Plants used for traditional medicine contain a wide range of substances that can be used to treat various diseases such as infectious diseases. The present study was designed to evaluate the antileishmanial effects of the essential oil and methanolic extract of Myrtus communis against Leishmania tropica on an in vitro model. Antileishmanial effects of essential oil and methanolic extract of M. ...

Serum amyloid A, an apolipoprotein of high density lipoproteins, is also present to a lesser degree in low density lipoproteins and is co-localized with apolipoprotein B in atherosclerotic lesions. This study examined the effect of serum amyloid A on cellular affinity of low density lipoprotein in vitro. 125I-labelled low density lipoprotein, when loaded with recombinant serum amyloid A1 (acute...

Magnetosomes are nanosized iron oxide particles surrounded by lipid membrane synthesized by magnetotactic bacteria (MTB). Magnetosomes have been exploited for a broad range of biomedical and biotechnological applications. Due to their enormous potential in the biomedical field, its safety assessment is necessary. Detailed research on the toxicity of the magnetosomes was not studied so far. This...

In this work, the in vitro anti-Leishmania activity of photodynamic liposomes made of soybean phosphatidylcholine, sodium cholate, total polar archaeolipids (TPAs) extracted from the hyperhalophile archaea Halorubrum tebenquichense and the photosensitizer zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPcAL) was compared to that of ultradeformable photodynamic liposomes lacking TPAs (ZnPcUDLs). We found that while ZnPc...

Reverse cholesterol transport (RCT) pathway from macrophage foam cells initiates when HDL particles cross the endothelium, enter the interstitial fluid, and induce cholesterol efflux from these cells. We injected [(3)H]cholesterol-loaded J774 macrophages into the dorsal skin of mice and measured the transfer of macrophage-derived [(3)H]cholesterol to feces [macrophage-RCT (m-RCT)]. Injection of...

Hepatic lipase-deficient subjects in the Ontario kindred are compound heterozygotes for hepatic lipase mutations (Ser^-^Phe and Thr^^Met). Cholesteryl ester-rich 0-very-low-density lipoprotein (/3VLDL) accumulates in plasma and such subjects have premature atherosclerosis. To determine a possible mechanism, we hypothesized that hepatic lipase-deficient 0-VLDL, homozygous for apolipoprotein (apo...

Several Cirsium species are known for their uses in traditional medicine and consequently are studied for their phytochemical content and their biological activities. In the framework of a previous study conducted on eight extremophile plants from Tunisia, we highlighted that the crude methanolic extract of C. scabrum, a not investigated thistle, showed moderate but quite selective cytotoxic ac...

Hepatic lipase-deficient subjects in the Ontario kindred are compound heterozygotes for hepatic lipase mutations (Ser267-->Phe and Thr383-->Met). Cholesteryl ester-rich beta-very-low-density lipoprotein (beta-VLDL) accumulates in plasma and such subjects have premature atherosclerosis. To determine a possible mechanism, we hypothesized that hepatic lipase-deficient beta-VLDL, homozygous for apo...

Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) purified from bovine milk showed variable abilities to stimulate the binding of low density lipoprotein (LDL) to J774 macrophages. The presence of a 37 kDa protein in the LPL sample seemed to be of importance for its stimulatory capacity. In order to investigate this, we isolated LPL from bovine milk via heparin Sepharose chromatography using a continuous salt gradient....

BACKGROUND The aim of the present study was to investigate the immunomodulation effects of aqueous garlic extract (AGE) in the cultured macrophages infected by Leishmania major. METHODS After J774 macrophages proliferation in RPMI1640 and incubation with Leishmania for 72 hours, AGE was added in doses of 9.25, 18.5, 37, 74 and 148 mg/ml for 18, 24 and 48 hours and cell culture supernatants we...