α-glucosidase inhibitors isolated from Mimosa pudica L.

The aim of the study was to isolate digestive enzymes inhibitors from Mimosa pudica through a bioassay-guided fractionation approach. Repeated silica gel and sephadex LH 20 column chromatographies of bioactive fractions afforded stigmasterol, quercetin and avicularin as digestive enzymes inhibitors whose IC50 values as compared to acarbose (351.02 ± 1.46 μg mL−1) were found to be as 91.08 ± 1.54, 75.16 ± 0.92 and 481.7 ± 0.703 μg mL−1, respectively. In conclusion, M. pudica could be a good and safe source of digestive enzymes inhibitors for the management of diabetes in future. © 2017, © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Distribution of dengue vectors, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, in a few selected semi-urban areas of the Central Province of Sri Lanka

Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are the two major vectors transmitting dengue viruses. The current study was undertaken from October to November 2014 to identify the distribution of dengue vectors in the Akurana Medical Officer of Health (MOH) division, which consisted of Akurana, Dunuwila and Alawathugoda Public Health Inspector (PHI) divisions. Larvae were collected from potential breeding sites in randomly selected houses in the selected PHI areas. Aedes larvae were incubated to emerge and the adults were differentiated into species using morphological features. Adult Aedes mosquitoes were pooled and tested for NS1 antigen. The total larvae collected were 700 and the total number of emerged adults were 171, consisting of 116 A. albopictus and 55 A. aegypti mosquitoes. None of the Aedes pools tested were positive for dengue NS1. A. albopictus was found to be abundant in the Akurana MOH division during the study period

Circulating Angiopoietin-2 Is a Marker for Early Cardiovascular Disease in Children on Chronic Dialysis

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is increasingly recognised as a complication of childhood chronic kidney disease (CKD) even in the absence of diabetes and hypertension. We hypothesized that an alteration in angiopoietin-1 and -2, growth factors which regulate endothelial and vascular function could be involved. We report that the endothelial survival factor, angiopoietin-1 is low in children with pre-dialysis CKD whereas the pro-inflammatory angiopoietin-2 is elevated in children on dialysis. In dialysis patients, angiopoietin-2 positively correlated with time on dialysis, systolic blood pressure, and carotid artery intima media thickness. Elevated angiopoietin-2 levels in dialysis versus pre-dialysis CKD patients were also associated with an anti-angiogenic (high soluble VEGFR-1 and low VEGF-A) and pro-inflammatory (high urate, E-selectin, P-selectin and VCAM-1) milieu. Ang-2 was immunodetected in arterial biopsy samples whilst the expression of VEGF-A was significantly downregulated in dialysis patients. Serum urate correlated with angiopoietin-2 levels in dialysis patients and addition of uric acid was able to induce rapid release of angiopoietin-2 from cultured endothelial cells. Thus, angiopoietin-2 is a marker for cardiovascular disease in children on chronic dialysis and may act as an anti-angiogenic and pro-inflammatory effector in this context. The possibility that the release of angiopoietin-2 from endothelia is mediated by urate should be explored further

Demographic, clinical, anthropometric, and biochemical characteristics of patients and control subjects.

<p>All values are presented as mean±SD; p value indicates comparisons between the pre-dialysis CKD and dialysis groups. Parathyroid hormone, 25-hydroxyvitamin D and urinary albumin / creatinine ratio were not measured in healthy controls due to small volumes of serum and lack of urine samples. * Systolic BP index  =  measured BP/95th centile BP for age, gender, and height. ARB, angiotensin II receptor blocker; ACEi, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor; BMI, body mass index; SBP, systolic BP; SDS, SD score.</p

Multiple regression analyses for independent predictors of Angiopoietin-2 (Ang2) and carotid intima media thickness (cIMT).

<p>β - Unstandardized regression coefficient; indicates the difference in the outcome variable (Ang2 or cIMT) per unit change in the independent variables.</p><p>SE – standard error</p><p>Model R² - The amount of variance in the dependent variable that can be explained by the model.</p