Ap Applicati tions ons in in Pl Plant t Scien Sciences ces The lesser periwinkle (Vinca minor L.; Apocynaceae) is an evergreen subshrub that is native to Southern Europe but has become naturalized in wider parts of Central Europe and North America (Meusel et al., 1978 ; Swearingen et al., 2010). In Germany, V. minor is nowadays mainly found in the surroundings of ancient Roman remains, medieval...

Chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), a side effect of many anti-cancer drugs including the vinca alkaloids, is characterized by a severe pain syndrome that compromises treatment in many patients. Currently there are no effective treatments for this pain syndrome except for the reduction of anti-cancer drug dose. Existing data supports the model that the pain associated with CIPN i...

The suitability of neurons of the freshwater snail Lymnaea stagnalis as a test system for the neurotoxic side effects of antitumour Vinca alkaloids has been investigated, by studying the process of paracrystal induction by Vinca antitumour agents. Three Vinca alkaloids have been compared: the natural vinblastine and vincristine and the semisynthetic vindesine. They appear to induce two types of...

Vinca alkaloids are well known for their antimitotic and antitumor activities. It inhibits transcription and translation 0, 2, 3). Vinca alkaloids cause specific mitotic arrest of cells. The drugs derived from these alkaloids are: Vinblastine and vincrystine. These drugs have been extensively used for studying the nature of cell arrest and the associated changes in various clinical (neoplastic ...

BACKGROUND Several clinical trials have performed risk-benefit analyses comparing docetaxel and pemetrexed or docetaxel and vinca alkaloid, but the efficacy and safety remain uncertain. The aim was to conduct a meta-analysis to compare the efficacy and safety of docetaxel and pemetrexed or docetaxel and vinca alkaloid for non-small-cell lung cancer. METHODS This meta-analysis of Phase III ran...

The genus Fusarium is well-known to comprise many pathogenic fungi that affect cereal crops worldwide, causing severe damage agriculture and the economy. In this study, an endophytic fungus designated sp. VM-40 was isolated from a healthy specimen of traditional European medicinal plant Vinca minor. Our morphological characterization phylogenetic analysis reveal closely related paeoniae, belong...

\Ve have used a structure-activity approach to investigate whether the Vinca alkaloids inhibit cell proliferation primarily by means of their effects on mitotic spindle microtubules or by another mechanism or by a combination of mechanisms. Five Vìnca alkaloids were used to investigate the relationship in Urla cells between inhibition of cell proliferation and blockage of mitosis, alteration o...

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neurotoxicity is a major problem because it represents the dose-limiting side effect of a significant number of antineoplastic drugs, such as vinca alkaloids. Hereditary neuropathies usually predispose to severe vincristine neurotoxicity. Here, we report the case of a 56-year-old man with Machado-Joseph disease, also known as spinocerebellar ataxia type 3, treate...

Most laboratory assessments of toxicity and bioaccumulation of heavy metals have been concentrated on the accumulation of these metal ions when exposed singly to the test organisms. However, under the natural environmental settings, the metals are never present in isolation and may interact with each other, therefore justifying the need to study the influence of joint application of metals on a...

During a phase I trial of EC145 (a folate-targeted vinca alkaloid conjugate), constipation was identified as the dose-limiting toxicity, probably from a nonfolate receptor-related liver clearance process capable of releasing unconjugated vinca alkaloid from EC145 and shuttling it to the bile. Here, we report on the selective placement of novel carbohydrate segments (1-amino-1-deoxy-glucitolyl-γ...