Medicinal species with gastroprotective activity found in the Brazilian Cerrado

Peptic and/or duodenal ulcers are characterized by diverse acute and chronic ulcerative lesions that commonly arise in any portion of the gastric mucosa that is exposed to the aggressive action of gastric acid. The pathophysiology of peptic ulcers has been attributed to an imbalance between aggressive and protective factors. In Brazil, medicinal plants are commonly used to treat this ailment. A country with great biodiversity, Brazil is considered a rich source of therapeutic products. There have been popular and pharmacological reports on the medicinal relevance of the Brazilian cerrado plant species, including Ananas ananassoides, Celtis iguanaea, Encholirium spectabile, Hymenaea stigonocarpa, Lafoensia pacari, Qualea grandiflora, Qualea parvifora, Mouriri pusa, Solanum lycocarpum, Solanum paniculatum, Serjania erecta, and Vochysia tucanorum, in the treatment of stomach disorders. The aim of the present review was to report on some of the Brazilian cerrado plants that are used in folk medicine because of their gastroprotective potential and to encourage novel studies in the search and preservation of plants with this therapeutic potential.     

Drug-related hepatotoxicity and hepatic failure following combined androgen blockade

Androgen deprivation therapy has been the mainstay of treatment for metastatic prostate cancer and of less advanced cancers as neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatment. Abnormal liver function test, in particular elevated transaminases, is an adverse reaction more frequently noticed during androgen deprivation therapy with antiandrogen. We report the case of a patient with acute hepatic failure associated with the use of bicalutamide.     

Methylation profiling in non-small cell lung cancer: clinical implications

The aim of this study was to identify a panel of methylation markers that distinguish non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) from normal lung tissues. We also studied the relation of the methylation profile to clinicopathological factors in NSCLC. We collected a series of 46 NSCLC samples and their corresponding control tissues and analyzed them to determine gene methylation status using the Illumina GoldenGate Methylation bead array, which screens up to 1505 CpG sites from 803 different genes. We found that 120 CpG sites, corresponding to 88 genes were hypermethylated in tumor samples and only 17 CpG sites (16 genes) were hypomethylated when compared with controls. Clustering analysis of these 104 genes discriminates almost perfectly between tumors and normal samples. Global hypermethylation was significantly associated with a worse prognosis in stage IIIA NSCLC patients (P=0.012). Moreover, hypermethylation of the CALCA and MMP-2 genes were statistically associated to a poor clinical evolution of patients, independently of TNM tumor stage (P=0.06, RR=2.64; P=0.04, RR=2.96, respectively). However, hypermethylation of RASSF1 turned out to be a protective variable (P=0.02; RR=0.53). In conclusion, our results could be useful for establishing a gene methylation pattern for the detection and prognosis of NSCLC.     

Jatrophone Inhibits Platelet Rich Plasma Aggregation from Man,Rat and Guinea-pig Induced by Different Agents

The effect of jatrophone (2.5–100 μM ), a diterpene isolated from Jatropha elliptica , upon the aggregation (platelet rich plasma) induced by several agents in different animal species was examined. At the same range of inhibitory concentrations (24.0–43.0 μM ) previously shown to inhibit contractions triggered by different agents in isolated muscle preparations, jatrophone markedly inhibited platelet aggregation. This effect was dose-dependent and it was reversible for up to 30 min. It is concluded that this nonspecific effect could reflect an action of jatrophone either at an intracellular step in the signal transduction process, which is common to different agonists, or at the level of extracellular and/or intracellular Ca²⁺ mobilization.