The Role of Probiotics in the Treatment of Dysentery: a Randomized Double-Blind Clinical Trial

Diarrhea is considered as an important cause of morbidity and mortality, even though one of the main reasons of death following diarrhea is initiated by dysentery. In recent years, the consumption of probiotics has been proposed for the treatment of infectious diarrhea. Despite most of the studies on probiotics have focused on acute watery diarrhea, few studies in the field of dysentery have found beneficial effects of probiotics. This study is a randomized double-blind clinical trial. The patients were randomly placed into control and case groups. In the intervention group, the patients received probiotics in the form of Kidilact® sachet, which contained high amounts of 7-strain friendly bacteria strains of Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Bifidobacterium infantis, Bifidobacterium breve, and Streptococcus thermophiles. On the other hand, the patients in the control group received placebo sachets on a daily basis for 5 days. It is notable that the treatment protocol of acute dysentery was done on both groups. The results of this study showed significant differences in the duration of blood in diarrhea between probiotic consumers (2.62 days) and the control group (3.16 days) (P value = 0.05). Additionally, significant differences in the average length of hospitalization in probiotic consumers (3.16 days) and control (3.66 days), (P value = 0.02) could be claimed that the consumption of probiotics is effective in reducing the duration of dysentery and diarrhea. The results of this study suggest that the use of probiotics can be effective in reducing the duration of blood in diarrhea. This study was also recorded in the Iran center of clinical trials registration database (IRCT2014060617985N1).     

Antitumor studies. Part 4: Design, synthesis, antitumor activity, and molecular docking study of novel 2-substituted 2-deoxoflavin-5-oxides, 2-deoxoalloxazine-5-oxides, and their 5-deaza analogs

Various novel 10-alkyl-2-deoxo-2-methylthioflavin-5-oxides and their 2-alkylamino derivatives were prepared by facile nitrosative cyclization of 6-(N-alkylanilino)-2-methylthiopyrimidin-4(3H)-ones followed by nucleophilic replacement of the 2-methylthio moiety by different amines, and acidic hydrolysis of the 2-methylthio moiety afforded the corresponding flavin derivatives. 2-Deoxo-2-methylthio-5-deazaalloxazines and 2-deoxo-2-methylthioalloxazine-5-oxides were also prepared by Vilsmeier reaction and by nitrosation of 6-anilino-2-methylthiopyrimidin-4(3H)-ones, respectively. Then, they were subjected to nucleophilic replacement with appropriate amines to produce the corresponding 2-alkylamino derivatives. Regiospecific N(3)-alkylation of 2-deoxo-2-methylthioalloxazine-5-oxides was carried out with various alkylating agents in the usual way. The antitumor activities against CCRF-HSB-2 and KB tumor cells have been investigated in vitro, and many compounds showed promising antitumor activities. Furthermore, AutoDock molecular docking into PTK (PDB: 1t46) has been done for lead optimization of the aforementioned compounds as potential PTK inhibitors.     

Antitumor studies. Part 5: Synthesis, antitumor activity, and molecular docking study of 5-(monosubstituted amino)-2-deoxo-2-phenyl-5-deazaflavins

Various novel 5-(monosubstituted amino)-2-deoxo-2-phenyl-5-deazaflavins derivatives have been synthesized by direct coupling of 5-deazaflavins and N-alkyl or aryl amines. The antitumor activities against human tumor cell lines CCRF-HSB-2 and KB cells have been investigated in vitro and many compounds showed promising potential antitumor activities with less cytotoxicities. AutoDock molecular docking into PTK (PDB code: 1t46) has been done for lead optimization of these compounds as potential PTK inhibitors. Some of the synthesized 5-(monosubstituted amino)-2-deoxo-2-phenyl-5-deazaflavins at the 5-position exhibited reasonable binding affinities into PTK with the hydrogen bond through their C(5)-NH moiety.     

MAD-DPD: designing highly degenerate primers with maximum amplification specificity

This work introduces minimum accumulative degeneracy, a variant of the degenerate primer design problem, which is particularly useful when a large number of sequences are to be covered by a set of restricted number of primers. A primer set, which is designed on a minimum accumulative degeneracy basis, especially helps to reduce nonspecific PCR amplification of undesired DNA fragments, as fewer primer species are present in PCR. A Boltzmann machine is designed to solve the minimum accumulative degeneracy degenerate primer design problem, called the MAD-DPD Boltzmann machine. This algorithm shows great flexibility, as it can be determined either to solve the problem with strict fidelity to covering all input sequences or to exclude some input sequences if it results in less degenerate primers. This Boltzmann machine is successfully implemented in designing a new set of primers for amplification of antibody variable fragments from mouse spleen cells, which theoretically covers more diverse antibody sequences than currently available primers. The MAD-DPD Boltzmann machine is available online at bioinf.cs.ipm.ir/download/MAD_DPD08172007.zip.     

