The incidence and prevalence of diabetes mellitus is rapidly increasing worldwide at an alarming rate. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is the most prevalent form of diabetes, accounting for approximately 90–95% of the total diabetes cases worldwide. Besides affecting the ability of body to use glucose, it is associated with micro-vascular and macro-vascular complications. Augmented atherosclerosis is documented to be the key factor leading to vascular complications in T2DM patients. The metabolic milieu of T2DM, including insulin resistance, hyperglycemia and release of excess free fatty acids, along with other metabolic abnormalities affects vascular wall by a series of events including endothelial dysfunction, platelet hyperactivity, oxidative stress and low-grade inflammation. Activation of these events further enhances vasoconstriction and promotes thrombus formation, ultimately resulting in the development of atherosclerosis. All these evidences are supported by the clinical trials reporting the importance of endothelial dysfunction and platelet hyperactivity in the pathogenesis of atherosclerotic vascular complications. In this review, an attempt has been made to comprehensively compile updated information available in context of endothelial and platelet dysfunction in T2DM.

The basic aim of this study pertains to the synthesis of silver nitrate complexes and the study of their antimicrobial and anticancer bio-activity. A series of new silver(I) derivatives of N-substituted-imidazolidine-2-thiones (L-NR, R = Et, Prⁿ, Buⁿ, Ph), purine-6-thione (purSH₂), 2-thiouracil (tucH₂), pyrimidine-2-thione (pymSH) and pyridine-2-thione (pySH) of composition [Ag(S-L-NR)(PPh₃)₂(ONO₂)] {R = Et (1), Prⁿ (2), Buⁿ (3), Ph (4)}, [Ag₂(N,S-purSH₂)₂(μ-dppm)₂](NO₃)₂·2H₂O (5) (dppm = Ph₂P–CH₂–PPh₂), [Ag(L)(PPh₃)₂](NO₃) {L = N,S-purSH₂ (6); S-tucH₂ (7)}, [Ag(N,S-pymS)(PPh₃)₂](CH₃OH) (8), and [Ag(N,S-pyS)(PPh₃)₂] (9) have been synthesized and structurally characterized. These new and some previously reported complexes {[Ag₂(L-NH)₄(PPh₃)₂](NO₃)₂ (10), [Ag(L-NMe)₂(PPh₃)](NO₃) (11), and [Ag(S-bzimSH)₂(PPh₃)₂](OAc) (12), L-NH = 1,3-imidazolidine-2-thione; L-NMe = 1-methyl-3-imidazolidine-2-thione and bzimSH₂ = benzimidazoline-2-thione)} have shown moderate to high anti-microbial activity against Gram positive bacteria, namely methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Staphylococcus aureus (MTCC 740), and Gram negative bacteria, namely Staphylococcus epidermidis (MTCC 435), Enterococcus faecalis (MTCC 439), Shigella flexneri (MTCC 1457) and a yeast Candida albicans (MTCC 22). These complexes have also been found to be bio-safe as studied using MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide] assay. The anti-tumor study of silver complexes against human osteosarcoma cell line (MG63) has shown IC₅₀ values in the range of 6–33 μM.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide and its incidence is expected to grow by almost 70% in the coming two decades. Recent microbiome studies in cancer mice models have shown that certain commensal bacteria play protective roles against cancer. Thus, the use of commensal microflora having anticancer activities for the treatment of cancer appears to be an attractive alternative therapeutic strategy. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) form an integral component of commensal microflora in healthy individuals. As the vaginal ecosystem is enriched in LAB genera, we screened the vaginal LAB microflora of healthy women for their anti-proliferative abilities against various human cancer cell lines. The secreted metabolites of three enterococcal strains, E. hirae 20c, E. faecium 12a and L12b, out of 92 LAB isolates selectively inhibited the in vitro proliferation of various human cancer cell lines in a dose-dependent manner but had no activity against normal human peripheral blood monocytes. Further, proteinase K-treatment of the culture supernatants (CS) of all the three enterococci abrogated their anti-proliferative abilities, thereby showing the proteinaceous nature of the secreted metabolites in the CS. The microscopic examination of the cell lines showed that CS-treatment induced apoptosis-like morphological changes in the cancer cells. Further, the probiotic characters of the strains were studied, which showed that all the three strains had broad spectrum antimicrobial activities against various Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens, including Mycobacterium smegmatis. All the strains tolerated the gastric acidity and bile juice treatments, and had strong adhesive abilities to the colonic epithelial cell line HCT-15. Furthermore, none of the strains had any known secreted virulence factors or harboured virulence genes. This preliminary study highlights an important functional role of the commensal probiotic enterococcal strains E. hirae and E. faecium for the first time by demonstrating their anticancer properties that should be further tested in the in vivo mammalian models.