Evaluation of chemical composition and antiedematogenic activity of the essential oil of Hyptis martiusii Benth

Evaluations of the therapeutic potential of medicinal plants and their components have been the subject of many studies. Furthermore, the biological activities of various plant species have been reported in various pieces of literature. Hyptis martiusii Benth (Lamiaceae), popularly known as “mad balm” is commonly found in the North, Southeast, and Northeast of Brazil. Its leaves are used ethnobiologically as antiulcerogenic, antimicrobial, antitumor and as insecticide. This study aimed to analyze the chemical composition of the essential oil of H. martiusii Benth (OEHM) by GC/MS as well as its possible topical activity as an antiedematogenic. This is verified by the models of ear edema induced by single (acute edema) and multiple (chronic edema) applications of croton oil topically, and systemically verified through the model of paw edema induced by carrageenan 1%. Doses of 50, 75 and 100 mg/kg OEHM were used in all tests. Chemical analysis of the oil revealed the 1,8-cineole (34.58%) and δ-carene (21:58%) as major components present in the essential oil. On the model of ear edema, acute and chronic OEHM in all the tested doses showed no significant antiedematogenic activity (p < 0.05). The systemic model of paw edema induced by carrageenin showed that a dose of 100 mg/kg effectively reduced swelling by 55.37% in the second hour evaluation when compared to the saline group. The anti-inflammatory systemic effect can give greater bioavailability of the components present in the essential oil and your interference in cytokines and leukotriene, thromboxane and prostaglandin biosynthesis. It is therefore concluded that OEHM presents systemic antiedematogenic activity but not topical activity at these doses.     

锂盐的作用机制及临床应用研究进展

锂是人体内的一种微量元素且以化合物的形式广泛存在于自然界。作为一种古老的治疗精神疾病方面的药物,锂盐被用来治疗双相情感障碍已超过60年,而现在锂盐在临床上表现出来的新应用已经越来越引起医学界的广泛重视。现代研究表明,锂盐是一种强大的糖原合成酶激酶-3(GSK-3β)抑制剂,锂盐除对脑细胞过度活动起抑制作用外,还具有营养神经和保护神经、抗炎、抗氧化、抗癌、免疫调节以及对甲状腺功能亢进的治疗作用。锂盐化学结构相对简单,而且目前人们对锂盐的使用经验及对锂离子的血药浓度监测手段已日趋成熟,所以锂盐具有相当好的临床应用前景,未来更进一步加大对锂盐的临床应用及作用机制的研究力度。现就锂盐新发现的作用机制及临床应用作一综述。     

Improved design of peptides exhibiting angiogenic activities for clinical applications

Vascularization is one of the key steps for engraftment in regenerative medicine. Previously one of the authors had discovered peptides exhibiting significant angiogenic activities designated AGP and elucidated the active core. For neovascularization basic fibroblast growth factor is used although permeation can be envisaged. The original AGPs did not suffer from this although their half-life times are short because of decomposition by endogenous enzymes. Several new AGP-libraries have been constructed and their enzymatic resistance has been investigated by the use of human umbilical vein endothelial cells to find candidates for clinical applications.     

Change of liver metabolism of 1,2-dibromoethane during simultaneous treatment with carbon tetrachloride

The combination of carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄) and 1,2-dibromoethane (DBE) in isolated rat hepatocytes led to a significant potentiation of both lipid peroxidation and of plasma membrane damage observed after a single treatment with CCl₄. Such a synergistic effect appeared to be related to the CCl₄-induced shift of DBE metabolism from the cytosolic conjugation with glutathione towards the microsomal transformation into toxic intermediates. In fact, CCl₄ significantly inactivated hepatocyte total GSH-transferase, i.e. the DBE detoxification pathway. Furthermore, while the microsomal metabolism of CCl₄ was not affected by the simultaneous presence of DBE, the amount of DBE reactive metabolities covalently bound to hepatocyte protein was significantly enhanced in the presence of CCl₄.     

