Anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities with gastroprotective effect of semi-purified fractions and isolation of pure compounds from Mediterranean gorgonian Eunicella singularis

Objective: To explore anti-inflammatory activities of organic extract and its semi-purified fractions(ethanol, acetone, methanol/dichloromethane) from the Mediterranean gorgonian Eunicella singularis. Methods: The anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities were evaluated, using the carrageenan-induced rat paw edema model and the acetic acid writhing test in mice. The gastroprotective activity was determined using HCl/Et OH induced gastric ulcers in rats. The purification and structure elucidation of compound(s) from the more effective fraction were determined by chromatographic and spectroscopic methods and in comparison with data reported in the literature. Results: The fraction F-Et OH showed an important antiinflammatory activity associated with significant analgesic and gastroprotective properties. The purification and structure elucidation of compound(s) from this fraction lead to the identification of one diterpenoid and four sterols. Conclusions: These results suggested that components from the active fraction can be used to treat various anti-inflammatory diseases.

Effects of pollution on individual size of a single species

In this paper,we develop a single species evolutionary model with a continuous phenotypic trait in a pulsed pollution discharge environment and discuss the effects of pollution on the individual size of the species.The invasion fitness function of a moiiomorphic species is given,which involves the long-term average exponential growth rate of the species. Then the critical function analysis method is used to obtain the evolutionary dynamics of the system,which is related to interspecific competition intensity between mutant species and resident species and the curvature of the trade-off between individual size and the intrinsic growth rate.We conclude that,the pollution affects the evolutionary traits and evolutionary dynamics.The worsening of the pollution can lead to rapid stable evolution toward a smaller individual size,while the opposite is more likely to generate evolutionary branching and promote species diversity.The adaptive dynamics of coevolution of dimorphic species is further analyzed when evolutionary branching occurs.

Anticancer activity of diterpenes and steroids from Eunicella singularis against two- and three-dimensional breast cancer cell models

Objective: To investigate the anticancer activity of two diterpenes [palmonine F (C1) and palmonine D (C2)] and three steroids [cholesta-5,22-dien-3β-ol (C3), stigmasterol (C4) and 5α-cholest-5-en-3β-ol (C5)], isolated from the Mediterranean gorgonian Eunicella singularis, against MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. Methods: This study was performed on standard monolayer two-dimensional (2D) model to evaluate apoptosis by means of AnnexinV-FITC/PI flow cytometry and on three-dimensional (3D) spheroid model using Celigo imaging cytometer for spheroids size analysis. Results: Results indicated that both diterpenes and steroids exhibited an important apoptotic activity in a concentration-dependent manner with EC50 values of 13, 49, 30, 66 and 65 μg/mL for C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5, respectively. Treatment of MCF-73D cell model with C1–C5 induced growth regression of spheroids in a concentration-dependent manner similar to the clinical anti-breast cancer drug Taxol;over ten days of incubation, growth rates were < 1.5 at Day 10 with all tested compounds at 200 μg/mL. Conclusions: The present study indicates that the two diterpenes C1 and C2 and the three steroids C3, C4 and C5, isolated from Eunicella singularis, might be used as anti-breast cancer candidate drugs for further development.