Natural Products Chemistry and Pharmacognosy Commons^™

Isolation And Total Synthesis Of Sigma-2 Ligands From Marine Cyanobacteria, Andrea Hough

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cyanobacteria have been studied for over 50 years as a source of new antibiotics, antiviral, and anticancer drugs. The research described in this dissertation investigates marine cyanobacteria as a source of natural products with activity within the central nervous system and with cytotoxicity against breast cancer cells. Barbamide (1) is a known cyanobacterial metabolite that has been re-isolated from a variety of species and collection sites suggesting broad utility as a signaling molecule. Utilizing the psychoactive drug screening program, we screened barbamide for CNS activity and found that barbamide exhibited affinity for the kappa opioid receptor (KOR) and …

Vitamin K2 (Menaquinone) Supplementation And Its Benefits In Cardiovascular Disease, Osteoporosis, And Cancer, Grant S. Buchanan, Md, Thomas Melvin, Brandon Merritt, Charles Bishop, Md, Franklin D. Shuler, Md, Phd

Marshall Journal of Medicine

Vitamin K is known to play an essential role in the coagulation cascade; however, a growing body of research has found that a subtype of this vitamin, vitamin K₂ (menaquinone) may have a beneficial effect in osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. This purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive review of recent literature regarding menaquinone and its role in human health. This review discusses the physiology of menaquinone, its clinical benefits in cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and cancer, and how it may interact with certain medications. The authors conclude that menaquinone supplementation has been shown to improve carboxylation …

Current Therapeutic Role And Medicinal Potential Of Scutellaria Barbata In Traditional Chinese Medicine And Western Research, Geyang Tao, Marcy J. Balunas

Honors Scholar Theses

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Scutellaria barbata is a common herb in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) most often used to treat cancer. S. barbata has been found to exhibit efficacy both in vitro and in vivo on a variety of cancer types. Similarly encouraging results have been shown in patients with metastatic breast cancer from Phase Ia and Ib clinical trials. This study aims to elucidate the current use of S. barbata by TCM practitioners and in current Western research.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with fifteen TCM practitioners in Beijing and Nanjing, China to understand their clinical use of …

Curcumin Induces Apoptosis Of Upper Aerodigestive Tract Cancer Cells By Targeting Multiple Pathways, Arm R. Amin, A. Haque, M. A. Rahman, Z. G. Chen, F. R. Khuri, D. M. Shin

Pharmaceutical Science and Research

Curcumin, a natural compound isolated from the Indian spice "Haldi" or "curry powder", has been used for centuries as a traditional remedy for many ailments. Recently, the potential use of curcumin in cancer prevention and therapy urges studies to uncover the molecular mechanisms associated with its anti-tumor effects. In the current manuscript, we investigated the mechanism of curcumin-induced apoptosis in upper aerodigestive tract cancer cell lines and showed that curcumin-induced apoptosis is mediated by the modulation of multiple pathways such as induction of p73, and inhibition of p-AKT and Bcl-2. Treatment of cells with curcumin induced both p53 and the …

Feasibility Of Integrating Tripterygium Wilfordii Into Modern Cancer Therapy For Increased Efficacy And Minimal Toxicity, Ngoc T. Vo

UROP Posters

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. and millions of novel cancer cases are being diagnosed each year. While chemotherapy and ionizing radiation are effective treatments against these malignant tumors, the adverse effects that accompany such treatments are devastating. In order to find alternative treatment methods with less side effects, we turn to Eastern herbal medicine. Recent scientific research has found that Tripterygium wilfordii, an herbal medicine traditionally used to treat inflammation in China, contains compounds (triptolide and celastrol) that prevent the growth of solid tumors, induce apoptosis, and prevent metastasis of developed tumors. Investigations …

Inhibition Of The Thioesterase Activity Of Human Fatty Acid Synthase By 1,4- And 9,10-Diones, Herman H. Odens

Faculty Works

Fatty acid synthase (FASN) is the enzyme that synthesizes fatty acids de novo in human cells. Although FASN is generally expressed at low levels in most normal tissues, its expression is highly upregulated in many cancers. Consistent with this notion, inhibition of FASN activity has demonstrated potential to halt proliferation and induce cell death in vitro and to block tumor growth in vivo. Consequently, FASN is widely recognized as a valuable therapeutic target. In this report, we describe a variety of 1,4-quinones and 9,10- anthraquinones, including several natural compounds and some newly synthesized compounds, that potently inhibit the thioesterase (TE) …

Development Of Tools To Assess The Effects Of Lunasin On Normal Development And Tumor Progression In Drosophila Melanogaster, Gillian E. Jones

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Soy contains many bioactive molecules known to elicit anti-cancer effects. One such peptide, Lunasin, has been shown to selectively act on newly transformed cells while having no cytotoxic effect on non-tumorigenic or established cancer cell lines. In this study we attempt to understand the developmental effects of Lunasin overexpression in vivo and create reagents that will help us understand Lunasin’s anti tumorigenic effects in an intact organism. cDNA encoding lunasin and EGFP-lunasin were cloned into pUAST and microinjected into Drosophila embryos. Tissue-specific overexpression of EGFP-Lun in the resulting transgenic lines was accomplished by crossing transgenics to various GAL4 driver lines. …

Synthesis Of Marine Chemicals And Derivatives As Potential Anti-Cancer Drugs., Laude Bannerman-Akwei

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Two natural marine compounds, 3-bromo-4,5-dihydroxybenzaldehyde 2 and 2,3-dibromo-4,5-dihydroxybenzaldehyde 5 together with two novel derivatives, 3-bromo-5-(tert-butyl-dimethyl-silanyloxy)-4-hydroxybenzaldehyde 3 and 1-bromo-2,3-dimethoxy-5-nitrooxy-methylbenzene 9, were synthesized. Compounds 2, 3, and 5 were evaluated for their biological activity towards the inhibition of prostate cancer cell growth using staurosporine a a positive control. All three compounds have shown significant inhibition of prostate cancer cell growth. Compound 9 is yet to be evaluated.

Outpatient Administration Of Paclitaxel, Siu Fun Wong

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Paclitaxel (Taxol®, Bristol-Meyers Squibb), anti neoplastic agent made from the bark of the Pacific yew tree, is undoubtedly one of the most exciting agents to be evaluated over the past decade. Paclitaxel has demonstrated significant promise against ovarian and metastatic breast cancer, and appears to be the most effective single agent to date for non-small-cell lung cancer in trials conducted by Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG).