No abstract

No abstract

Plant extracts are increasingly tested for their biological activity and interactions with neoplastic cells. One of such sources of biologically active substances is propolis. This product has been known for thousands of years and is widely used in alternative, folk medicine. Articles describing its effects on the metabolism and cell signaling pathways of neoplastic cells derived from different organs are also published more and more frequently. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the biological activity of propolis extract produced with the cold separation method into hormone-dependent and hormone-independent prostate cancer cell lines. In our study, the propolis extracts showed at least an inhibitory effect on the growth of PC-3 and DU-145 neoplastic cells. Our results suggest that propolis extracts obtained with the cold separation method may be considered as promising compounds for the production of health-promoting supplements.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of resveratrol on de novo lipogenesis in HepG2 cells caused by high glucose concentrations. Increased lipogenesis in the liver is the main reason for the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) - currently one of the most common chronic liver diseases. In developed countries, this disease is mostly associated with nutritional disorders, resulting from the increasing consumption of monosaccharides. Resveratrol is a natural polyphenol with a promising potential for NAFLD treatment. Methods: The steatosis of HepG2 cells was visualized using the intracellular lipid staining by Nile Red dye with a fluorescence microscope. This study also evaluated the effect of resveratrol on the mitochondrial activity (MitoTracker Green staining), dsDNA (Hoechst 33342 staining) and the viability of HepG2 cells treated with high glucose concentrations (25 and 33 mM). Results: Current study showed that high glucose concentrations induced fat-overloading in HepG2 cells (microvacuolar steatosis occurred in most of the cells). Resveratrol (20 μM) limits the steatosis induction in HepG2 cells by glucose and increased the mitochondrial activity of cells. Resveratrol did not affect the viability of HepG2 cells. Conclusion: This beneficial effect could be helpful in the treatment of NAFLD.

Cancer treatment remains a serious challenge worldwide. Thus, finding novel antitumour agents is of great importance. In the present study, nine new benzenesulphonohydrazide derivatives (1-9) were synthesized, and the chemical structures of the obtained compounds were confirmed by spectral analysis methods, including IR, 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and 13 C NMR. Experimental lipophilicity values were established using reversed phase-high performance thin layer chromatography. The antiproliferative activity of the synthesized compounds was tested against three tumour cell lines (769-P, HepG2 and NCI-H2170) and one normal cell line (Vero). Among the newly developed molecules, compound 4 exhibited generally the highest cytotoxicity across all tumour cell lines, and it was highly selective. However, higher selectivity towards the tested cancer cell lines was observed using compound 2, when compared with compound 4, which also exhibited significant antiproliferative activity against these tumour cells. In 769-P cells, compounds 5 and 6 were the most selective among all tested compounds. Compound 5 exhibited high cytotoxicity with an estimated IC 50 value of 1.94 µM. In the NCI-H2170 cell line, compound 7 was the most cytotoxic and the most selective. In brief, the combination of fluorine and bromine substituents at the phenyl ring showed the most promising results, exerting high cytotoxicity and selectivity towards cancer cells. The renal adenocarcinoma cell line (769-P) appeared to be the most sensitive to the anticancer properties of the novel benzenesulphonohydrazones.