Effect of melatonin and epithalamin on activity of marker enzymes in the cell membrane in the forebrain of rats under acute hypoxia

The effects of a single-shot intraperitoneally administration of melatonin in a dose of 1 mg per kg body weight and epithalamin in a dose of 2.5 mg per kg body weight on the activities of Na+, K(+)-ATPase and 5'-nucleotidase were investigated in the forebrain of juvenile male white rats under the acute hypobaric hypoxia. The melatonin and epithalamin administration against the background of acute hypoxia prevented an acute hypoxia inducing decrease in the activity of Na+, K(+)-ATPase as well as increased in the activity of 5'-nucleotidase. Such effects of pineal hormones can promote antihypoxic protection of neurons.     

Reproductive Performance,Udder Health,and Antibiotic Resistance in Mastitis Bacteria isolated from Norwegian Red cows in Conventional and Organic Farming

Background  

The objectives of this study were to investigate whether there were differences between Norwegian Red cows in conventional and organic farming with respect to reproductive performance, udder health, and antibiotic resistance in udder pathogens.     

Potential therapeutic drug target identification in Community Acquired-Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) using computational analysis

The emergence of multidrug-resistant strain of community-acquired methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) strain has highlighted the urgent need for the alternative and effective therapeutic approach to combat the menace of this nosocomial pathogen. In the present work novel potential therapeutic drug targets have been identified through the metabolic pathways analysis. All the gene products involved in different metabolic pathways of CA-MRSA in KEGG database were searched against the proteome of Homo sapiens using the BLASTp program and the threshold of E-value was set to as 0.001. After database searching, 152 putative targets were identified. Among all 152 putative targets, 39 genes encoding for putative targets were identified as the essential genes from the DEG database which are indispensable for the survival of CA-MRSA. After extensive literature review, 7 targets were identified as potential therapeutic drug target. These targets are Fructose-bisphosphate aldolase, Phosphoglyceromutase, Purine nucleoside phosphorylase, Uridylate kinase, Tryptophan synthase subunit beta, Acetate kinase and UDP-N-acetylglucosamine 1-carboxyvinyltransferase. Except Uridylate kinase all the identified targets were involved in more than one metabolic pathways of CA-MRSA which underlines the importance of drug targets. These potential therapeutic drug targets can be exploited for the discovery of novel inhibitors for CA-MRSA using the structure based drug design (SBDD) strategy.     

The RAS subfamily Evolution – tracing evolution for its utmost exploitation

In the development of multicellularity, signaling proteins has played a very important role. Among them, RAS family is one of the most widely studied protein family. However, evolutionary analysis has been carried out mainly on super family level leaving sub family information in scanty. Thus, a subfamily evolutionary study on RAS evolutionary expansion is imperative as it will aid in better drug designing against dreadful diseases like Cancer and other developmental diseases. The present study was aimed to understand RAS evolution on both holistic as well as reductive level. All human RAS family genes and protein were subjected to BLAST tools to find orthologs and paralogs with different parameters followed by phylogenetic tree generation. Our results clearly showed that H-RAS is the most primitive RAS in higher eukaryotes and then diverged into other RAS family members due to different gene modification events. Furthermore, a site specific selection pressure analysis was carried out using SELECTON server which showed that H-RAS, M-RAS and N-RAS are evolving faster than K-RAS and R-RAS. Thus, the results ascertain a new ground to cancer biologists to exploit negatively selected K-RAS and R-RAS as potent drug targets in cancer therapeutics.     

Motor training programs of arm and hand in patients with MS according to different levels of the ICF: a systematic review

Background

Breast cancer survivors, particularly those treated with chemotherapy, are at significantly increased risk for long-term cognitive and neurobiologic impairments. These deficits tend to involve skills that are subserved by distributed brain networks. Additionally, neuroimaging studies have shown a diffuse pattern of brain structure changes in chemotherapy-treated breast cancer survivors that might impact large-scale brain networks.

Methods

We therefore applied graph theoretical analysis to compare the gray matter structural networks of female breast cancer survivors with a history of chemotherapy treatment and healthy age and education matched female controls.

Results

Results revealed reduced clustering coefficient and small-world index in the brain network of the breast cancer patients across a range of network densities. In addition, the network of the breast cancer group had less highly interactive nodes and reduced degree/centrality in the frontotemporal regions compared to controls, which may help explain the common impairments of memory and executive functioning among these patients.

Conclusions

These results suggest that breast cancer and chemotherapy may decrease regional connectivity as well as global network organization and integration, reducing efficiency of the network. To our knowledge, this is the first report of altered large-scale brain networks associated with breast cancer and chemotherapy.     

Effect of melatonin and radiation on pro- and antioxidant state of the liver and blood of rats

The pro- and antioxidant state of the liver and blood of rats under the effect of melatonin and radiation in the total dose of 20 Gy has been studied. Irradiation by the broad fields intensifies the processes of lipoperoxidation and oxidative modification of proteins with simultaneous inhibition of the antioxidant protection. Melatonin administered against a background of radiation caused a distinctly expressed antioxidant effect.     

Photoperiodic changes of the glutathione system of the brain under acute hypoxia]

The effect of acute hypoxic hypobaric hypoxia on the content of reduced glutathione and the activity of glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and glutathione S-transferase, as well as 5'-nucleotidase in homogenates of juvenile male rats under conditions of varying photoperiodic duration: natural conditions of illumination, continuous illumination and continuous darkness were studied. Photoperiodic changes were revealed in the glutathione system of the control animals: the activity of glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase reduces under constant light, while the activity of glutathione peroxidase and glutathione S-transferase increases under conditions of constant darkness. The greatest inhibitory effect on the state of the glutathione system is brought about by constant light in case of acute hypoxia: the content of reduced glutathione decreases along with a sharp drop of the activity of glutathione S-transferase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, observed against the background of decreased glutathione reductase activity. Permanent dark conditions eliminate partially or completely the negative effect of acute hypoxia on the glutathione system of the brain. The obtained results are indicator of a possibility of protecting role of melatonin in case of acute hypoxia.     

Effect of Arnica montana tincture on some hydrolytic enzyme activities of rat liver in experimental toxic hepatitis]

Effects of tinctura arnica on arginase, adenosine triphosphatase, glucose-6-phosphatase and 5'-nucleotidase activities of rats liver in case of experimental toxic hepatitis have been studied. Toxic hepatitis was caused by 2 times interstomach administration of 0.25 ml oil solution of carbon tetrachloride per 100 g of animal weight. 20 mkl/100 g of tinctura arnica was administered every day per os for 14 days. The enzyme activities have been investigated at 3, 7 and 17 days. A significant demention of a studied hydrolytic enzyme activities in rats liver at intoxication of the body by CCI4 has been shown. It has been established that tinctura arnica administered per os to intoxicated animals sped up the normalization of hydrolytic enzyme activities in rat liver.