In silico studies on cytotoxicity and antitumoral activity of acetogenins from Annona muricata L.

As life expectancy increases, the number of people affected by cancer is increasing. The available drugs still cause several adverse reactions, and it is important to look for less toxic drugs that act on resistant cancers. The present study evaluated the antitumor potential of acetogenins. Through a literature review, 44 acetogenins isolated from Annona muricata were selected and subjected to in silico studies to predict the physicochemical properties, pharmacokinetics (Preadmet and Admet lab), toxicity (Preadmet and Protox II) and molecular docking in caspase 3 (DockThor). For muricatacin, a literature review was carried out for antitumor activity and cytotoxicity. Only muricatacin met all physicochemical criteria, while all compounds showed high cutaneous and intestinal absorption (HIA), moderate permeability in Madin-Darby canine kidney and Caco2 cells, strongly bound plasma proteins, freely crossed the blood-brain barrier, inhibited CYP2C19, CYP2C9 and CYP3A4 and have an affinity for CYP3A4, being metabolized by it, an undesirable characteristic for antitumor drugs. All compounds were toxic in at least one model, while compound 28 was not carcinogenic in rats and mice. Compounds 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 28 were selected for molecular docking into Caspase 3. Docking showed hydrophobic interactions, hydrogen and covalent bonds performed to maintain the stability of caspase 3, and cis-uvariamicin IV stood out more through the energies and chemical bonds of this parameter. The chloroform fraction from the methanolic extract of the seeds showed activity against triple-negative breast cancer, both in vitro and in vivo, and only muricatacin has studies in which the antitumor activity was evaluated in vitro and showed to be very promising. In summary, muricatacin and cis-uvariamicin IV appear to be very promising as antitumors, especially cis-uvariamicin IV.

Unique case of delayed external iliac artery pseudoaneurysm after a remote total hip arthroplasty.

Vascular intrapelvic complications due to total hip arthroplasty failure are uncommon, with less than 30 cases reported in the literature. Herein, we report a case of unusual asymptomatic delayed vascular complication after 10 years from right total hip arthroplasty. A man in mid-50s, with multiple comorbidities including end-stage renal disease. The patient was admitted for the renal transplant surgery. Intraoperatively, right external iliac artery pseudoaneurysm was discovered, which required the transplantation to be done on the left side. After recovery from the renal transplant surgery, the patient underwent resection of the right external iliac artery pseudoaneurysm with primary anastomosis by vascular surgery, with resection of the migrated screw by orthopaedic surgery.

CDCA5 overexpression is an Indicator of poor prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

BACKGROUND: Accurate and early prognosis of disease is essential to clinical decision making, particularly in diseases, such as HCC, that are typically diagnosed at a late stage in the course of disease and therefore carry a poor prognosis. CDCA5 is a cell cycle regulatory protein that has shown prognostic value in several cancers. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 178 patients with HCC treated with curative liver resection between September 2009 and September 2012 at Nanchong Central Hospital in Nanchong, Sichuan Province, China. Patients were screened for their CDCA5 expression levels and assigned to either the high or low expression group. Patient demographics, comorbidities, clinicopathologic data, such as tumor microvascular invasion status and size, and long-term outcomes were compared between the two groups. The effect of CDCA5 on the proliferation of liver cancer cells was analyzed using in vitro and in vivo assays. RESULTS: The present study found that increased CDCA5 expression was associated with increased tumor diameter and microvascular invasion in HCC. It was also found that CDCA5 overexpression may be associated with liver cancer cells. Additionally, this study confirmed that CDCA5 expression was increased in HCC tissue versus normal liver tissue, that CDCA5 expression was associated with decreased survival and that CDCA5 knockdown using shRNA led to cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that CDCA5 expression is associated with poor prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.