A review of medicinal herbs with antioxidant properties in the treatment of cerebral ischemia and reperfusion

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Stroke is the second most common cause of death and a major cause of disability in individuals aged over 65 years, worldwide. Considering the complex pathological process of ischemia, use of one single agent does not seem ideal for treatment. Therefore, studies in search of effective compounds and methods are under way. In recent years, increased attention has been paid to medicinal plants as potential sources for the treatment of ischemia and reperfusion. This study aimed to introduce the pathogenesis of cerebral ischemia and review the effects of medicinal plants and their mechanisms of action in cerebral ischemia. METHODS: In this study, articles indexed in scientific databases including ISI, SID, PubMed, PubMed Central, Scopus, and Web of Science were evaluated, using the following keywords in Farsi and English: "Ischemia and reperfusion", "medicinal herbs", and "antioxidant properties". FINDINGS: The review of conducted studies showed that medicinal plants and their compounds are capable of reducing infarct volume, cerebral edema, neuronal damages, sensory problems, and motor disorders through reducing oxidative and nitrative stress. Moreover, these plants are able to decrease the expression of inflammatory mediators, inhibit DNA fragmentation and oxidative DNA damage, reduce microglial and astrocyte activities, increase the expression of mitochondrial genes, inhibit apoptotic protein expression, reduce eicosanoids, and boost anti-apoptotic protein expression. CONCLUSION: Medicinal herbs and their compounds are able to diminish the damages caused by cerebral ischemia through several pathways; therefore, they can be used as new sources against cerebral ischemia

Effect of dietary virgin olive oil on infarct volume and brain ceramide, cerebroside and phosphatidylcholine levels in rat stroke model

زمینه و هدف: سکته مغزی سومین عامل مرگ و میر در کشورهای صنعتی بعد از بیماری های قلبی- عروقی و سرطان است. این مطالعه با هدف بررسی ارتباط بین اثر روغن زیتون بکر بر سطح لیپیدهای مغزی و کاهش حجم سکته مغزی در مدل سکته مغزی موش صحرایی انجام گرفت. روش بررسی: در این مطالعه تجربی از 5 گروه 12 تایی موش صحرایی نر استفاده شد. این گروه ها شامل کنترل، شم و سه گروه آزمایشی بودند که دوزهای 25/0، 5/0 و 75/0 میلی لیتر بر کیلوگرم وزن بدن روغن زیتون بکر را به صورت خوراکی از طریق گاواژ به مدت 30 روز دریافت نمودند. دو گروه کنترل و شم آب مقطر دریافت کردند. دو ساعت بعد از آخرین دوز گاواژ شده هر گروه 12 تایی به دو زیر گروه تقسیم شدند. زیر گروه (middle cerebral artery occlusion)MCAO، به منظور اندازه گیری حجم سکته مغزی و زیر گروه دیگر برای آنالیز لیپیدهای مغزی استفاده شد. داده ها با استفاده از آزمون های ANOVA و تست تعقیبی LSDو آزمون ضریب همبستگی پیرسون تجزیه و تحلیل شدند. یافته ها: پیش تیمار با روغن زیتون بکر خوراکی با دوز 5/0 و 75/0 میلی لیتر بر کیلوگرم در روز باعث افزایش سطح فسفاتیدیل کولین بافت مغز گردید (05/0

Neuroprotection of Dietary Virgin Olive Oil on Brain Lipidomics During Stroke

Recent studies suggest that dietary virgin olive oil reduces hypoxia-reoxygenation injury in rat brain. This study investigated the effect of pretreatment with different doses of dietary virgin olive oil on brain lipidomics during stroke. In this experimental trial, 60 male Wistar rats were studied in 5 groups of 12 each. The control group received distilled water while three treatment groups received oral virgin olive oil for 30 days (0.25, 0.5 and 0.75 ml/kg/day respectively). Also the sham group received distilled water. Two hours after the last dose, the animals divided two groups. The middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) group subjected to 60 min of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) and intact groups for brain lipids analysis. The brain phosphatidylcholine, cholesterol ester and cholesterol levels increased significantly in doses of 0.5 and 0.75 ml/kg/day compare with control group. VOO in all three doses increased the brain triglyceride levels. VOO with dose 0.75 ml/kg increased the brain cerebroside levels when compared with control group. VOO pretreatment for 30 days decreased the brain ceramide levels in doses of 0.5 and 0.75 ml/kg/day (p<0.05). Although further studies are needed, the results indicate that the VOO pretreatment improved the injury of ischemia and reperfusion and might be beneficial in patients with these disorders and seems to partly exert their effects via change in brain lipid levels in rat

