Background: Nepeta crispa Willd., a member of Lamiaceae family, is an annual plant native to western Iran, especially Hamedan, with many traditional uses. The plant effects have not been investigated yet. Iron chelating activity is a suitable test for measuring antioxidant activity. Objectives: The present study aimed to evaluate Iron-chelating activity of extract, fractions, and essential oil of the N. crispa, in vitro. Methods: The methanolic extract of N. crispa was prepared adopting maceration method. Then, the total methanolic extract was fractionated using hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and water. The essential oil was isolated by hydrodistillation using a Clevenger-type apparatus. Chelating activity of total extract, each fraction and essential oil of N. crispa on Fe2+ ions was determined using Iron-chelating assay. EDTA was employed as positive control. Results: EDTA as positive control had the best activity with IC50 = 0. 02 ±,0. 001 mg/mL, and ascorbic acid came second in this regard (IC50 = 0. 386 ±,0. 021 mg/mL). The hexane fraction was the most active fraction among the different fractions of N. crispa (IC50 = 0. 435 ±,0. 032 mg/mL). Chelating activity of hexane fraction was followed by aqueous, ethyl acetate, chloroform fractions, and methanolic extract with ICs50 of 1. 433 ±,0. 098, 2. 158 ±,0. 074 mg/mL, 3. 624 ±,0. 112, and 3. 051 ±,0. 174, respectively. The essential oil showed extremely poor activity in the tested concentrations. Conclusion: It was concluded that the n-hexane fraction had promising Iron chelating activity, and was likely capable of reducing Fe2+ ions concentration and preventing oxidative damage.

Background and purpose: The need to find new antiviral compounds is increasing due to the emergence of resistant strains and toxicity of currently available HIV drugs. In this research the inhibitory activity of a number of novel iron chelating compounds derived from 3-Hydroxy-4-pyridinosnes was studied.Materials and methods: Single cycle replicable (SCR) virion was produced by transfection of HEK293T cells with pmz NL4-3, pSPAX2 and pMD2G plasmids. HEK cells were infected with SCR virus and the production of new virions was evaluated by p24 ELISA. Also, cytotoxicity of these compounds was investigated by XTT method and then the effect of compounds on viral infection was examined by GFP-expressing virions.Results: PhH, PhHB, DNB, TsB, AbphE and Adlb compounds had the ability of inhibition of virus production insofar as PhH, PhHB, DNB, TsB, AbphE and Adlb inhibited the viral production with IC50 of 63, 43, 10, 73, 12 and 78mM, respectively. DNB and AbphE showed high toxicity for target cells (CC50 of 113 and 112mM). Similar activity was found in single round infection assay compared to the results of replication study.Conclusion: This study found derivatives of 3-Hydroxy-4-pyridinosnes effective in preventing the HIV virus. Compounds with high anti-viral potential and low cytotoxicity are promising candidate for more anti-viral studies.

In this study, freshly harvested prawn, Macrobrachium nipponense were hydrolyzed with pepsin to develop a food ingredient and iron supplement. The degree of hydrolysis, protein/peptide concentration and iron-chelating capacity were verified by TCA soluble assay, direct UV spectrophotometric method and orthophenanthroline-based colorimetric assay, respectively. The result of TCA soluble assay revealed a high rate of hydrolysis for the first 6 h, reached the steady-state phase after 8 hours. The highest iron-binding capacity of the hydrolysate (49. 7 μ g/mg of peptide/protein) was obtained at a degree of hydrolysis of 36. 5%. The partial lysate generated by pepsin had high levels of glycine, proline, arginine, alanine, and valine. It seems that in peptic M. nipponense hydrolysate, peptide bonds of Gly, Pro, and Ala residues as well as amino or imino group from Arg side chain support additional affinity for iron. Consequently, hydrolysis and enrichment would be a proper strategy for appropriate gain from this abundant prawn, into a high functional product.

Dear Editor in Chief: Recently, some evidence has shown that the failure of iron homeostasis may occur in critically ill patients and can lead to iron overload. Elevated ferritin levels as a body iron burden index in critically ill patients may be associated with depressed level of consciousness and greater mortality. However, the necessity of using iron-chelating agents in clinical situation is still unknown for these cases. Oxidative stress, inflammation and increased iron stores are concepts related to each other. Oxidative stress has been defined by an imbalance between pro-oxidant and antioxidant conditions, which along with boosted inflammatory response have been commonly reported in critical situation in patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Inflammation and oxidative stress can also be considered as one of the most important probable causes of increased iron stores in critical patients...