Charles University in Prague Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Pharmaceutical Botany and Ecology Author: Radka Kvapilová Supervisor: RNDr. Jitka Vytlačilová, Ph.D. Title of diploma thesis: Antiprotozoal activity of alkaloids II. The development of new antiprotozoal agents for the treatment of infections is very important. Natural substances can be the source of effective drugs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antiprotozoal activity of these alkaloids - canadine, scoulerine, tetrahydropalmatine and stylopine. The experiment was conducted on typical model organism Tetrahymena thermophila. Percentage inhibition of the organism was determined using the MTT assay. Subsequently median inhibitory concentration IC50 of the test substances was calculated. From our alkaloids stylopine had the greatest antiprotozoal activity. Antiprotozoal activity decreased in the following order stylopine > canadine > scoulerine > tetrahydropalmatine. Key words: Tetrahymena thermophila, antiprotozoal activity, canadine, scoulerine, tetrahydropalmatine, stylopine

Charles University in Prague Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec králové Department of Pharmaceutical Botany and Ecology Author: Lenka Nechanická Supervisor: RNDr. Jitka Vytlačilová, Ph.D. Title of diploma thesis: Antiprotozoal activity of natural substances The discovery of new active substances and plants with a potential antiprotozoal effect nowadays is the aim of many studies and is required for obtaining more active drugs in a number of protozoal disease. In this study was investigated antiprotozoal activity of extracts obtained from various plant parts Salvia officinalis, Apium graveolens L. var. rapaceum, Evodia rutaecarpa, Coptis chinensis, Zanthoxylum nitidum and Ziziphus jujuba. Effect of the tested extracts was evaluated in a typical unicellular organism Tetrahymena thermophila using MTT method. From the values obtained the percent inhibition was detected Tetrahymena thermophila and for each extract value calculated median inhibitory concentrations IC50. Of the extracts tested had the greatest antiprotozoal activity of the extract of C. chinensis, further extracts activity decreases in the order C. chinensis > Z. nitidum > Z. jujuba > S. officinalis > E. rutaecarpa > A. graveolens L. var. rapaceum Key words: antiprotozoal activity, Tetrahymena thermophila, cytotoxicity, natural substances

Neoplastic diseases hold the second place of the most common causes of death worldwide. Available treatments include various combinations of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, hormone therapy, immune therapy and targeted therapy. The emphasis is currently laid on nanomedicine, where new nanosized complexes are developed and applied for the targeted treatment and chemotherapy. The aim is to significantly improve the anticancer effect and decrease the damage to organism. In this thesis, ruthenium nanoparticles with a size of 12–14 nm were synthesized and their surface modified with polyvinylpyrrolidone. Furthermore these were subsequently modified with polyoxyethylene(40)stearate for binding of doxorubicin. These nanoparticles were tested on breast carcinoma cells (MDA-MB-231), ovarian carcinoma cells (A2780) and neuroblastoma cells (UKF-NB-4). Apoptosis and necrosis testing showed 60—64 % increase in apoptosis when comparing ruthenium nanoparticles modified with doxorubicin to nonmodified ruthenium nanoparticles. The modification increased level of oxidative stress in tumorous cells and slightly a genotoxicity to non-tumorous cells, nevertheless the hemocompatibility was significantly improved. Testing has proven with IC50 0.98 g/ml, 3.91 g/ml and 1.95 g/ml higher sensitivity to these cells and confirmed expected anticancer activity. Compared to one of the most common chemotherapeutic agents cisplatin the modified ruthenium nanoparticles are significantly more toxic to cell lines A2780 (IC50=21 µg/ml), MDA-MB-231 (IC50=9 µg/ml) and UKF-NB-4 (IC50=4 µg/ml).