The effect of edible oil from Portulaca oleracea seeds on the blood-brain barrier permeability in rat

Background: After cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory disorders, stroke is considered as the four major death reasons in general population. Due to the important role of Portulaca oleracea in reducing the inflammatory damages and its protective effect on hypoxic nervous tissue, the present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the intake of Portulaca oleracea oil and the blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability in a rat stroke model. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, male Wistar rats (n=35) were randomly allocated into 5 equal groups: Control (distilled water+ischemia); three Experimental groups (Portulaca Oil at doses of 50, 75 and 100 mg/kg+ischemia) and Sham group (no treatment and ischemia). Pretreatment with Portulaca Oil was performed for 30 days, orally through gavage. In each of the groups blood-brain barrier permeability was studied using the Evans-Blue concentration. Results: Compared to the Control, the permeability of BBB was decreased only in Experimental groups with 0.50 and 0.75 mg/kg doses. However, the Experimental group with a dose of 0.25 did not reveal any significant difference compared to Control. Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, as a precautionary measure for stroke the administration of Portulaca oleracea oil can reduce the BBB permeability

Diabetic foot care course: a quasi-experimental study on E-learning versus interactive workshop

Background: Nurses, as multidisciplinary Diabetic Foot Care (DFC) team members, need to be trained in DF prevention and management. Regarding the increasing use of e-learning educational courses as the new learning strategy with potential benefits among health care providers, this study attempted to evaluate the educational effects of an e-learning course on DFC compared to that of an interactive workshop in the related knowledge attainment. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study compared two non-randomized groups consisting of nurses who attended an e-learning course (intervention group) and a face-to-face interactive workshop (control group) on DFC using a pre- and post-test design. The eligible nurses enrolled by convenience sampling. All five e-modules on DF prevention and care were the same for both groups. A P value of <0.05 was considered as significant. Results: The study findings indicated that both e-learning course and interactive workshop increased DFC knowledge among nurses. There is a significant difference between the learning level (after training) in the intervention and control groups (P < 0.01). Conclusions: The findings suggest that the e-learning course of DF could be as effective as conventional educational methods. However, considering the time, cost savings and providing an opportunity to learn anytime and anywhere, of the e-learning course, it is recommend for the future and required that more health care providers be trained to use of distance learning. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Genome-wide association study of lifetime cannabis use based on a large meta-analytic sample of 32330 subjects from the International Cannabis Consortium

Contains fulltext : 156357.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Cannabis is the most widely produced and consumed illicit psychoactive substance worldwide. Occasional cannabis use can progress to frequent use, abuse and dependence with all known adverse physical, psychological and social consequences. Individual differences in cannabis initiation are heritable (40-48%). The International Cannabis Consortium was established with the aim to identify genetic risk variants of cannabis use. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association data of 13 cohorts (N=32330) and four replication samples (N=5627). In addition, we performed a gene-based test of association, estimated single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based heritability and explored the genetic correlation between lifetime cannabis use and cigarette use using LD score regression. No individual SNPs reached genome-wide significance. Nonetheless, gene-based tests identified four genes significantly associated with lifetime cannabis use: NCAM1, CADM2, SCOC and KCNT2. Previous studies reported associations of NCAM1 with cigarette smoking and other substance use, and those of CADM2 with body mass index, processing speed and autism disorders, which are phenotypes previously reported to be associated with cannabis use. Furthermore, we showed that, combined across the genome, all common SNPs explained 13-20% (P<0.001) of the liability of lifetime cannabis use. Finally, there was a strong genetic correlation (rg=0.83; P=1.85 × 10-8) between lifetime cannabis use and lifetime cigarette smoking implying that the SNP effect sizes of the two traits are highly correlated. This is the largest meta-analysis of cannabis GWA studies to date, revealing important new insights into the genetic pathways of lifetime cannabis use. Future functional studies should explore the impact of the identified genes on the biological mechanisms of cannabis use.9 p