Reuse potential of agricultural wastes in semi-arid regions: Egypt as a case study

Agricultural wastes represent an important source of bio-energy and valuable products. In Egypt, 18% of the agricultural wastes is used directly as fertiliser. Another 30% is used as animal food. The remainder is burnt directly on the fields or is used for heating in the small villages, using low efficiency burners. These wastes can be used more efficiently as a source of energy and as organic fertiliser. The anaerobic bioconversion of these materials will result in a net energy production. The utilisation of agricultural wastes for the production of energy and compost, combined with using solar energy will save fossil fuel, improve health conditions and the general life quality in the villages. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Synthesis and biological evaluation of 2-amino-7,7-dimethyl 4-substituted-5-oxo-1-(3,4,5-trimethoxy)-1,4,5,6,7,8-hexahydro-quinoline-3-carbonitrile derivatives as potential cytotoxic agents

A large number of antimitotic drugs, derived from natural sources or chemically synthesized, have been identified and shown to interfere with the tubulin system. Inhibition of tubulin polymerization is among the important targets useful in the cancer therapy.The present work reports the synthesis of some novel quinoline derivatives bearing a trimethoxyphenyl moiety. The trimethoxybenzene moiety has been reported to be crucial to obtain relevant cytotoxic and antitubulin responses. All the newly synthesized compounds were evaluated for their in vitro anticancer activity. Several compounds showed interesting cytotoxic activities compared to the used reference drug.     

Proteome approach for identification of schistosomiasis japonica vaccine candidate antigen

Experimental vaccination with radiation-attenuated cercariae (RAC) confers possible practical levels of resistance to challenge infection by humoral and by cellular mechanism. Here, we aimed to identify possible vaccine antigens by using specific IgG antibody from RAC vaccinated miniature pig. Two milligrams of soluble egg antigen (SEA) or schistosomal worm antigen preparation (SWAP) was fractionated using two dimensional liquid chromatography (proteome PF 2D) consisted of high performance chromatofocusing (HPCF) and high resolution reversed phase chromatography (HPRP). Of the 42 HPCF fractions of SEA or SWAP, 26 (61.9%) or 15 (35.7%) showed positive dot blot reaction with RAC vaccinated serum respectively. The dot blot positive fractions were applied to the second HPRP column. One hundred and seven out of 26 x 96 of SEA fractions and 18 out of 15 x 96 SWAP fractions reacted with RAC vaccinated serum. From the positive fractions we chose 17 of SEA and 10 of SWAP that had no reactivity with normal cercariae infected (NCI) sera and had single peak of 214 nm; and automated N-terminal amino acid sequence based on in situ Edman Reaction was conducted. Four sequences were obtained and applied to the homology search in NCBI database. A total of eight candidate genes were listed up and their cDNA clones from schistosomula stage were obtained. Two of the recombinant proteins (AAW27472.1 and AXX25883.1) showed strong reactivity with the RAC vaccinated serum but marginal with NCI serum. This protocol using proteome PF 2D could be applicable in identifying immunoreactive proteins from crude extract for the development of vaccines or for diagnostics.     

Oxidative stress and S-100B protein in children with bacterial meningitis

Background  

Bacterial meningitis is often associated with cerebral compromise which may be responsible for neurological sequelae in nearly half of the survivors. Little is known about the mechanisms of CNS involvement in bacterial meningitis. Several studies have provided substantial evidence for the key role of nitric oxide (NO) and reactive oxygen species in the complex pathophysiology of bacterial meningitis.     

Nitric oxide and superoxide dismutase modulate endothelial progenitor cell function in type 2 diabetes mellitus

Background

The renin-angiotensin aldosterone system (RAAS) plays an important role in regulating the blood pressure and the genetic polymorphisms of RAAS genes has been extensively studied in relation to the cardiovascular diseases in various populations with conflicting results. The aim of this study was to determine the association of five genetic polymorphisms (A6G and A20C of angiotensinogen (AGT), MboI of renin, Gly460Trp of aldosterone synthase and Lys173Arg of adducin) of RAAS genes in Malaysian essential hypertensive and type 2 diabetic subjects.

Methods

RAAS gene polymorphisms were determined using mutagenically separated PCR and PCR-RFLP method in a total of 270 subjects consisting of 70 hypertensive subjects without type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), 60 T2DM, 65 hypertensive subjects with T2DM and 75 control subjects.

Results

There was significant difference found in age, body mass index, systolic/diastolic blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose and high density lipoprotein cholesterol levels between the hypertensive subjects with or without T2DM and control subjects. No statistically significant differences between groups were found in the allele frequency and genotype distribution for A20C variant of AGT gene, MboI of renin, Gly460Trp of aldosterone and Lys173Arg of adducin (p > 0.05). However, the results for A6G of AGT gene revealed significant differences in allele and genotype frequencies in essential hypertension with or without T2DM (p < 0.001).

Conclusion

Among the five polymorphisms of RAAS genes only A6G variant of AGT gene was significantly associated in Malaysian essential hypertensive and type 2 diabetic subjects. Therefore, A6G polymorphism of the AGT gene could be a potential genetic marker for increased susceptibility to essential hypertension with or without T2DMin Malaysian subjects.     

The Spatial and Temporal Deployment of Voluntary Attention across the Visual Field

Several studies have addressed the question of the time it takes for attention to shift from one position in space to another. Here we present a behavioural paradigm which offers a direct access to an estimate of voluntary shift time by comparing, in the same task, a situation in which subjects are required to re-engage their attention at the same spatial location with a situation in which they need to shift their attention to another location, all other sensory, cognitive and motor parameters being equal. We show that spatial attention takes on average 55 ms to voluntarily shift from one hemifield to the other and 38 ms to shift within the same hemifield. In addition, we show that across and within hemifields attentional processes are different. In particular, attentional spotlight division appears to be more difficult to operate within than across hemifields.