Charles University in Prague Pharmaceutical Faculty in Hradec Králové Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology Student: Anastasiya Shkut Supervisors: Mgr. Jana Mandíková, Virginia Motilva Ph.D. Title of diploma thesis: The role of melatonin in SIRT1 and p-AMPK regulation in HT-29 cell line. Sirituin 1 (SIRT1) is NAD+ dependent deacetylase present in wide range of organisms including mammals. It was found to extend life span in yeasts during calorie restriction (CR) conditions. SIRT1 deacetylates many regulator proteins and thus control metabolic status of cell as well as AMP-activated kinase (AMPK), which is also energy regulator enzyme depending on NAD+ levels in cell. Both of them play roles in cancer and could influence autophagy, although the exact mechanism remains unclear. We focused our study on hormone melatonin, which has anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects, to study its influence on human colon cancer cell line HT-29. If it has impact on SIRT1 and AMPK and what is hierarchic relationship between SIRT1 and AMPK. Also we observed its possible influence on autophagy. We used Western blotting (WB) technique and from our results it seems that melatonin has significant effect on SIRT1, which might activate AMPK as well as autophagy. Nevertheless some of results did not have sufficient...

Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. PharmD. Jan Zitko, PhD. Author: Marek Kerda Title of diploma thesis: Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of 2,3-disubstituted pyrazines This thesis deals with problem of tuberculosis. In a theoretical part are summarized information and knowledge about tuberculosis, nowadays epidemiology and drugs used in current treatment. There are also described drugs in the different stage of clinical trials and could be used for treatment of tuberculosis in the future. Searched information were used from accessible learning materials and in articles in online databases as Web of Science and PubMed. There are also summarized basic methods of computer design of new drugs. In practical part of this thesis was focus on novel inhibitor of prolyl-tRNA synthetase, which is based on structure of pyrazinamide. There was prepared in silico virtual library of pyrazine-based new potential ligands. Related docking to the structure of human prolyl t-RNA (pdb: 5VAD) and the bacterial version of this enzyme (pdb: 2J3M) and evaluation was performed in Molecular Operating Environment (Chemical Computing Group, Canada). From the results were predicted some of the relations between structure and activity. Virtual library of the...

Charles University Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology Student: Zuzana Miškovčíková Supervisor: RNDr. Jana Maixnerová, PhD. Title of diploma thesis: Determination of organ toxicity of BRAF inhibitors in vitro. Malignant melanoma is one of the most serious skin diseases today. Therapy of advanced melanoma is difficult and often ineffective. BRAF inhibitors (dabrafenib and vemurafenib) have dramatically changed the results of melanoma treatment in the last few years. BRAF inhibitors are one of the most effective drugs against melanoma, but their clinical application is largely limited by drug resistance. Available clinical studies have shown an adverse nephrotoxic effect of BRAF inhibitors, but information on its mechanism is limited. Published studies further suggest that the toxic effect of BRAF inhibitors is primarily directed to podocytes located in the glomerular membrane. Thus, the aim of our study was to assess the cytotoxic effect of BRAF inhibitors on selected model renal cells in vitro in order to confirm the renal target toxicity. The main objective of the study was to analyse whether the nephrotoxic effect of BRAF inhibitors is specifically limited to podocytes or whether it can damage other renal cells. The experiments were performed on human cell lines...

Charles University Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology Student: Bc. Marie Zádrapová Supervisor: RNDr. Jana Maixnerová, Ph.D. Title of diploma thesis: Determination of renal toxicity of antineoplastics in vitro BRAF inhibitors are important antineoplastics. They work on the principle of inhibition of certain types of protein kinases and turned out to be very efficient for the treatment of melanoma. One of their disadvantages is relatively early onset of resistance; thus, it is important to look for new combinations of drugs that are already in use or work on the development of new structures with similar inhibition efficacy on melanoma cells. Encorafenib and its combination with binimetinib have been shown to be very promising drugs from the group of BRAF inhibitors, however, potential renal toxicity may be a therapeutic limitation. This thesis was focused on the determination of in vitro cytotoxicity of encorafenib on different types of renal cells in three time intervals and on its comparison with two drug standards - amphotericin B and paracetamol. Three types of morphologically and functionally different kidney cells (PODO / TERT256, HK-2 and HEK293) were used for this purpose. The cytotoxic potential was measured by colorimetric method CellTiter 96®...

