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Project

Biotechnological and Phytochemical Investigations on Antitumoural and Antigenotoxic Plants.

Plants are known to contain a wide range of antitumoural constituents as well as cancer chemopreventive agents. In this PhD project two plant species have been selected, each of which representative for one of both approaches; i.e. Gloriosa superba as a species containing antitumoural agents, and Erythrina latissima as a species containing cancer chemopreventive agents. The research planned during the applicant's stay at the University of Antwerp will mainly focus on the second plant species and the second approach, i.e. cancer chemopreventive agents that can reduce the carcinogenic effects of contaminants in food and animal feed, such as mycotoxins and especially aflatoxins, which are amongst the most potent carcinogens known. An extract from the South African plant Erythrina latissima and its constituents will be evaluated as detoxifying agents against the genotoxic/carcinogenic effects of mycotoxins. Antigenotoxic effects will be tested against mycotoxin (such as aflatoxin B1) - induced mutagenicity. Bacteria (Ames test and Vitotox test) or human cell lines (comet assay and micronucleus/cytome test) will be exposed to the toxin alone, and in the presence of extract or isolated constituents. The mutagenicity response of both treatments will be compared. After development and validation of an appropriate analytical method, the active constituents will be quantified in the crude extract, and the well-characterised extract will be available in future projects for follow up tests in vivo in rats, and for field tests in cattle, for its protective effect against aflatoxin-induced toxicity (in a bilateral FWO research project with the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, South-Africa
Date:1 Oct 2015 →  31 Mar 2016
Keywords:ANTIGENOTOXICITY, GLORIOSA SUPERBA, ERYTHRINA LATISSIMA, ANTITUMOR ACTIVITY
Disciplines:Biomarker discovery and evaluation, Drug discovery and development, Medicinal products, Pharmaceutics, Pharmacognosy and phytochemistry, Pharmacology, Pharmacotherapy, Toxicology and toxinology, Other pharmaceutical sciences
Project type:Collaboration project