Beta-endorphin levels in both painful and painless diabetic peripheral neuropathy and its relations to pain characters and severity

Introduction. In the peripheral nervous system (PNS), beta-endorphins produce analgesia by binding to opioid receptors (particularly of the mu subtype) at both preand post-synaptic nerve terminals, primarily exerting their effect through presynaptic binding. Aim was to study serum beta-endorphin levels in diabetic patients with and without diabetic peripheral neuropathy and its relations to characters and severity of pain in patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Material and methods. The study was a case control study including 88 participants; 73 diabetics and 15 age and sex matched healthy subjects. For all subjects, levels of HbA1c, serum creatinine, total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL and LDL as well as serum levels of beta-endorphin were measured. Pain severity was detected by using visual analogue pain scale. Results. Serum beta-endorphin shows no significant difference between diabetic neuropathic, diabetic non neuropathic and control groups (p = 0.275). Serum beta-endorphin shows negative correlation with age (p = 0.049) and HbA1c (p = 0.048). While it was not correlated with pain severity (p = 0.371), NDS: total score (p = 0.803), BMI (p = 0.801), serum creatinine (p = 0.074) or DM duration (p = 0.607). Serum beta-endorphin shows no significant difference between painful and painless neuropathy subgroups (p = 0.701). Conclusion. In our study serum beta-endorphin levels showed no significant difference between patients with painless diabetic peripheral neuropathy and those with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy with different characters of pain. Also, serum beta-endorphin levels was not correlated with pain severity

Late Acceptance Selection Hyper-heuristic for Wind Farm Layout Optimisation Problem

Wind is a promising source of renewable energy which can be harvested using wind turbines placed on farms. An efficient wind farm layout achieving various engineering and financial objectives is crucial to ensure the sustainability and continuity of energy production. In this study, a high-level search technique, namely late acceptance selection hyper-heuristic is applied to optimise the layout of wind farms. This approach aims to find the best placement of turbines at a given site, maximising the energy output while minimising the cost at the same time. The computational experiments indicate that the late acceptance selection hyper-heuristic improves upon the performance of a previously proposed genetic algorithm across all scenarios and an iterated local search over the majority of scenarios considering the best solutions obtained by each algorithm over the runs

Stężenia beta-endorfin w bólowej i bezbólowej postaci obwodowej neuropatii cukrzycowej oraz ich zależność od nasilenia i charakteru bólu

Wstęp. Działanie przeciwbólowe beta-endorfin w obwodowym układzie nerwowym występuje w następstwie ich wiązania się z receptorami opioidowymi, głównie typu mu, obecnymi w przed- i postsynaptycznych zakończeniach nerwowych. Efekt ten ma miejsce przede wszystkim na poziomie presynaptycznym. Celem badania była analiza stężeń beta-endorfin w surowicy chorych na cukrzycę, w grupie bez neuropatii lub z neuropatią cukrzycową, oraz ich korelacji z rodzajem oraz nasileniem bólu u chorych cierpiących na postać bólową obwodowej neuropatii cukrzycowej. Materiał i metody. Do badania kliniczno-kontrolnego zakwalifikowano 88 osób, w tym 73 chorych na cukrzycę oraz 15 osób zdrowych, dobranych pod względem płci i wieku. U wszystkich oznaczono stężenia HbA1c, kreatyniny w surowicy, cholesterolu całkowitego, triglicerydów, cholesterolu frakcji HDL i LDL oraz beta-endorfin. Nasilenie bólu oceniano przy użyciu skali analogowo-wzrokowej. Wyniki. Nie stwierdzono istotnych różnic pod względem stężeń beta-endorfin w surowicy pomiędzy grupą chorych na cukrzycę z neuropatią, chorych bez neuropatii oraz grupą kontrolną (p = 0,275). Odnotowano natomiast odwrotnie proporcjonalną zależność pomiędzy stężeniem beta-endorfin w surowicy a wiekiem badanych (p = 0,049) oraz stężeniem HbA1c (p = 0,048). Nie wykazano korelacji z nasileniem bólu (p = 0,371), całkowitą wartością wskaźnika NDS (p = 0,803), wartością BMI (p = 0,801), stężeniem kreatyniny w surowicy (p = 0,074) ani czasem trwania cukrzycy (p = 0,607). Stężenia beta-endorfin w surowicy nie korelowały w istotny sposób z występowaniem neuropatii cukrzycowej o charakterze bólowym ani bezbólowym (p = 0,701). Wnioski. Niniejsze badanie nie wykazało istotnej różnicy stężeń beta-endorfin między grupą chorych z obwodową neuropatią cukrzycową o charakterze bezbólowym i grupą chorych mających dolegliwości bólowe o różnym charakterze. Stężenie beta-endorfin w surowicy nie korelowało także z nasileniem bólu

