Natural plant extracts offer a promising hope in the prevention/treatment of cancer arising from genetic mutations. This study evaluated in vitro and in vivo mutagenic and antimutagenic effects of aqueous fraction of Myristica fragrans (AFMF) leaves on TA100 strain of Salmonella typhimurium and Mus musculus (Male Swiss albino mice), respectively. The antioxidant activity of AFMF against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), total phenolic and flavonoid contents were determined, followed by its phytochemical elucidation using the Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography technique (UPLC). The mutagenicity of AFMF at 4, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 µg/well was <2.0 in S. typhimurium and the induced micronucleated polychromatic and normochromatic erythrocytes at 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 mg/kg were not significantly different from the negative control (p≥0.05). The mutagenic activity of benzo[a]pyrene and cyclophosphamide was significantly suppressed above 50.0% throughout the tested concentrations. Fifty percent of the free radicals from DPPH were scavenged by AFMF at 0.11 mg/ml. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents of AFMF were 51.0 mg GAE/g and 27 mg QE/g, respectively. Rutin was elucidated by the UPLC technique, and thereby suspected to be the phytochemical responsible for the observed antimutagenic activity. Thus far, AFMF seems to contain a promising chemotherapeutic agent for the prevention of genetic damage that is crucial for cancer development.
We report a case of 28-year-old Malay woman who initially presented with multiple joints pain with underlying poorly controlled asthma since her childhood. She was treated as seronegative arthritis. However, the involvement of joints, asthma and high-eosinophil counts raised suspicion of Churg-Strauss syndrome. This disease is undoubtedly rare in Malaysians or even in Asian populations. After appropriate therapy was delivered for the correct diagnosis her clinical condition improved. She is currently receiving maintenance treatment.
Despite being widely used for treating cancer, chemotherapy is accompanied by numerous adverse effects as a result of systemic distribution and nonspecific interactions of the drugs with healthy tissues, eventually leading to therapeutic inefficacy and chemoresistance. Cyclophosphamide (Cyp) as one of the chemotherapeutic pro-drugs is activated in liver and used to treat breast cancer in high dose and in combination with other drugs. In an attempt to reduce the off-target effects and enhance the therapeutic efficacy, pH-sensitive carbonate apatite nanoparticles that had predominantly and size-dependently been localized in liver following intravenous administration, were employed to electrostatically immobilize Cyp and purposely deliver it to the liver for activation. Cyp-loaded particles formed by simple 30 min incubation at 37ºC of the DMEM (pH 7.4) medium containing CaCl2 and Cyp, enhanced in vitro cytotoxicity at different degrees depending on the cell types. The size of the particles could be tightly controlled by the amount of CaCl2 required to prepare the particles and thus the bio-distribution pattern inside different organs of the body. Unlike the small particles (~ 200 nm), the large size particles (~ 600 nm) which were more efficiently accumulated in liver, significantly reduced the tumor volume following intravenous injection in 4T1-induced murine breast cancer model at a very low dose (0.17 mg/Kg) of the drug initially added for complex formation, thus shedding light on the potential applications of the Cyp-loaded nano-formulations in the treatment of breast cancer.