BackgroundWound healing has being extensively investigated over the world. Healing impairment is caused by many reasons including increasing of free-radicals-mediated damage, delaying in granulation tissue formation, reducing in angiogenesis and decreasing in collagen reorganization. These facts consequently lead to chronic wound healing. Piper betle Linn (Betle) leaves have been folklore used as an ingredient of drugs for cutaneous wound treatment. However, the effect of betle leaf on wound healing is not yet well elucidated. In this study, we aimed to investigate the healing efficacy of methanol leaf extract of Piper betle Linn on proliferation of fibroblast NIH3T3 cells as well as full-thickness burn and excision wounds in swiss mice.MethodsScratch wound healing assays were conducted to examine the effects of betle leaf extract on healing activity of fibroblast cells. Burn and excision wounds on swiss mouse skins were created for investigating the wound healing progress caused by the betle leaf extract. Malondialdehyde (MDA) was also evaluated to examine the products of lipid hydroperoxide (LPO) under conditions of with or without betle leaf extract treatment.ResultsThe results of this study showed that Piper betle Linn leaf extract in methanol increased proliferation of NIH3T3 cells and promoted wound healing in vitro and in vivo with both burn wound and excision wound models. In addition, this extract significant decreased level of malondialdehyde (MDA) in liver of treated-mice compared with that in non-treated mice.ConclusionsOur results suggest that Piper betle Linn can be used as an ingredient in developing natural origin drugs for treatment of cutaneous wounds.

Abstract-Ricin has been reported as a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of various cancers due to its potency. In this study, we succeeded in isolating and purifying total ricin from seeds of the castor bean (ricinus communis) from Vietnam. We also revealed that total ricin showed strong cytotoxicity against melanoma cells; IC50 at 48h was 34.1 ng/mL for SKMEL28 cells and 5.2 ng/mL for HaCaT cells. We examined the ability of total ricin to inhibit tumorigenesis of SKMEL28 cells in vitro. At low concentrations (< 3ng/mL)total ricin did not cause death of HaCaT or SKMEL28 cells but strongly reduced the size of SKMEL28 tumor colonies formed in soft agar. The effect of ricin on tumorigenesis was also confirmed by apoptotic and immunoblot analyses. Our results showed that treatment with total ricin (3 ng/mL) resulted in decreased ERK and p-ERK expression in SKME28 cells but did not affect expression levels of thosegenes in HaCaT cells. We showed that, although ricin at 1 and 3 ng/mLdid not induce apoptosis of HaCaT cells, it significantly increased apoptosis of SKMEL28 up to 1.4 folds and 2.1 folds, respectively. The results from our study suggest that although ricin is listed as one of the most poisonous substances in nature, it has potential to be used as a drug for melanoma treatment.

Hereditary breast cancer is an inherited genetic condition, mainly caused by BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations. These genetic changes can increase the risks of breast and ovarian cancers in women, while prostate and breast cancers in men. Especially, mutations in either BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes take important roles in early-onset breast cancer. The present study focused on a 47-year-old Vietnamese woman with breast cancer by applying targeted next-generation sequencing technique. A novel BRCA1 gene mutation, namely NM_007294.3 (BRCA1): c.4998insA (p. Tyr1666Terfs), was identified both in this patient and in some of the members in her family proved the fact that the mutated genes passed down through generations. This change may exponentially initiate breast cancer risks and become a valuable marker for exact clinical prognosis and treatment.

This essay presents the filial piety in