Investigating the inhibition of NMDA glutamate receptors in the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala on the pain and inflammation induced by formalin in male Wistar rats

Background

The role of the amygdala in controlling emotional pain has been emphasized in several studies. In this study, the role of the NMDA glutamate receptors in the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala (BLA) in regulating inflammation and emotional pain, induced by formalin, was studied in male rats.

Methods

Male Wistar rats, weighing 250±20 g, were injected with 20 μL of 2% formalin into the paw of the right hind limb. Memantine, at doses of 1 and 5 mg/rat, was injected bilaterally into the BLA five minutes prior to injecting formalin. Following the injection, the pain and inflammation of the paws were measured using Dubbison-Dennis and mercury immersion methods, respectively. The behavior of the animals, including licking time and foot volume, was assessed.

Results

The results showed that the inactivation of the NMDA receptors in the BLA in the acute phase of pain reduced the licking time (the emotional aspect of pain). However, at a high dose (5 μg/rat), memantine exacerbates the pain induced by formalin in the chronic phase. Additionally, the inhibition of the NMDA receptors in the BLA by memantine enhanced the formalin-induced increase in foot volume (inflammation) in a dose-dependent manner.

Conclusion

The study showed that the NMDA glutamate receptors in the BLA are crucial for the emotional pain and inflammation in both chronic and acute phases of formalin-induced pain. However, their roles are more pronounced in the chronic phase than in the acute phase of pain.

     

Allergenicity of Acroptilon repens and Juglans regia pollen in rats

Pollen proteins that are located in the cytoplasm or on the surface of the exine can function as allergens and evoke immune system responses in sensitive patients, leading to allergic rhinitis and asthma. In this research, the pollen allergenicity and ability to induce IgE response of the pollen of two plant species were studied in rats. Acroptilon repens is an herbaceous, invasive plant with entomophilous pollen, while Juglans regia which is a tree crop produces anemophilous pollen. Immunoblot analysis using sera of sensitised rats revealed IgE reactivity to three protein bands including the 70, 41 and 25.12 kDa bands present in the A. repens pollen extract, while only one single immunogenic band of 11 kDa was detected in J. regia pollen extract. Both pollen extracts increased the eosinophil content and caused some clinical signs of allergy in treated rats. The results showed that both entomophilous and anemophilous pollen can be allergenic.     

A novel spray bioreactor for the proliferation of plant callus; Hyoscyamus niger and Arnebia pulchra

Biotechnology Letters - Unlike plant cell suspension culture, the proliferation of callus in bioreactors has received inadequate attention. The magnificent potential of plant callus becomes more...     

Disseminating the best available evidence: New challenges in public reporting of health care

As a direct benefit of the Health Care Reform Act (2010), concerted effort has been deployed to define and characterize the process by which the best available evidence for diagnosis or treatment intervention prognosis can be obtained. The science of research synthesis in health care has established the systematic research protocol by which randomized clinical trials and other clinical studies must be reviewed and compared for the level and quality of the evidence presented, as well as the consensus of the best available evidence synthesized and shared. This process of systematic review yields a reliable and valid approach in comparing different interventions and strategies to prevent, diagnose, treat and monitor health conditions in terms of efficacy, and or of effectiveness. The resulting bioinformation outcome of comparative effectiveness and efficacy research review of the available clinical data is expressed as a consensus of the best available evidence, which finds its way in evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, standards of care and eventually, in policies: hence, the acronym CEERAP (comparative effectiveness and efficacy review and policy). The methodological and the procedural criteria that determine and regulate the public reporting dissemination of this sort of bioinformation, and the extent of benefit to the patient's health literacy, which have remained a bit more elusive to this date, are investigated and discussed in this paper.     

COVID-19-related coagulopathy: A review of pathophysiology and pharmaceutical management

December 2019 will never be forgotten in the history of medicine when an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown etiology in Wuhan, China sooner or later prompted the World Health Organization to issue a public health warning emergency. This is not the first nor will it be the last time that a member of β-coronaviruses (CoVs) is waging a full-scale war against human health. Notwithstanding the fact that pneumonia is the primary symptom of the novel coronavirus (2019nCoV; designated as SARS-CoV-2), the emergence of severe disease mainly due to the injury of nonpulmonary organs at the shadow of coagulopathy leaves no choice, in some cases, rather than a dreadful death. Multiple casual factors such as inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, platelet and complement activation, renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system derangement, and hypoxemia play a major role in the pathogenesis of coagulopathy in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. Due to the undeniable role of coagulation dysfunction in the initiation of several complications, assessment of coagulation parameters and the platelet count would be beneficial in early diagnosis and also timely prediction of disease severity. Although low-molecular-weight heparin is considered as the first-line of treatment in COVID-19-associated coagulopathy, several possible therapeutic options have also been proposed for better management of the disease. In conclusion, this review would help us to gain insight into the pathogenesis, clinical manifestation, and laboratory findings associated with COVID-19 coagulopathy and would summarize management strategies to alleviate coagulopathy-related complications.     

Cadaverine inhibition of porin plays a role in cell survival at acidic pH

When grown at acidic pH, Escherichia coli cells secrete cadaverine, a polyamine known to inhibit porin-mediated outer membrane permeability. In order to understand the physiological significance of cadaverine excretion and the inhibition of porins, we isolated an OmpC mutant that showed resistance to spermine during growth and polyamine-resistant porin-mediated fluxes. Here, we show that the addition of exogenous cadaverine allows wild-type cells to survive a 30-min exposure to pH 3.6 better than cells expressing the cadaverine-insensitive OmpC porin. Competition experiments between strains expressing either wild-type or mutant OmpC showed that the lack of sensitivity of the porin to cadaverine confers a survival disadvantage to the mutant cells at reduced pH. On the basis of these results, we propose that the inhibition of porins by excreted cadaverine represents a novel mechanism that provides bacterial cells with the ability to survive acid stress.     

Baricitinib treatment resolves lower-airway macrophage inflammation and neutrophil recruitment in SARS-CoV-2-infected rhesus macaques

1. Download : Download high-res image (228KB)
2. Download : Download full-size image