[en] Highlights: • Dietary morin prevents muscle wasting caused by cancer cachexia. • Morin suppresses growth of lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) cells, but not C2C12 myotubes. • Morin binds to ribosomal protein S10 in LLC cells. Cachexia, observed in most cancer patients, is a syndrome that includes wasting of bodily energy reserves and is characterized by muscle atrophy and fat loss. We have previously demonstrated that isoflavones, such as genistein and daidzein, prevent muscle wasting in tumor-bearing mice. In this study, we examined the effect of morin, a flavonoid, on cachexia. The wet weight and myofiber size of muscles in Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) cell-bearing mice fed a normal diet were decreased, compared with those in control mice fed a normal diet. In contrast, intake of morin prevented the reduction of muscle wet weight and myofiber size. Moreover, the tumor weight in mice fed the morin diet was lower than that in mice fed the normal diet. Both cell viability and protein synthetic ability of LLC cells were reduced by treatment with morin, but C2C12 myotubes were not affected. Binding assay using morin-conjugated magnetic beads identified ribosomal protein S10 (RPS10) as a target protein of morin. Consistent with the result of morin treatment, knockdown of RPS10 suppressed LLC cell viability. These results suggest that morin indirectly prevents muscle wasting induced by cancer cachexia by suppressing cancer growth via binding to RPS10.

[en] Morin (3,2,4,5,7-pentahydroxyflavone) is a flavonol conjugated to a resorcinol moiety at the C-2 position, different from many other flavonoids. The UV–vis spectrum of morin in neat water reveals two major absorption bands with maxima at 265 and 387 nm. The substance is stable in acidic solution and neat water. However, its absorption maximum at 387 nm continuously shifts to longer wavelengths and new peaks appeared at wavelengths of 312 nm with increasing pH of the solution. The shape of the absorption spectrum of morin depends on the storage time at a given pH, indicating the occurrence of other successive chemical reactions. The fluorescence spectroscopic results also prove that new conjugated double bonds are formed in the deaerated basic solution at the initial state and decompose with time. This behavior indicates that morin is very unstable, and therefore its decomposition occurs by a sequence of multistep reactions in basic solution. Probable reaction pathways for the reaction are suggested based on the spectroscopic results

[en] GSK3β is a key kinase that plays a role in cellular signaling pathways. In Alzheimer's disease (AD), GSK3β has been implicated in hyperphosphorylation of tau proteins in the neuron, which is a hallmark of AD. Morin, a flavonoid that is abundant in nature, was found as an inhibitor of GSK3β that can reduce tau pathology in vivo and in vitro. In this study, we determined the crystal structure of GSK3β in complex with morin. The structure revealed that morin inhibits GSK3β by binding to the ATP binding pocket. Our findings augment the potential of morin as a functional food to help prevent AD, as well as to provide structural information to develop new therapeutics based on the morin skeleton.

[en] An aqueous biphasic system has been used for selective extraction of U(VI) ions from Th(IV), Sm(III) and Ce(III). Role of different biomolecules like morin, catechin, hesperidin and 4-hydroxycoumarin have been studied. Morin serves as the best reagent when citrate ions are used as a masking agent. Citrate forms stronger complexes with the other metal ions than morin thereby restricting their extractions. Contrarily, U(VI) forms a stronger complex with morin than citrate and is selectively extracted under the same conditions. It was also observed that morin can act as a spectrophotometric reagent for ratiometric detection and analysis of U(VI) ions.

[en] Radiological contaminations are becoming a major concern due to unwanted discharge of nuclear reaction products in the environment. Contamination of drinking water by uranium has documented nephrotoxicity. Therefore, the detection and remediation of radioactive elements is very significant. There are many techniques for the removal of radioactive elements e.g., electrocoagulation, emulsion liquid membrane (ELM), using zero-valent iron, etc., which are often time consuming and involve toxic reagents. Recently, aqueous biphasic systems (ABSs) have shown to offer an environment friendly tool for extractions of several analytes. Here we report the extraction of trace uranium by ABS using morin hydrate as a polyphenolic extractant which forms a strong complex with UO₂²⁺

[en] A quantitative analysis has been conducted to determine the concentrations of aluminium ion (Al³⁺) in solution by using UV-Visible spectrophotometry method and artificial neural network (ANN). Morin reagent was used to form morin-Al(III) complex. The characterisations of reagent in solution such as photo stability, pH effect, reagent concentration, response time, dynamic ranges and repeatability were conducted. The use of ANN was able to extend the dynamic concentration range of Al³⁺ ion to 1 - 13 ppm. (author)

No abstract available

[en] Alternative explanation to the effect of disappearance of the Morin transition on hematite nanoparticles with their size decreasing is proposed basing on an idea of the predominant role of the shape anisotropy for nanosize particles. Three types of the magnetic structure of hematite nanoparticles with various sizes are found by Mössbauer spectroscopy: coexistence of the well-pronounced antiferromagnetic and weakly ferromagnetic phases for particles with average diameters of about 55 nm, non-uniform distribution of the magnetization axes which concentrate on the vicinity of the basal plane (111) for prolonged particles with cross sections of about 20 nm, and uniform distribution of the easy axes in regard to the crystalline directions for 3-nm particles. Description of the temperature evolution of experimental data within novel model of the magnetic dynamics for antiferromagnetic particles which accounts the exchange, relativistic, and anisotropy interactions is provided, and the structural as well as energy characteristics of the studied systems are reconstructed.

[en] For the first time, an organic dye, morin, and another bio-macromolecule, human serum albumen (HSA), were embedded in porous alumina (P-Al) fabricated by anodization in oxalic acid. The photoluminescent (PL) spectra of morin and morin-HSA immersed in the P-Al pores were measured and compared with those of liquid solutions. It was found that their PL positions are similar to those of dye-Al³⁺ in ethanol solution, and the PL of the embedded morin was greatly enhanced by the introduction of HSA. We have ascribed the appearance of PL bands to the formation of morin-Al complexes in the nanopores, with its inner wall being involved. A likely luminescence model was proposed to explain the observed PL enhancement due to the coexistence of morin and HSA in the nanopores, which has been proved by UV and Fourier transform infrared measurements. Moreover, the PL intensity increased with increasing pore diameter, which may be used to develop a luminescent array to predict the pore size of a P-Al layer

[en] Clodronate, disodium (dichloromethylene) diphosphonate tetrahydrate, belongs to a group of diphosphonates of the type P-C-P. Diphosphonates are a class of ligands that are chemically related to, and mimic the physiological behaviour of, pyrophosphates. Clodronate is a synthetic analogue of pyrophosphate, which, together with conventional cancer therapy, has been used successfully for the treatment of hypercalceamia related to osteolytic metastases and malignances. Clodronate has also yielded good results in the treatment of Paget's disease and primary hyperparathyroidism. In this paper a modified version of the procedure of Gallez has been introduced for the determination of clodronate. The method is based on the interference of diphosphonate with the formation of cation-morin (3,5,7,2',4'-pentahydroxyflavone) complexes in slightly acidic solution. The change of the absorbance of a thorium-morin complex was used as a measure of diphosphonate concentration. Interference caused by the major components of human urine has also been examined. (au)