IPRI showed promising neuroprotective effects against scopolamine-induced memory dysfunction in rats. These findings contributed to the stimulation of α-secretase enzymes, the activation of MAPK/ERK1/2, and the alleviation of oxidative stress.

Marine derived fungi are considered as a promising source of novel drugs due to their biodiversity and consequent chemo-diversity. Although marine microorganisms especially fungi are not well defined taxonomically, making this a promising frontier for the discovery of new medicines. This study focused on marine derived fungi as a model for bioactive exploration for new entities with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant capacity. Three in-vitro assays were used to investigate the bioactive antioxidant potentiality of fungal extracts. Thiobarbituric acid (TBARS), α,α-Diphenyl-ßpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and NO assay are based on their total phenolic and flavonoid content of each extract group. Ch. globosum recorded the highest antioxidant activity (92.82%) in TBARS assay, while G. dankaliensis came first by recording 59.28% in DPPH assay in comparison with ascorbic acid (61.83%). In NO inhibition assay, N. oryzae showed 49.3% comparing with ascorbic acid (73.12%). From the preliminary result of our extracts, we can consider the marine derived fungi extracts as promising antioxidant and anti-inflammatory drug candidate.

The levels of arylsulfatases A and B, α-amylase, aspartate transcarbamylase, and γ-glutamyl transpeptidase were investigated during the infection of mice with schistosoma mansoni. This infection caused a significant (p<0.001) increase in the activity of hepatic arylsulfatase B (ASB), aspartate transcarbamylases and γ-glutamyl transpeptidase. A non-significant difference occurred for α-amylase (p<0.3) and arylsulfatase A (p>0.5) when compared to the control. The specific activity of hepatic ASB was progressively increased with the progression of the Schistosoma-infection. Moreover, the kinetic studies of hepatic ASB in Schistosomainfection showed that a slight decrease in the value of K m and about a 40% increase in V max when compared to the control. In addition, the pH optimum of hepatic ASB was altered from 6 to 7 as a result of schistosomiasis. These observations suggest that there are schistosomiasis-associated changes of the catalytic and kinetic properties of hepatic ASB.

ABSTRACT

In this article, we present a study on the levels of epidermal growth factor (EGF), its phosphorylated receptor (p-EGFR) and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) in the sera of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and chronic hepatitis C (CHC) infection. The results reveal significant higher serum levels of EGF and TGF-β1 in patients with HCC compared to their level in patients with CHC infection and control subjects. The levels of p-EGFR in HCC and CHC patients show a highly significant difference between patients. Based on the best cutoff value of 914 pg/ml, EGF shows 63.3 % sensitivity and 87.5 % specificity for HCC patients where the area under the curve is 0.81. The p-EGFR shows sensitivity of 63.3 % and specificity of 100 % where the area under the curve is 0.87 for HCC patients based on the best cutoff value of 39 U/mg protein. The best cutoff value (370 pg/ml) for serum TGF-β1 displays sensitivity of 86.7 % and specificity of 100 %, where the area under the curve is 0.97 for HCC patients.