THE HISTORY OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN THE U.S. AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CURRENT LEGAL IMPEDIMENTS TO THE MEDICAL USE OF MARIJUANA IN THE STATES

The twenty-five year controversy surrounding the illegal status of medicinal marijuana, which remains unresolved, provides an excellent study of the relationship between the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA"), the Drug Enforcement Agency ("DEA"), and the courts. During this historical chronology the agencies attempt to fulfill their shared duties under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 ("CSA"), while the judiciary seeks to enforce principles of administrative law and the U.S. Constitution. Added to the difficulty of defining the boundary of each entity's power is the notion that different standards govern the way each determines what is in the best interest of the American people they serve. The following is a discussion of how legal principles and scientific evidence have been, and are working together toward a resolution of the medical marijuana debate

Plasma activated water as resistance inducer against bacterial leaf spot of tomato

Plant bacterial diseases are routinely managed with scheduled treatments based on heavy metal compounds or on antibiotics; to reduce the negative environmental impact due to the use of such chemical compounds, as pollution or selection of antibiotic resistant pathogens, the integrated control management is required. In the frame of a sustainable agriculture the use of bacterial antagonists, biological agents, plant defence response elicitors or resistant host plant genotypes are the most effective approaches. In this work, cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAP) was applied to sterile distilled water, inducing the production of a hydrogen peroxide, nitrite and nitrate, and a pH reduction. In particular, an atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) has been used to produce plasma activated water (PAW), that was firstly assayed in in vitro experiments and then in planta through application at the root apparatus of tomato plants, against Xanthomonas vesicatoria (Xv), the etiological agent of bacterial leaf spot. Moreover, the transcription abundance of five genes related to the plant defense was investigated in response to PAW treatment. PAW did not show direct antimicrobial activity against Xv in in vitro experiments, but it enhanced the tomato plants defenses. It was effective in reducing the disease severity by giving relative protections of ca. 61, 51 and 38% when applied 1 h, 24 h and 6 days before the experimental inoculation, respectively. In addition, the experiments highlighted the pal gene involvement in response to the PAW treatments and against the pathogen; its transcription levels resulted significantly high from 1 to 48 h until their decrease 192 h after PAW application

Atmospheric pressure non-equilibriumplasma for the production of composite materials

In the evolving field of tissue engineering, continuous advances are required to improve scaffold design and fabrication to obtain biomimetic supports for cell adhesion, proliferation, penetration and differentiation. Both electrospun fibrous scaffolds and hydrogels are used in this field since they well reproduce the structure of the extracellular matrix (ECM) of many biological tissues. Limitations of these two types of materials can be overcome through their combination, by developing composite structures combining enhanced mechanical properties (provided by the fibrous components) and improved cell penetration (provided by the gel phase) in a superior ability to mimic natural ECM that is constituted by both a fibrous protein network and a hydrogel matrix. Here we develop new composite materials made of electrospun PLLA scaffolds and poly(amidoamine) hydrogels with different degrees of crosslinking. To promote compatibilization and good adhesion between the two materials, surface chemical reactions between hydrogels and PLLA mats are induced by inserting amino functional groups on electrospun PLLA mats by means of atmospheric pressure non-thermal plasma. Results will be presented concerning the exposure of PLLA substrates to the plasma region generated by a Dielectric Barrier Discharge at atmospheric pressure, driven by a HV Amplifier connected to a function generator operating with a microsecond rise time and operated in N2. Surface and solid-state thermo-mechanical characterizations of plasma treated substrates and of resulting composite materials at different crosslinking degrees are presented. Results of mechanical tests show a high adhesion between hydrogel and plasma treated PLLA electrospun mats, underlining the opportunity to use atmospheric non-thermal plasmas to fabricate a composite starting from two materials otherwise physically incompatible. Potential effects of nanofibrous-hydrogel were evaluated by investigating pluripotent stem cells response

Plasma-activated medium as an innovative anticancer strategy: Insight into its cellular and molecular impact on in vitro leukemia cells

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) has received attention as a potential anticancer strategy. In this study, culture medium was exposed to a microsecond-pulsed dielectric barrier discharge jet to produce plasma-activated medium (PAM). On the T-lymphoblastic cell line, PAM induced apoptosis through the activation of the intrinsic pathway and inhibited the cell-cycle progression. The use of the scavengers N-acetylcysteine or O-phenantroline significantly decreased the PAM proapoptotic activity. The genetic impact of PAM on TK6 cells was assessed, resulting in an increased micronuclei frequency. PAM exhibited cytotoxic effects even on leukemia cells cultivated in hypoxia, which plays a critical role in promoting chemoresistance. PAM was also tested on normal lymphocytes, showing its partial selectivity. Taken together, these results contribute to understand the pharmacotoxicological profile of CAP

Enhanced Electrospinning of Active Organic Fibers by Plasma Treatment on Conjugated Polymer Solutions

Realizing active, light-emitting fibers made of conjugated polymers by the electrospinning method is generally challenging. Electrospinning of plasma-treated conjugated polymer solutions is here developed for the production of light-emitting microfibers and nanofibers. Active fibers from conjugated polymer solutions rapidly processed by a cold atmospheric argon plasma are electrospun in an effective way, and they show a smoother surface and bead-less morphology, as well as preserved optical properties in terms of absorption, emission, and photoluminescence quantum yield. In addition, the polarization of emitted light and more notably photon waveguiding along the length of individual fibers are remarkably enhanced by electrospinning plasma-treated solutions. These properties come from a synergetic combination of favorable intermolecular coupling in the solutions, increased order of macromolecules on the nanoscale, and resulting fiber morphology. Such findings make the coupling of the electrospinning method and cold atmospheric plasma processing on conjugated polymer solutions a highly promising and possibly general route to generate light-emitting and conductive micro- and nanostructures for organic photonics and electronics

