Traditionally, Clinacanthus nutans (CN) or locally named as ‘Belalai Gajah’ is one of the herbal plant claimed to be
able to treat cancer. The aimd of this study are to extract, isolate and characterize the active anticancer compound
from CN and to determine the mode of cell death induced by the compound. Bioassay guided fractionation was done on
the CN extract by using column chromatography. The cytotoxicity activities of these fractions toward HeLA cells were
examined by MTT assay. The nuclear morphology was examined by Hoechst 33258 staining and the cell cycle arrest
was evaluated by propium iodide staining using flow cytometry. The presence of active compound in the chosen fraction
was determined by Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (LCMS). Out of 16 fractions collected, Fraction 11(F11)
showed the lowest IC50 value with 27 ± 2.6 µg/mL. The value of IC50 for F11 towards normal cell, NIH 3T3 cell and L929
cell, were 70 ± 4.0 µg/mL and 45 ± 1.5 µg/mL respectively. These values were higher than tamoxifen, therefore indicating
that tamoxifen is more toxic towards normal cells compared to F11. Nuclear morphology of HeLA cell displayed DNA
fragmentation, nuclear condensation and formation of apoptotic bodies upon treatment with F11 for 24 hours. The cell
cycle distribution of HeLA cell treated with F11 was arrested at G1 phase. The active compound identified to potentially
possess the anticancer property is 19-Oxo-all-trans-retinoic acid. In conclusion, 19-Oxo-all-trans-retinoic acids from
F11 of the CN extract, is a potential anticancer agent for cervical cancer.
A local Malnutrition Risk Screening Tool-Hospital (MRST-H) has been developed to identify the risk of malnutrition among hospitalized geriatric patients in Malaysia. The aims of this multicenter study were to evaluate the criterion validity of the MRST-H against the reference standard Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) and revise its scoring criteria among Malaysian geriatric patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 542 geriatric patients at eight general hospitals in Peninsular Malaysia from January 2011 to February 2013. The Malay version MRST-H and SGA were administered to all participants through face-to-face interviews. Sensitivity and specificity of MRST-H were established using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves and the optimal cut-off scores were determined. The MRST-H had area under the ROC curve (AUC) values of 0.84 and 0.88 when validated against the SGA-determined malnutrition (SGA B+C) and severe malnutrition (SGA C) status. These high AUC values indicated that the MRST-H has very good overall diagnostic accuracy. However, the original cut-off score of five points for MRST-H has undesirable sensitivity in identifying the malnutrition (sensitivity = 0.12) and severely malnutrition (sensitivity = 0.35) status. The optimal cut-off score of MRST-H in identifying malnourished and severely malnourished participants were both established at the cut-off score of two points. The sensitivity of MRST-H increased substantially at this point without compromising its specificity. Therefore, the established cut-off score of two points with optimal sensitivity and specificity was selected to replace to original cut-off score for screening of risk of malnutrition among hospitalized geriatric patients.
Solid waste management in developing countries including Malaysia is dominated by waste dumpsites which have a high possibility of transporting organic and inorganic pollutants to the underlying groundwater and surface water within the surrounding area. The objective of this study is to characterise the landfill leachates and its surrounding groundwater and river water quality and metals concentrations, namely arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) from Beris Lalang, Kelantan. Nine sampling points were collected within the dumpsite for analysis of in-situ: dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), conductivity, turbidity and ex-situ; Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Suspended Solids (SS) and the results were compared with permissible limits. As and Pb in groundwater samples were collected from the surface of two dug grounds within the vicinity of the dumpsites exceeded the standard of Ministry of Health. Cr, Cu and Pb in leachates exceeded Environmental Quality Act (EQA, 1974)’s standard, whereas Ni, Pb and Zn in surface water of Gali River exceeded the limit of class III National Water Quality Standard (NWQS). Exceeding metals concentration in leachates and its surrounding groundwater and river water relative to their respective standards points out toward potential leachate migration to the waterbodies within the surrounding vicinity of Beris Lalang dumpsite. This study provides the initial baseline data and preliminary monitoring assessments as a first step towards improving water security and waste management in Kelantan.
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most malignant subtype of brain cancer. However, current clinical treatments
for GBM are limited in effectiveness and often impose additional side effects on patients. Here, we developed targeted
anti-cancer therapy (TAT) using neural stem cells (NSC) as delivery agent to transport anti-cancer compounds directly to
GBM in vitro. Anti-cancer active compounds: Tannic acid (TA) and gallic acid (GA) were extracted from local medicinal
plant - Quercus infectoria (QI) using soxhlet technique with 100% methanol (QI-100%) or 70% methanol (QI-70%)
solvent. Concentration of TA and GA measured using HPLC were 72.56 and 43.66 μg/mL in QI-100%, while in QI-70%,
the concentrations were 72.41 and 43.31 μg/mL, respectively. Cytotoxicity effects of QI-100% and QI-70% on human
GBM cell line (DBTRG-05MG), human NSC line (H9-hNSC) and human normal brain glial cell line (SVG-p12) (as negative
control) were determined using MTT assay. Both QI-100% and QI-70% showed anti-proliferative properties against
DBTRG-05MG at IC50, but not on H9-hNSC and SVG-p12. Taken together, data indicated that both QI extracts contained
TA and GA which exhibit anti-proliferative effect specifically on cancerous cells only. Next, QI-treated H9-hNSC was
seeded in a modified Boyden chamber for 12 h to investigate its migration capacity towards DBTRG-05MG. The result
showed that H9-hNSC migrated towards DBTRG-05MG with 4-folds higher capacity compared to control. In addition,
the migration of QI-100% treated H9-hNSC successfully reduced the number of DBTRG-05MG, indicating the anti-GBM
potential of these cells after migration. In conclusion, NSC could be a specific anti-cancer compound delivery agent for
GBM, reducing unwanted side effects on patients.