Subclinical candiduria in patients with gastrointestinal malignancies : a preliminary study on the protective effect of a natural phitocompound

Amyloid-\u3b2 (A\u3b2) peptide aggregation forms such as soluble oligomers (O) have a causal role in neuronal dysfunction and death associated with Alzheimer's Disease (AD). The main efforts for the development of neuroprotective drugs are therefore focused on preventing A\u3b2 production, aggregation or downstream neurotoxic events. We therefore investigated the effect of guanosine (GUO), a guanine based purine, that exerts neurotrophic and neuroprotective effects. The GUO showed the ability to reduce neuronal death in terms of apoptosis, but not necrosis, elicited by A\u3b21-42O in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. The neuroprotective effect was recorded only when the GUO was added simultaneously to treatment of the SH-SY5Y cells with A\u3b21-42O. By contrast, the GUO treatment of SH-SY5Y cells before and after the appearance of \u3b21-42O toxicity had no neuroprotective effects. The employment of specific inhibitors showed the involvement of neuronal survival pathways, such as PI3K-Akt and MAPK-ERK for the GUO anti-apoptotic effects observed. In parallel, the SH-SY5Y cells treated with GUO, in experimental conditions similar to those adopted to evaluate neuronal death, showed a marked decrease of the early reactive oxygen species formation induced by A\u3b21-42O and pro-oxidant H2O 2. In the same neuronal model, GUO was also shown to inhibit the extra- and intra-cellular A\u3b21-42 release as well as the \u3b2-secretase activity evoked by H2O2 pro-oxidant action. Based on these findings, GUO and other guanine based purines appear to be a promising class of compounds with neuroprotective properties that may play an important role in the therapy of AD. Copyrigh

Prophylactic strategies in recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis: a 2-year study testing a phytonutrient vs itraconazole

The aim of the present study was to assess the clinical efficacy of a one week/month treatment with a phytocompound with antimycotic properties (K-712, with following 100 mg composition: 10 mg of oleoresin from Pseudowintera colorata at 30% concentration in Polygodial together with trace amounts of Olea europea) in recurrent vulvo-vaginal candidiasis (RVVC), as compared to once a week treatment with an azole drug for 24 months follow up. This prospective randomized study involving 122 women (19 to 63 years old) with a history of proven episodes of RVVC in the prior 12 months. Patients were allocated in two treatment groups of 61 patients each and given A) Itraconazole 200 mg orally once a week or B) 1 tab twice a day of K-712 for one week/month. Each treatment schedule was well tolerated with 19 patients in the azole group complaining of transient mild symptoms (nausea, abdominal discomfort, unpleasant taste), while only 3 patients on K-712 reported slight dyspepsia. The number of relapses was significantly lower in the K-712-treated group as compared to the itraconazole-group (22 vs 39, p<0.05). Moreover, the former group showed a significantly decreased number of cases resistant or dose-dependent susceptible as compared to group A (p<0.05 vs itraconazole) and the same occurred for the occurrence of non-albicans species (group A 64.1% vs group B 31.8%, p<0.05). The overall mycological cure at the end of the 2-year study showed a comparable benefit between the two groups. From these data it appears that the present antifungal phytonutrient is equally effective as itraconazole in the overall treatment of RVVC over a 2-year follow-up, but yielding a significantly better prophylactic effect and also maintenance benefit with lower relapse rate, antifungal susceptibility and growth of azole-resistant species