Charles University Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Biochemical Sciences Candidate: Bc. Jesika Štorkánová Supervisor: RNDr. Eva Novotná, Ph.D. Title of diploma thesis: Study of the cytotoxicity of selected chemotherapeutics for the treatment of leukemia in human tumor cell lines Leukemia represents a diverse group of malignant diseases with a hematopoietic disorder with different prognoses. As the incidence of patients with leukemia is increasing, is an effort to establish the treatment that will lead to successful therapy. One of the basic approaches to the treatment of leukemias is chemotherapy. Today it is known that the effectiveness of chemotherapy is influenced by a number of factors which can significantly affect the treatment strategy and thus decide on the outcome of the treatment itself. An important approach in chemotherapy is the selection of cytostatics with maximum efficacy for oncological disease and elimination cytostatics to which the cells are resistant based on the findings in in vitro conditions. The aim of this diploma thesis was to determine the inhibitory effects of in vitro selected chemotherapeutics in cell tumor lines. For determine the inhibitory effect, HCT116, HepG2 and HL-60 cell lines were selected using a colorimetric method based on the...

Faschingbauer J.: Cytotoxic and cholinesterase inhibitory activity of extracts from selected species of the Centaurea L. genus. Diploma thesis, Charles University, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové, Department of Pharmaceutical Botany, Hradec Králové, 2019. During the screening of biologically active secondary metabolites of plants carried out at the Department of Pharmaceutical Botany FAF UK, selected taxa of the genus Centaurea (Asteraceae) were investigated. This study is focused on a basic phytohemical research of extracts prepared from Centaurea cyanus, Centaurea jacea, Centaurea scabiosa, Centaurea pseudophrygia, Centuarea stoebe, Centaurea solstitialis a Centaurea benedicta. Extracts were prepared for evidence of the proof reactions of TLC and MS analysis (EI, ESI) to clarify a potential presence of alkaloids. EtOAc and ethanol extracts were evaluated for potential inhibitory activity against human erythrocyte acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and plasma butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) and cytotoxicity against selected 9 tumor lines. C. cyanus alkaloid extract had interesting cholinesterase activity which selectively inhibited BChE (IC50 BChE = 22.62 ± 3.62 μg / ml, IC50 AChE = 221.50 ± 44.56 g / ml). Other EtOAc extracts of selected Centaurea species were considered inactive (IC50 > 100 μg/ml)....

Summary Natural phytochemicals are currently used in the treatment of many diseases. Cancers are just ones of them and they are ranked among the most common and the most serious. Phytochemicals in the form of cytostatics are used in chemotherapeutic treatment of cancer. In future there could be included among cytostatics also some alkaloids from the family of Amaryllidaceae, whose testing for a selective cytostatic effect on tumor cell lines of colorectal carcinoma Caco-2 and HT-29 and on normal cell lines of human intestinal epithelial FHs 74 Int is a subject of this thesis. There were tested 17 alkaloids isolated from plants of Chlidanthusfragrans, Zephyranthes robusta and Nerine bowdenii. Particularly alkaloids from plant Zephyranthes robusta namely haemanthamine with this values: IC50 = 0.99 plus/minus 0.14 microM for tumor cells, Caco-2, 0.59 plus/minus 0.01 microM for tumor cells HT-29 and 19.47 plus/minus 8.86 microM for normal cells FHs 74 Int, Lycorine with values IC50 = 0.99 plus/minus 0.08 microM for tumor cells Caco-2, 1.2 plus/minus 0.01 microM for tumor cells HT-29 and 22.68 plus/minus 0.09 microM for normal cells FHs 74 Int and Haemanthidin with values IC50 = 3.29 plus/minus 0.91 microM to tumor cells Caco-2, 1.72 plus/minus 0.11 microM to tumor cells HT-29, and 11.63 plus/minus 0.86 microM for normal cells FHs 74 Int proved a significant anti-proliferative activity. From these results there is evident the selectivity against colorectal cancer cell lines. For this reason, those tested alkaloids are suitable for further testing and for study of their biological activity against tumor cells in the terms of in vitro and in vivo.