Ineffectiveness of ceruletide to reduce food intake and body weight in obese women hospitalized for weight reduction and treated with a restricted diet. A double-blind study

Ceruletide is a synthetic decapeptide closely resembling the 8-carboxy-terminal peptide of cholecystokinin (CCK-8) with which it shares several biological properties. In a double-blind study versus placebo, we evaluated the effects of ceruletide on self-rated hunger and food intake at lunch time, as well as on body weight in 14 obese women hospitalized for weight reduction and on a restricted diet. During two 6-day courses of treatment with ceruletide or placebo, ceruletide 0.3 microgram/kg b.wt. or an equivalent volume of its diluent were injected IM at 11.30 a.m., i.e., 30 min before lunch. Feelings of hunger were quantitated, using a visual analogue self-rating scale, prior to the injection of ceruletide or placebo and 30 min thereafter, i.e., just prior to the start of meal ingestion, as well as 2 hr after the start of the meal. Duration and caloric content of food ingested at lunch, as well as morning body weight, were recorded daily. Ceruletide, compared to placebo, did not significantly influence any of the above variables. However, in the first three experimental days, the increase in self-rated hunger from values before the injection to 30 min thereafter was less marked, though not significantly so (0.05 less than p less than 0.1), with ceruletide than with placebo. Thus, it appears that ceruletide, under the experimental conditions of the present study, was not effective in enhancing the patients' motivation to lose weight and to further restrict their food intake at lunch time.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Genotoxicity testing of combined treatment with cisplatin, bleomycin, and 5-fluorouracil in somatic cells of Drosophila melanogaster

The simultaneous treatment with the cross-linking agent cisplatin, the radiomimetic antitumoral drug bleomycin, and the anti-metabolite drug 5-fluorouracil has been used as a regimen to treat patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Considering that these drugs interact directly with DNA, one of the important late-occurring complications from treatment of primary malignancies is the therapy-related secondary cancers as a result of the genotoxic activity of the drugs on normal cells. In this sense, the genotoxicity of this combination was evaluated using the wing somatic mutation and recombination test in Drosophila melanogaster. The mutant spots observed in marker-heterozygous and balancer-heterozygous flies were compared in order to quantitatively and qualitatively estimate the genotoxic effect of these drugs. Cisplatin (0.003 and 0.006mM), bleomycin (0.005 and 0.01mM), and both combinations preferentially induced recombinational events, while mutation is the major event regarding the genetic toxicity of 5-fluorouracil (0.025 and 0.05mM). The combination of these drugs produced synergistic and antagonistic genotoxic effects, depending on the concentrations used, which could impose a higher risk of secondary effects associated with their genotoxic effects, emphasizing the importance of long-term monitoring in patients being treated with these drugs.     

Geranylgeraniol Overcomes the Block of Cell Proliferation by Lovastatin in C6 Glioma Cells

Abstract: It is well documented that 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase inhibitors prevent cultured mammalian cells from progressing through the cell cycle, suggesting a critical role for a mevalonate-derived product. Recently, it has been shown that free geranylgeraniol (GG-OH) and farnesol (F-OH) can be utilized by C6 glioma cells for protein isoprenylation. The ability of GG-OH and F-OH to restore protein geranylgeranylation or farnesylation selectively has enabled us to examine the possibility that mevalonate is essential for cell proliferation because it is a precursor of farnesyl pyrophosphate or geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate, the isoprenyl donors involved in the post-translational modification of key regulatory proteins. In this study we report that GG-OH, as well as mevalonate, overcomes the arrest of cell proliferation of C6 glioma cells treated with lovastatin, as assessed by increased cell numbers and a stimulation in [³H]thymidine incorporation. The increase in cell number and [³H]thymidine incorporation were significantly lower when F-OH was added. Under these conditions [³H]mevalonate and [³H]GG-OH are actively incorporated into a set of isoprenylated proteins in the size range of small, GTP-binding proteins (19–27 kDa) and a polypeptide with the molecular size (46 kDa) of the smaller isoform of 2′,3′-cyclic nucleotide 3′-phosphodiesterase. Analysis of the proteins metabolically labeled by [³H]mevalonate and [³H]GG-OH reveals the presence of labeled proteins containing geranylgeranylated cysteinyl residues. Consistent with geranylgeranylated proteins playing a critical role in the entry of C6 cells into the cell cycle, a (phosphonoacetamido)oxy derivative of GG-OH, a drug previously shown to interfere with protein geranylgeranylation, prevented the increase in cell number when mevalonate or GG-OH was added to lovastatin-treated cells. These results strongly suggest that geranylgeranylated proteins are essential for progression of C6 cells into the S phase of the cell cycle and provide the first evidence that the “salvage” pathway for the utilization of the free isoprenols is physiologically significant in the CNS.     

Liquid membrane potential in nonisothermal systems.

Electrical membrane potential equations for liquid ion exchange membranes, characterized by the presence of uncharged associated species and by exclusion of co-ions (no electrolyte uptake) have been derived. The irreversible thermodynamic theories already developed for solid membranes with fixed charged site density have been extended to include the different physicochemical aspects of the liquid membranes. To this purpose the dissipation function has been written with reference to the fluxes of all the species present in the membrane. It has been found that the mobile charged site, the counterions, and the uncharged associated species contribute to the electrical membrane potential through their phenomenological coefficients. The electrical membrane potential equations have been integrated in isothermal and nonisothermal conditions for monoionic and biionic systems. The theoretical predictions have been experimentally tested by studying the electrical potential of liquid membranes formed with solutions of tetraheptylammonium salts in omicron-dichlorobenzene.     

Protothecosis in Dogs and Cats—New Research Directions

Protothecosis refers to disease of humans and animals caused by infection with fungus-like, colourless microalgae of the genus Prototheca. Although protothecosis remains an uncommon infection, increasing numbers of human and animal cases are being diagnosed worldwide. This review summarises major new findings in basic science (sequencing analyses of sterol 14α-demethylase (CYP51/ERG11) genes and organelle genomes of Prototheca wickerhamii) to elucidate taxonomic features of this pathogen. Furthermore, this review updates and summarises the clinical features, diagnosis and treatment of protothecosis in dogs and cats. This content of this review is based on information presented at the medical phycology symposium held in the 20th Congress of the International Society for Human and Animal Mycology (https://www.isham.org/).

     

Exploratory study of plasma total homocysteine and its relationship to short-term outcome in acute ischaemic stroke in Nigerians

Background  

Hyperhomocysteinemia is a potentially modifiable risk factor for stroke, and may have a negative impact on the course of ischaemic stroke. The role of hyperhomocysteinemia as it relates to stroke in Africans is still uncertain. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and short-term impact of hyperhomocysteinemia in Nigerians with acute ischaemic stroke. We hypothesized that Hcy levels are significantly higher than in normal controls, worsen stroke severity, and increase short-term case fatality rates following acute ischaemic stroke.