Biological rhythms are orchestrated by a cell-autonomous clock system that drives the rhythmic cascade of clock genes. We established an assay system using NIH 3T3 cells stably expressing the Bmal1 promoter-driven luciferase reporter gene and used it to analyse circadian oscillation of the gene. Modulators of PKC (protein kinase C) revealed that an activator and an inhibitor represented short- ...

Harmine is a harmal-derived alkaloid with antioxidant properties. The morphine produces free radicals and plays a key role in the pathogenesis of kidney disease. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of harmine against morphine- induced damage to the kidneys of rats. In this study, 64 male rats were randomly assigned to 8 groups: saline and morphine treated groups; harmine groups (5, ...

The smoke of Peganum harmala seeds is traditionally used in Iran as a disinfectant agent. The aim of this study was to determine the antimicrobial activity of two smoke condensates from Peganum harmala seeds. Furthermore the composition of smoke preparations was studied using gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy analysis. The most prevalent compound detected in a dichloromethane extract was...

A growing body of evidence has suggested that reactive oxygen species (ROS) may play an important role in the physiopathology of depression. Evidence has pointed to the β-carboline harmine as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of depression. The present study we evaluated the effects of acute and chronic administration of harmine (5, 10 and 15 mg/kg) and imipramine (10, 20 and 30 ...

beta-Carboline alkaloids are natural products widely distributed in plants and also found in alcoholic beverages, well-cooked foods and tobacco smoke. Various authors have reported genotoxic activities of several carboline in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells that have been attributed to their abilities to intercalate into DNA. But studies on the genotoxic and on the cytotoxic potencies in human...

The psychotropic beta-carboline alkaloids, showing high affinity for 5-hydroxytryptamine, dopamine, benzodiazepine, and imidazoline receptors and the stimulation of locus coeruleus neurons, are formed endogenously from tryptophan-derived indolealkylamines through the Pictet-Spengler condensation with aldehydes in both plants and mammals. Cytochromes P450 1A1 (18.5), 1A2 (20), and 2D6 (100) cata...

DYRK1A is a dual-specificity protein kinase that autophosphorylates a conserved tyrosine residue in the activation loop but phosphorylates exogenous substrates only at serine or threonine residues. Tyrosine autophosphorylation of DYRKs is a one-off event that takes place during translation and induces the activation of the kinase. Here we characterize the beta-carboline alkaloid harmine as a po...

Harmine belongs to a group of β-carboline alkaloids endowed with antitumor properties. Harmine and its derivatives are thought to bind to DNA and interfere with topoisomerase activities. We investigated the base-dependent binding of harmine, and three of its synthetic anticancer-active derivatives to the genomic DNA from calf thymus and two synthetic 20-mer double helices, the poly(dG-dC)·poly(...

A growing number of studies have implicated the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in acute and chronic alcoholization and in ethanol withdrawal. In order to study the ethanol/HPA axis interaction during alcohol withdrawal, we performed experiments using adrenalectomized (ADX) male rats alcoholized by a chronic pulmonary alcoholization procedure. Eight hours after the 3 weeks of the alco...

The end replication problem, which occurs in normal somatic cells inducing replicative senescence, is solved in most cancer cells by activating telomerase. The activity of telomerase is highly associated with carcinogenesis which makes the enzyme an attractive biomarker in cancer diagnosis and treatment. The indole alkaloid harmine has multiple pharmacological properties including DNA intercala...