants that are collected from different agro-ecological zones of Ethiopia. Hence, the main aim of this study was to screen the cytotoxic activities of 80% methanol extracts of 22 plants against human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), as well as human breast (MCF-7), lung (A427), bladder (RT-4), and cervical (SiSo) cancer cell lines. Active extracts were further screened against human large cell lung carcinoma (LCLC-103H), pancreatic cancer (DAN-G), ovarian cancer (A2780), and squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus (KYSE-70) by using the crystal violet cell proliferation assay, while the vitality of the acute myeloid leukemia (HL-60) and histiocytic lymphoma (U-937) cell lines was monitored in the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) microtiter assay. Euphorbia schimperiana, Acokanthera schimperi, Kniphofia foliosa, and Kalanchoe petitiana exhibited potent antiproliferative activity against A427, RT-4, MCF-7, and SiSo cell lines, with IC50 values ranging from 1.85 ± 0.44 to 17.8 ± 2.31 µg/mL. Furthermore, these four extracts also showed potent antiproliferative activities against LCLC-103H, DAN-G, A2780, KYSE-70, HL-60, and U-937 cell lines, with IC50 values ranging from 0.086 to 27.06 ± 10.8 µg/mL. Hence, further studies focusing on bio-assay-guided isolation and structural elucidation of active cytotoxic compounds from these plants are warranted.

Ethnobotanical Study of Medicinal Plants Used by Traditional Healers to Treat Cancer-Like Symptoms in Eleven Districts, Ethiopia.

There is no ethnobotanical study conducted specifically on medicinal plants traditionally used to treat cancer in Ethiopia. Yet, traditional herbalists in different parts of the country claim that they have been treating cancer-like symptoms using herbal remedies. The objective of this study was to document medicinal plants traditionally used to treat cancer-like symptoms in eleven districts, Ethiopia. Traditional herbalists were interviewed using semistructured questionnaires, and field visits were also carried out to collect claimed plants for identification purpose. Seventy-four traditional herbalists, who claimed that they knew about and/or had used medicinal plants to treat cancer-like symptoms, were selected using the snowball method and interviewed. Herbalists used their intuition and relied on the chronicity, growth of external mass, and spreading of the disease to other parts of the body, as a means to characterize cancer symptoms. Furthermore, in some of the study districts, herbalists reported that they treat patients who had already been diagnosed in modern healthcare institutions prior to seeking help from them. The inventory of medicinal plants is summarized in a synoptic table, which contains the scientific and vernacular names of the plants, their geographical location, the parts of the plants, and the methods used to prepare the remedies. A total of 53 traditionally used anticancer plants, belonging to 30 families, were identified during the survey. The most frequently reported anticancer plants were Acmella caulirhiza Del (Asteraceae), Clematis simensis Fresen. (Ranunculaceae), Croton macrostachyus Del. (Euphorbiaceae), and Dorstenia barnimiana Schweinf. (Moraceae). Organizing traditional healers, documenting their indigenous knowledge, and scientifically validating it for the development of better cancer therapeutic agents constitute an urgent and important task for policymakers and scientists.

Benchtop MRI for pharmacokinetic evaluation of two aqueous-based nano-scaled formulations of oleic acid stabilized magnetite nanocrystals.

BACKGROUND: The interplay between numerous factors, including the size, shape, coating, surface charge and composition of particles is known to affect the pharmacokinetics and biodistribution of superparamagnetic iron oxides (SPIOs). This makes understanding the role of each factor independently quite challenging. METHODS: In the present study, the in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), biodistribution and hepatic clearance evaluations of two SPIOs Formulations A and B developed from ∼13.5 nm hydrophobic oleic acid stabilized monodisperse magnetite nanocrystals core and lipid-based amphiphilic stabilizers were performed using a prototype benchtop MR imager (22 MHz) and pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) system (20 MHz), respectively. Formulation A was composed of mPEG-2000-DSPE and Formulation B was composed of Phospholipon-100H, sucrose ester M-1695 and Cremophor RH-40. RESULTS: The in vivo MRI investigations showed that both formulations were safe and effective as potential liver MR contrast agents with sustained liver contrast for at least seven days. In addition, ex vivo relaxometric investigations revealed that the formulations predominantly distribute to the liver and spleen following I.V. injection. The hepatic clearance kinetics determined based on the relaxometric quantification method indicated that both formulations exhibited a biphasic clearance process with a slow terminal clearance half-life of 11.5 and 12.7 days, respectively, for Formulations A and B. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study showed the potential biomedical applications of the investigated magnetopharmaceutical formulations as MRI contrast agents.