Phylogenetic diversity is a better predictor of wetland community resistance to Alternanthera philoxeroides invasion than species richness

• Highly biodiversity communities have been shown to better resist plant invasions through complementarity effects. Species richness (SR) is a widely used biodiversity metric but lacks explanatory power when there are only a few species. Communities with low SR can have a wide variety of phylogenetic diversities (PD), which might allow for a better prediction of invasibility.
• We assessed the effect of diversity reduction of a wetland community assemblage typical of the Beijing area on biotic resistance to invasion of the exotic weed Alternanthera philoxeroides and compared the reduction in SR and PD in predicting community invasibility.
• The eight studied resident species performed similarly when grown alone and when grown in eight‐species communities together with the invasive A. philoxeroides. Variation partitioning showed that PD contributed more to variation in both A. philoxeroides traits and community indicators than SR. All A. philoxeroides traits and community indicators, except for evenness index, showed a linear relationship with PD. However, only stem length of A. philoxeroides differed between the one‐ and two‐species treatments, and the diversity index of the communities differed between the one‐ and two‐species treatments and between the one‐ and four‐species treatments.
• Our results showed that in natural or semi‐natural wetlands with relatively low SR, PD may be a better predictor of invasibility than SR. When designing management strategies for mitigating A. philoxeroides invasion, deliberately raising PD is expected to be more efficient than simply increasing species number.

     

Twins are more different than commonly believed,but made less different by compensating behaviors

Twin studies are popular, because twins are believed to be the same/similar in genes and environmental exposures. It is well documented, however, that the firstborns are healthier at birth. We use the entire U.S. record of twin births during 1995–2000 to show that the survival duration parameters differ between twins depending on the birth order. We also find that wiser (i.e., older or educated) or married (i.e., resource-richer) mothers take more care of the weaker, which is a “compensating” behavior reducing the twin difference, as opposed to “reinforcing (the twin difference)” behavior. The systematic survival pattern difference and the mother's intervention against nature send cautions to twin studies that regard twins homogeneous to interpret their findings accordingly. Since the survival duration in our data is 97% right-censored in one year, we devise a quantile-based ‘fixed-effect’ semiparametric estimator that can handle heavy censoring, which is our methodological contribution.     

阴道镜直视宫颈多点活检与传统宫颈活检在宫颈疾病诊断中的应用价值比较

目的:探讨阴道镜直视宫颈多点活检与传统宫颈活检对宫颈疾病诊断的临床应用及影响因素研究。方法:选择2015年5月至2016年3月我院妇科收治的宫颈疾病患者86例,按照随机数表法,将患者分为对照组和研究组,每组43例。对照组患者进行常规的宫颈活检,研究组患者采用阴道镜直视宫颈多点活检。对比两种检查方法与病理检查结果的检出率,并比较两种检查方法的漏诊率,另外考察影响阴道镜直视宫颈多点活检漏诊率的相关因素。结果:与病理检查结果相比,除宫颈炎和宫颈癌外,研究组对其他类型宫颈疾病的检出率及总检出率明显高于对照组(P0.05);除宫颈癌外,研究组对各种宫颈疾病的漏诊率与对照组相比明显下降(P0.05);年龄超过50岁,高级别的CIN类型、标本个数的减少及宫颈微小病变都可能升高阴道镜直视宫颈多点活检漏诊率。结论:与传统宫颈活检相比,阴道镜直视宫颈多点活检对宫颈疾病的诊断具有较高的诊断率,并且漏诊率较低,可以适当增加活检的样本个数来降低漏诊率,从而尽早发现并进行有效治疗,值得在临床上推广应用。     

Regression Models for Clinical Trials with Correlated Categorical Responses

Regression models for correlated categorical data are presented in which the covariance is a function of measured effects. The regression and covariance parameters are estimated by extended least square methods. A numerical example of a clinical trial comparing two antiemetic treatment regimes for patients receiving chemotherapy is given to illustrate the approach.     

Bio-functionalized gold nanoparticles: Benign effect in Sprague-Dawley rats by intravenous administration

Gold nanoparticles offer a great promise in clinical research. Despite various applications of the metal nanoparticles it is challenging to implement in vivo in clinical applications. This aspect is deprived of understanding the biological mechanisms that occurs in the cells. In this report we have evaluated application of AuNP on the safety profile at different doses (100, 200, and 500 μg/kg Bwt/day) on intravenous administration in rats regularly for 28 days. The study was performed based on the OECD test guideline 407. No clinical signs and mortalities were observed in any groups of rat treated with AuNP. No evidence of toxicity was observed in any of the diverse studies performed which is noteworthy. The study includes survival, behavior, animal weight, organ morphology, blood biochemistry and tissue histology. The results indicate that tissue accumulation pattern of gold nanoparticles depends on the surface, size and doses of the nanoparticle. The accumulation of the particles does not produce subacute physiological damage.