Metabolic profile and skin-related bioactivities of cerioporus squamosus hydromethanolic extract

Being a functional food capable of showing nutritional as well as medicinal properties have great attention. Mushrooms have been proven as leading targets in this field. For this purpose, the edible mushroom Cerioporus squamosus was investigated in this study to evaluate the in vitro skin-related bioactivities of its hydromethanolic extract in terms of enhancing wound healing, and human skin cancer suppression capabilities. Treatment of fibroblast cells (BJ-1) with the hydromethanolic extract of this mushroom at 50 µg/mL enhanced cell migration rates by 71.7% after 24 h of exposure to the extract. Moreover, the same extract exhibited a promising impact on human skin cancer using an epidermoid carcinoma cell line (A431). The gradual increase in C. squamosus hydromethanolic extract concentration caused gradual decrease in the A431 cell viability and proliferation. Maximum effect on reducing the cell viability was obtained at a concentration of 100 µg/mL, where cell viability was 3.7%, and recorded IC50 was 52.6 µg/mL. The metabolic profile of the extract was analyzed by GC-MS, which was performed on its silylated metabolites. Nineteen compounds were detected including sugar alcohols, amino acids, fatty and organic acids. Promising results of this mushroom extract encourage conducting further steps towards using this mushroom as a functional food showing promising bioactivities

Seroepidemiology of Toxoplasma gondii infection in pregnant women in a public hospital in northern Mexico

BACKGROUND: Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) infection in pregnant women represents a risk for congenital disease. There is scarce information about the epidemiology of T. gondii infection in pregnant women in Mexico. Therefore, we sought to determine the prevalence of T. gondii infection and associated socio-demographic, clinical and behavioural characteristics in a population of pregnant women of Durango City, Mexico. METHODS: Three hundred and forty three women seeking prenatal care in a public hospital of Durango City in Mexico were examined for T. gondii infection. All women were tested for anti-T. gondii IgM and IgG antibodies by using IMx Toxo IgM and IMx Toxo IgG 2.0 kits (Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, IL, USA), respectively. Socio-demographic, clinical and behavioural characteristics from each participant were also obtained. RESULTS: Twenty one out of the 343 (6.1%) women had IgG anti-T. gondii antibodies. None of the 343 women had IgM anti-T. gondii antibodies. Multivariate analysis using logic regression showed that T. gondii infection was associated with living in a house with soil floor (adjusted OR = 7.16; 95% CI: 1.39–36.84), residing outside of Durango State (adjusted OR = 4.25; 95% CI: 1.72–10.49), and turkey meat consumption (adjusted OR = 3.85; 95% CI: 1.30–11.44). Other characteristics as cat contact, gardening, and food preferences did not show any association with T. gondii infection. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of T. gondii infection in pregnant women of Durango City is low as compared with those reported in other regions of Mexico and the majority of other countries. Poor housing conditions as soil floors, residing in other Mexican States, and turkey meat consumption might contribute to acquire T. gondii infection

Neglected Tropical Diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa: Review of Their Prevalence, Distribution, and Disease Burden

The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are the most common conditions affecting the poorest 500 million people living in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and together produce a burden of disease that may be equivalent to up to one-half of SSA's malaria disease burden and more than double that caused by tuberculosis. Approximately 85% of the NTD disease burden results from helminth infections. Hookworm infection occurs in almost half of SSA's poorest people, including 40–50 million school-aged children and 7 million pregnant women in whom it is a leading cause of anemia. Schistosomiasis is the second most prevalent NTD after hookworm (192 million cases), accounting for 93% of the world's number of cases and possibly associated with increased horizontal transmission of HIV/AIDS. Lymphatic filariasis (46–51 million cases) and onchocerciasis (37 million cases) are also widespread in SSA, each disease representing a significant cause of disability and reduction in the region's agricultural productivity. There is a dearth of information on Africa's non-helminth NTDs. The protozoan infections, human African trypanosomiasis and visceral leishmaniasis, affect almost 100,000 people, primarily in areas of conflict in SSA where they cause high mortality, and where trachoma is the most prevalent bacterial NTD (30 million cases). However, there are little or no data on some very important protozoan infections, e.g., amebiasis and toxoplasmosis; bacterial infections, e.g., typhoid fever and non-typhoidal salmonellosis, the tick-borne bacterial zoonoses, and non-tuberculosis mycobaterial infections; and arboviral infections. Thus, the overall burden of Africa's NTDs may be severely underestimated. A full assessment is an important step for disease control priorities, particularly in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the greatest number of NTDs may occur