COVID-19: Is There Evidence for the Use of Herbal Medicines as Adjuvant Symptomatic Therapy?

Background: Current recommendations for the self-management of SARS-Cov-2 disease (COVID-19) include self-isolation, rest, hydration, and the use of NSAID in case of high fever only. It is expected that many patients will add other symptomatic/adjuvant treatments, such as herbal medicines. Aims: To provide a benefits/risks assessment of selected herbal medicines traditionally indicated for “respiratory diseases” within the current frame of the COVID-19 pandemic as an adjuvant treatment. Method: The plant selection was primarily based on species listed by the WHO and EMA, but some other herbal remedies were considered due to their widespread use in respiratory conditions. Preclinical and clinical data on their efficacy and safety were collected from authoritative sources. The target population were adults with early and mild flu symptoms without underlying conditions. These were evaluated according to a modified PrOACT-URL method with paracetamol, ibuprofen, and codeine as reference drugs. The benefits/risks balance of the treatments was classified as positive, promising, negative, and unknown. Results: A total of 39 herbal medicines were identified as very likely to appeal to the COVID-19 patient. According to our method, the benefits/risks assessment of the herbal medicines was found to be positive in 5 cases (Althaea officinalis, Commiphora molmol, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Hedera helix, and Sambucus nigra), promising in 12 cases (Allium sativum, Andrographis paniculata, Echinacea angustifolia, Echinacea purpurea, Eucalyptus globulus essential oil, Justicia pectoralis, Magnolia officinalis, Mikania glomerata, Pelargonium sidoides, Pimpinella anisum, Salix sp, Zingiber officinale), and unknown for the rest. On the same grounds, only ibuprofen resulted promising, but we could not find compelling evidence to endorse the use of paracetamol and/or codeine. Conclusions: Our work suggests that several herbal medicines have safety margins superior to those of reference drugs and enough levels of evidence to start a clinical discussion about their potential use as adjuvants in the treatment of early/mild common flu in otherwise healthy adults within the context of COVID-19. While these herbal medicines will not cure or prevent the flu, they may both improve general patient well-being and offer them an opportunity to personalize the therapeutic approaches

Are genetic risk factors for psychosis also associated with dimension-specific psychotic experiences in adolescence?

Psychosis has been hypothesised to be a continuously distributed quantitative phenotype and disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder represent its extreme manifestations. Evidence suggests that common genetic variants play an important role in liability to both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Here we tested the hypothesis that these common variants would also influence psychotic experiences measured dimensionally in adolescents in the general population. Our aim was to test whether schizophrenia and bipolar disorder polygenic risk scores (PRS), as well as specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously identified as risk variants for schizophrenia, were associated with adolescent dimension-specific psychotic experiences. Self-reported Paranoia, Hallucinations, Cognitive Disorganisation, Grandiosity, Anhedonia, and Parent-rated Negative Symptoms, as measured by the Specific Psychotic Experiences Questionnaire (SPEQ), were assessed in a community sample of 2,152 16-year-olds. Polygenic risk scores were calculated using estimates of the log of odds ratios from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium GWAS stage-1 mega-analysis of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The polygenic risk analyses yielded no significant associations between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder PRS and the SPEQ measures. The analyses on the 28 individual SNPs previously associated with schizophrenia found that two SNPs in TCF4 returned a significant association with the SPEQ Paranoia dimension, rs17512836 (p-value=2.57x10-4) and rs9960767 (p-value=6.23x10-4). Replication in an independent sample of 16-year-olds (N=3,427) assessed using the Psychotic-Like Symptoms Questionnaire (PLIKS-Q), a composite measure of multiple positive psychotic experiences, failed to yield significant results. Future research with PRS derived from larger samples, as well as larger adolescent validation samples, would improve the predictive power to test these hypotheses further. The challenges of relating adult clinical diagnostic constructs such as schizophrenia to adolescent psychotic experiences at a genetic level are discussed

Systemic chemotherapy induces microsatellite instability in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of breast cancer patients

INTRODUCTION: Systemic chemotherapy is an important part of treatment for breast cancer. We conducted the present study to evaluate whether systemic chemotherapy could produce microsatellite instability (MSI) in the peripheral blood mononuclear cell fraction of breast cancer patients. METHODS: We studied 119 sequential blood samples from 30 previously untreated breast cancer patients before, during and after chemotherapy. For comparison, we also evaluated 20 women who had no relevant medical history (control group). RESULTS: In 27 out of 30 patients we observed MSI in at least one sample, and six patients had loss of heterozygosity. We found a significant correlation between the number of MSI events per sample and chemotherapy with alkylating agents (P < 0.0001). We also observed an inverse correlation between the percentage of cells positive for hMSH2 and the number of MSI events per sample (P = 0.00019) and use of alkylating agents (P = 0.019). CONCLUSION: We conclude that systemic chemotherapy may induce MSI and loss of heterozygosity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from breast cancer patients receiving alkylating agents, possibly mediated by a chemotherapy-induced decrease in the expression of hMSH2. These effects may be related to the generation of secondary leukaemia in some patients, and may also intensify the genetic instability of tumours and increase resistance to treatment

Paclitaxel loading in PLGA nanospheres affected the in vitro drug cell accumulation and antiproliferative activity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>PTX is one of the most widely used drug in oncology due to its high efficacy against solid tumors and several hematological cancers. PTX is administered in a formulation containing 1:1 Cremophor^®EL (polyethoxylated castor oil) and ethanol, often responsible for toxic effects. Its encapsulation in colloidal delivery systems would gain an improved targeting to cancer cells, reducing the dose and frequency of administration.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this paper PTX was loaded in PLGA NS. The activity of PTX-NS was assessed in vitro against thyroid, breast and bladder cancer cell lines in cultures. Cell growth was evaluated by MTS assay, intracellular NS uptake was performed using coumarin-6 labelled NS and the amount of intracellular PTX was measured by HPLC.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>NS loaded with 3% PTX (w/w) had a mean size < 250 nm and a polydispersity index of 0.4 after freeze-drying with 0.5% HP-Cyd as cryoprotector. PTX encapsulation efficiency was 30% and NS showed a prolonged drug release in vitro. An increase of the cytotoxic effect of PTX-NS was observed with respect to free PTX in all cell lines tested.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings suggest that the greater biological effect of PTX-NS could be due to higher uptake of the drug inside the cells as shown by intracellular NS uptake and cell accumulation studies.</p

Evaluation of Biologically Active Compounds from Calendula officinalis Flowers using Spectrophotometry

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study aimed to quantify the active biological compounds in <it>C. officinalis </it>flowers. Based on the active principles and biological properties of marigolds flowers reported in the literature, we sought to obtain and characterize the molecular composition of extracts prepared using different solvents. The antioxidant capacities of extracts were assessed by using spectrophotometry to measure both absorbance of the colorimetric free radical scavenger 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) as well as the total antioxidant potential, using the ferric reducing power (FRAP) assay.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Spectrophotometric assays in the ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) region enabled identification and characterization of the full range of phenolic and flavonoids acids, and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to identify and quantify phenolic compounds (depending on the method of extraction). Methanol ensured more efficient extraction of flavonoids than the other solvents tested.</p> <p>Antioxidant activity in methanolic extracts was correlated with the polyphenol content.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The UV-VIS spectra of assimilator pigments (e.g. chlorophylls), polyphenols and flavonoids extracted from the <it>C. officinalis </it>flowers consisted in quantitative evaluation of compounds which absorb to wavelengths broader than 360 nm.</p

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO