Hepatotoxicity induced by greater celandine (Chelidonium majus L.): a review of the literature

The available literature assessing Chelidonium majus L. (CM) hepatotoxicity potential, and its risk to benefit assessment has been reviewed in this paper. Identification of significant scientific literature was performed via the following research databases: Cochrane Central, Google Scholar, EMBASE, Medline, Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science, using the following keywords: "Chelidonium majus", "greater celandine", "Hepatotoxicity", "Liver" "Injury", "Toxicity" individually investigated and then again in association. CM named also greater celandine, swallow-wort, or bai-qu-cai (Chinese), has been used for a long time in traditional Chinese medicine and phytotherapy. Its extracts have been claimed to display a wide variety of biological activities: antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, spasmolytic, antineoplastic, hepatoprotective, and analgesic. Moreover, herbal medicine suggests this plant have numerous additional effects which have not yet been scientifically evaluated, such as antitussive, diuretic, and eye-regenerative. However, despite its claimed hepatoprotective effects, several hepatotoxicity cases have been reported to be probably or highly probably connected with CM exposure, after their evaluation through liver-targeted causality assessment methods. CM hepatotoxicity has been defined as a distinct form of herb-induced liver injury (HILI), due to an idiosyncratic reaction of the metabolic type. This evidence has to be considered in relationship with the absence of considerable benefits of CM therapy. Therefore, the risk to benefit ratio of the use of herbal products containing greater celandine can actually be considered as negative

Very low bias stress in n-type organic single crystal transistors

Bias stress effects in n-channel organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) are investigated using PDIF-CN2 single-crystal devices with Cytop gate dielectric, both under vacuum and in ambient. We find that the amount of bias stress is very small as compared to all (p-channel) OFETs reported in the literature. Stressing the PDIF-CN2 devices by applying 80 V to the gate for up to a week results in a decrease of the source drain current of only ~1% under vacuum and ~10% in air. This remarkable stability of the devices leads to characteristic time constants, extracted by fitting the data with a stretched exponential - that are \tau ~ 2\cdot10^9 s in air and \tau ~ 5\cdot10^9 s in vacuum - approximately two orders of magnitude larger than the best values reported previously for p-channel OFETs.Comment: Submitted to Applied Physics Letters; 14 pages, 3 figure

A yeast synthetic network for in-vivo assessment of reverse engineering and modelling.

Systems biology approaches are extensively used to model and reverse engineer gene regulatory networks from experimental data. Conversely, synthetic biology allows ‘‘de novo’’ construction of a regulatory network to seed new functions in the cell. At present, the usefulness and predictive ability of modeling and reverse engineering cannot be assessed and compared rigorously. We built in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae a synthetic network, IRMA, for in vivo ‘‘benchmarking’’ of reverse-engineering and modeling approaches. The network is composed of five genes regulating each other through a variety of regulatory interactions; it is negligibly affected by endogenous genes, and it is responsive to small molecules. We measured time series and steady-state expression data after multiple perturbations. These data were used to assess state-of-the-art modeling and reverse-engi- neering techniques. A semiquantitative model was able to capture and predict the behavior of the network. Reverse engineering based on differential equations and Bayesian networks correctly inferred regulatory interactions from the experimental data

Esophageal atresia in newborns: a wide spectrum from the isolated forms to a full VACTERL phenotype?

Background: VATER association was first described in 1972 by Quan and Smith as an acronym which identifies a non-random co-occurrence of Vertebral anomalies, Anal atresia, Tracheoesophageal fistula and/or Esophageal atresia, Radial dysplasia. It is even possible to find out Cardiovascular, Renal and Limb anomalies and the acronym VACTERL was adopted, also, embodying Vascular, as single umbilical artery, and external genitalia anomalies. Methods: Data on patients with esophageal atresia (EA) with or without tracheoesophageal fistula (TEF) admitted in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) between January 2003 and January 2013 were evaluated for the contingent occurrence of typical VACTERL anomalies (VACTERL-type) and non tipical VACTERL anomalies (non-VACTERL-type). The inclusion criterion was the presence of EA with or without TEF plus two or more of the following additional malformations: vertebral defects, anal atresia, cardiovascular defects, renal anomalies and lower limb deformities, like radial dysplasia. Results: Among 52 patients with EA/TEF, 20 (38,4%) had isolated EA and 7 (21,8%) had a recognized etiology such a syndrome and therefore were excluded. Among 32 infants with EA and associated malformations, 15 (46,8%) had VACTERL association. The most common anomalies were congenital heart defects (73,3%), followed by vertebral anomalies (66,6%). Many patients also had additional non-VACTERL-type defects. Single umbilical artery was the most common one followed by nervous system abnormalities and anomalies of toes. Between the groups of infants with VACTERL type and non-VACTERL-type anomalies, there are several overlapping data regarding both the tipically described spectrum and the most frequently reported non-VACTERL-type malformations. Thus, it is possible to differentiate infants with a full phenotype (VACTERL full phenotype) and patients that do not meet all the criteria mentioned above, but with some homologies with the first group (VACTERL partial phenotype). Conclusion: The high frequency of non-VACTERL-type anomalies encountered in full and partial phenotype patients would suggest the need for an extension of the clinical criteria for the diagnosis of VACTERL association and also for pre- and post-operative management and follow-up in the short and long term

Facial nerve paralysis in acute otomastoiditis as presenting symptom of FAB M2, T8;21 leukemic relapse. Case report and review of the literature

Granulocytic sarcoma (chloroma) is a rare solid, extramedullary tumour composed of immature granulocytes, occurring during granulocytic leukemia. Leukemic involvement of the temporal bone is not uncommon and may present in a variety of ways. Symptomatic facial nerve paralysis is one of these. The authors report a case of facial nerve paralysis as the presenting symptom of leukemic relapse in a 16-year-old white male, affected by acute myelogenous leukemia FAB M2, karyotype 46xy, T8;21

Usefulness of three-dimensional reconstruction for interpretation and quantitative analysis of intracoronary ultrasound during stent deployment.

In conclusion, on-line 3-D ICUS is feasible during stent implantation, more sensitive than 2-D ICUS in the assessment of optimal stent expansion, and requires a shorter time for analysis

The COMPLETE Survey of Star-Forming Regions: Phase I Data

We present an overview of data available for the Ophiuchus and Perseus molecular clouds from ``Phase I'' of the COMPLETE Survey of Star-Forming Regions. This survey provides a range of data complementary to the Spitzer Legacy Program ``From Molecular Cores to Planet Forming Disks.'' Phase I includes: Extinction maps derived from 2MASS near-infrared data using the NICER algorithm; extinction and temperature maps derived from IRAS 60 and 100um emission; HI maps of atomic gas; 12CO and 13CO maps of molecular gas; and submillimetre continuum images of emission from dust in dense cores. Not unexpectedly, the morphology of the regions appears quite different depending on the column-density tracer which is used, with IRAS tracing mainly warmer dust and CO being biased by chemical, excitation and optical depth effects. Histograms of column-density distribution are presented, showing that extinction as derived from 2MASS/NICER gives the closest match to a log-normal distribution as is predicted by numerical simulations. All the data presented in this paper, and links to more detailed publications on their implications are publically available at the COMPLETE website.Comment: Accepted by AJ. Full resolution version available from: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/COMPLETE/papers/complete_phase1.pd

Linear and nonlinear fractional hereditary constitutive laws of asphalt mixtures

The aim of this paper is to propose a fractional viscoelastic and viscoplastic model of asphalt mixtures using experimental data of several tests such as creep and creep recovery performed at different temperatures and at different stress levels. From a best fitting procedure it is shown that both the creep one and recovery curve follow a power law model. It is shown that the suitable model for asphalt mixtures is a dashpot and a fractional element arranged in series. The proposed model is also available outside of the linear domain but in this case the parameters of the model depend on the stress level

Inhalation therapy in the next decade : Determinants of adherence to treatment in asthma and COPD

Peer reviewedPublisher PD