364 research outputs found
Reinstatement of Morphine-Induced Conditioned Place Preference in Mice by Priming Injections
To construct a model of relapse of drug
abuse in mice, the induction, we evaluated the
extinction and reinstatement of morphine-induced
place preference. In Experiment 1, we
examined the effects of morphine (0, 2, 3, 5, 10,
20 and 40 mg/kg) in the conditioned place
preference (CPP) paradigm. Mice showed CPP
with 5, 10, 20 and 40 mg/kg. In Experiment 2,
we evaluated the effects of two different extinction
procedures. After conditioning with 40
mg/kg of morphine, the mice underwent daily
extinction sessions of 60 or 15 min of duration.
CPP was extinguished after seven and nine
sessions, respectively. In Experiment 3, we
tested the reinstating effects of several priming
doses of morphine. Mice were conditioned with
40 mg/kg of morphine and underwent the daily
15 min extinction sessions until CPP was no
longer evident. Then, the effects of morphine (0,
2, 3, 5, 10, 20, 40 mg/kg, i.p.) were evaluated.
CPP was reinstated by doses from 5 mg/kg
upward. The results show that morphine priming
injections are effective in reactivating opiateseeking
behavior in mice, and thus, the CPP
paradigm might be useful to investigate the
mechanisms underlying relapse of drug abuse
Fruit peels as sources of bioactive compounds with antioxidant and antimicrobial properties
Recently, a major interest in searching for phytochemicals with nutritional and pharmaceutical purposes has arisen. In this regard, it is known that polyphenols present antioxidant properties as well as an inhibitory effect against some kinds of microorganisms. The aim of this study was to obtain aqueous-ethanolic extracts from peels of avocado, cocoa bean, coconut and cactus pear by ultrasound-assisted extraction. The extracts were characterized in terms of phenolics (Folin-Ciocalteu reagent), antioxidant potential (ferric reducing/antioxidant power assay), radical-scavenging ability (2,2-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl free radical assay), and antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella dysenteriae and Candida albicans (disk diffusion test). The results revealed that the avocado peel extract had the highest phenol content (36.5 mg EAG g-1 dry weight), the highest antioxidant activity (141.2 mME Trolox g-1 dry weight) and the lowest IC50 value (59 ppm). Furthermore, avocado and coconut peels demonstrated an inhibitory effect against the tested microorganisms.
Highlights
Bioactive compounds from fruit by-products were obtained by ultrasound-assisted extraction.
A positive correlation between phenolics and antioxidant activity was observed.
Extracts with higher antioxidant activity were more active against the tested microorganisms.
Fruit by-products could represent an important source of compounds with antioxidant and antimicrobial properties.Recently, a major interest in searching for phytochemicals with nutritional and pharmaceutical purposes has arisen. In this regard, it is known that polyphenols present antioxidant properties as well as an inhibitory effect against some kinds of microorganisms. The aim of this study was to obtain aqueous-ethanolic extracts from peels of avocado, cocoa bean, coconut and cactus pear by ultrasound-assisted extraction. The extracts were characterized in terms of phenolics (Folin-Ciocalteu reagent), antioxidant potential (ferric reducing/antioxidant power assay), radical-scavenging ability (2,2-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl free radical assay), and antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella dysenteriae and Candida albicans (disk diffusion test). The results revealed that the avocado peel extract had the highest phenol content (36.5 mg EAG g-1 dry weight), the highest antioxidant activity (141.2 mME Trolox g-1 dry weight) and the lowest IC50 value (59 ppm). Furthermore, avocado and coconut peels demonstrated an inhibitory effect against the tested microorganisms.
Highlights
Bioactive compounds from fruit by-products were obtained by ultrasound-assisted extraction.
A positive correlation between phenolics and antioxidant activity was observed.
Extracts with higher antioxidant activity were more active against the tested microorganisms.
Fruit by-products could represent an important source of compounds with antioxidant and antimicrobial properties
Opposing Roles of Plant Laticifer Cells in the Resistance to Insect Herbivores and Fungal Pathogens
More than 12,000 plant species (ca. 10% of flowering plants) exude latex when their tissues are injured. Latex is produced and stored in specialized cells named ‘‘laticifers’’. Laticifers form a tubing system
composed of rows of elongated cells that branch and create an internal network encompassing the entire
plant. Laticifers constitute a recent evolutionary achievement in ecophysiological adaptation to specific
natural environments; however, their fitness benefit to the plant still remains to be proven. The identification of Euphorbia lathyris mutants (pil mutants) deficient in laticifer cells or latex metabolism, and therefore
compromised in latex production, allowed us to test the importance of laticifers in pest resistance. We provided genetic evidence indicating that laticifers represent a cellular adaptation for an essential defense
strategy to fend off arthropod herbivores with different feeding habits, such as Spodoptera exigua and Tetranychus urticae. In marked contrast, we also discovered that a lack of laticifer cells causes complete
resistance to the fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea. Thereafter, a latex-derived factor required for conidia
germination on the leaf surface was identified. This factor promoted disease susceptibility enhancement
even in the non-latex-bearing plant Arabidopsis. We speculate on the role of laticifers in the coevolutionary arms race between plants and their enemies
Tetralogy of Fallot associated with macrocephaly-capillary malformation syndrome: a case report and review of the literature
Localization of gravity on a de Sitter thick braneworld without scalar fields
In this work we present a simple thick braneworld model that is generated by
an intriguing interplay between a 5D cosmological constant with a de Sitter
metric induced in the 3-brane without the inclusion of scalar fields. We show
that 4D gravity is localized on this brane, provide analytic expressions for
the massive Kaluza-Klein (KK) fluctuation modes and also show that the spectrum
of metric excitations displays a mass gap. We finally present the corrections
to Newton's law due to these massive modes. This model has no naked
singularities along the fifth dimension despite the existence of a mass gap in
the graviton spectrum as it happens in thick branes with 4D Poincare symmetry,
providing a simple model with very good features: the curvature is completely
smooth along the fifth dimension, it localizes 4D gravity and the spectrum of
gravity fluctuations presents a mass gap, a fact that rules out the existence
of phenomenologically dangerous ultralight KK excitations in the model. We
finally present our solution as a limit of scalar thick branes.Comment: 11 pages in latex, no figures, title and abstract changed, a new
section and some references adde
de Sitter Thick Brane Solution in Weyl Geometry
In this paper, we consider a de Sitter thick brane model in a pure geometric
Weyl integrable five-dimensional space-time, which is a generalization of
Riemann geometry and is invariant under a so-called Weyl rescaling. We find a
solution of this model via performing a conformal transformation to map the
Weylian structure into a familiar Riemannian one with a conformal metric. The
metric perturbations of the model are discussed. For gravitational
perturbation, we get the effective modified Pschl-Teller
potential in corresponding Schrdinger equation for
Kaluza-Klein (KK) modes of the graviton. There is only one bound state, which
is a normalizable massless zero mode and represents a stable 4-dimensional
graviton. Furthermore, there exists a mass gap between the massless mode and
continuous KK modes. We also find that the model is stable under the scalar
perturbation in the metric. The correction to the Newtonian potential on the
brane is proportional to , where is the de Sitter
parameter of the brane. This is very different from the correction caused by a
volcano-like effective potential.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures, published versio
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