A new strategy to prevent biofilm and clot formation in medical devices: the use of atmospheric non-thermal plasma assisted deposition of silver-based nanostructured coatings

In industrialized countries, health care associated infections, the fourth leading cause of dis- ease, are a major health issue. At least half of all cases of nosocomial infections are associ- ated with medical devices. Antibacterial coatings arise as an important approach to restrict the nosocomial infection rate without side effects and the development of antibiotic resis- tance. Beside nosocomial infections, clot formation affects cardiovascular medical devices and central venous catheters implants. In order to reduce and prevent such infection, we develop a plasma-assisted process for the deposition of nanostructured functional coatings on flat substrates and mini catheters. Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) are synthesized exploit- ing in-flight plasma-droplet reactions and are embedded in an organic coating deposited through hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) plasma assisted polymerization. Coating stability upon liquid immersion and ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilization is assessed through chemical and morphological analysis carried out by means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In the perspective of future clinical appli- cation, an in vitro analysis of anti-biofilm effect has been done. Moreover, we employed a murine model of catheter-associated infection which further highlighted the performance of Ag nanostructured films in counteract biofilm formation. The anti-clot performances coupled by haemo- and cytocompatibility assays have also been performed

CARACTERIZAÇÃO BIOQUÍMICA DE LINFONODOS NORMAIS, COMPROMETIDOS E LESÕES CERVICAIS POR ESPECTROSCOPIA RAMAN

Os linfonodos fazem parte do conjunto de órgãos linfoides pertencentes ao sistema linfático, considerados os filtros da linfa por serem ricos em células de defesa. Uma das causas de seu comprometimento é a invasão de células neoplásicas. A biópsia com posterior exame histológico constitui o exame padrão ouro no diagnóstico. Porém, estudos questionam a eficácia desta técnica, devido a perda da arquitetura celular. Neste sentido, o trabalho teve como objetivo mostrar as diferenças entre linfonodos normais e comprometidos por células tumorais. Para isto, foi utilizado a espectroscopia Raman na caracterização bioquímica de linfonodos normais e comprometidos além de lesões cervicais. Os resultados mostraram uma taxa de sensibilidade de 71,4%, especificidade de 80% e acurácia de 75% na discriminação dos tecidos. Portanto, a espectroscopia Raman se mostrou uma importante ferramenta no auxílio diagnóstico

Late-Proterozoic to Paleozoic history of the peri-Gondwana Calabria–Peloritani Terrane inferred from a review of zircon chronology

U–Pb analyses of zircon from ten samples of augen gneisses, eight mafic and intermediate metaigneous rocks and six metasediments from some tectonic domains along the Calabria–Peloritani Terrane (Southern Italy) contribute to knowledge of peri-Gondwanan evolution from Late-Proterozoic to Paleozoic times. All samples were equilibrated under amphibolite to granulite facies metamorphism during the Variscan orogeny. The zircon grains of all considered samples preserve a Proterozoic memory suggestive of detrital, metamorphic and igneous origin. The available data fit a frame involving: (1) Neoproterozoic detrital input from cratonic areas of Gondwana; (2) Pan-African/Cadomian assemblage of blocks derived from East and West African Craton; (3) metamorphism and bimodal magmatism between 535 and 579 Ma, within an active margin setting; (4) rifting and opening of Ordovician basins fed by detrital input from the assembled Cadomian blocks. The Paleozoic basins evolved through sedimentation, metamorphism and magmatism during the Variscan orogeny involving Palaeozoic and pre-Paleozoic blocks. The Proterozoic zircon records decidedly decrease in the high grade metamorphic rocks affected by Variscan pervasive partial melting. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40064-016-1839-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Adverse maternal, fetal, and newborn outcomes among pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection: an individual participant data meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION Despite a growing body of research on the risks of SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy, there is continued controversy given heterogeneity in the quality and design of published studies. METHODS We screened ongoing studies in our sequential, prospective meta-analysis. We pooled individual participant data to estimate the absolute and relative risk (RR) of adverse outcomes among pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection, compared with confirmed negative pregnancies. We evaluated the risk of bias using a modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. RESULTS We screened 137 studies and included 12 studies in 12 countries involving 13 136 pregnant women.Pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection-as compared with uninfected pregnant women-were at significantly increased risk of maternal mortality (10 studies; n=1490; RR 7.68, 95% CI 1.70 to 34.61); admission to intensive care unit (8 studies; n=6660; RR 3.81, 95% CI 2.03 to 7.17); receiving mechanical ventilation (7 studies; n=4887; RR 15.23, 95% CI 4.32 to 53.71); receiving any critical care (7 studies; n=4735; RR 5.48, 95% CI 2.57 to 11.72); and being diagnosed with pneumonia (6 studies; n=4573; RR 23.46, 95% CI 3.03 to 181.39) and thromboembolic disease (8 studies; n=5146; RR 5.50, 95% CI 1.12 to 27.12).Neonates born to women with SARS-CoV-2 infection were more likely to be admitted to a neonatal care unit after birth (7 studies; n=7637; RR 1.86, 95% CI 1.12 to 3.08); be born preterm (7 studies; n=6233; RR 1.71, 95% CI 1.28 to 2.29) or moderately preterm (7 studies; n=6071; RR 2.92, 95% CI 1.88 to 4.54); and to be born low birth weight (12 studies; n=11 930; RR 1.19, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.40). Infection was not linked to stillbirth. Studies were generally at low or moderate risk of bias. CONCLUSIONS This analysis indicates that SARS-CoV-2 infection at any time during pregnancy increases the risk of maternal death, severe maternal morbidities and neonatal morbidity, but not stillbirth or intrauterine growth restriction. As more data become available, we will update these findings per the published protocol