Systematic reviews of complementary therapies - an annotated bibliography. Part 1: Acupuncture

Background Complementary therapies are widespread but controversial. We aim to provide a comprehensive collection and a summary of systematic reviews of clinical trials in three major complementary therapies (acupuncture, herbal medicine, homeopathy). This article is dealing with acupuncture. Potentially relevant reviews were searched through the register of the Cochrane Complementary Medicine Field, the Cochrane Library, Medline, and bibliographies of articles and books. To be included articles had to review prospective clinical trials of acupuncture; had to describe review methods explicitly; had to be published; and had to focus on treatment effects. Information on conditions, interventions, methods, results and conclusions was extracted using a pretested form and summarized descriptively. Results From a total of 48 potentially relevant reviews preselected in a screeening process 39 met the inclusion criteria. 22 were on various pain syndromes or rheumatic diseases. Other topics addressed by more than one review were addiction, nausea, asthma and tinnitus. Almost unanimously the reviews state that acupuncture trials include too few patients. Often included trials are heterogeneous regarding patients, interventions and outcome measures, are considered to have insufficient quality and contradictory results. Convincing evidence is available only for postoperative nausea, for which acupuncture appears to be of benefit, and smoking cessation, where acupuncture is no more effective than sham acupuncture. Conclusions A large number of systematic reviews on acupuncture exists. What is most obvious from these reviews is the need for (the funding of) well-designed, larger clinical trials

Ultrastructural and carbohydrate histochemical study of the Vater-Pacini corpuscles in the digital pads of the North American raccoon (Procyon lotor), with special regard to basic function

Numerous and very large Vater-Pacini corpuscles were observed in the forefoot digital pads of the North American raccoon (Procyon lotor). In addition to ultrastructure, the distribution and selectivity of complex glycoconjugates in this sensory corpuscle type were examined by carbohydrate histochemical techniques, in particular lectin histochemistry. The Vater-Pacini corpuscles present showed the typical lamellar structure known for mammals and contained high amounts of neutral and acidic glycoconjugates with various saccharide residues (α-l-fucose, β-d-galactose, sialic acid) in a specific intracorpuscular distribution pattern, including variations between the outer lamellae and the inner core. The results obtained are discussed with regard to possible functions of the Vater-Pacini corpuscles found in the raccoon forefoot pads. The corpuscular glycoconjugate components may furnish a high and differentiated viscoelasticity for rapid pressure transmission within the large Vater-Pacini corpuscles. Thus, the digital pads of the forepaws can be considered as part of a specific mechanoreceptor system related to excellent object manipulation properties in this mammalian species

The BTB protein MEL-26 is a substrate-specific adaptor of the CUL-3 ubiquitin-ligase

Many biological processes, such as development and cell cycle progression are tightly controlled by selective ubiquitin-dependent degradation of key substrates. In this pathway, the E3-ligase recognizes the substrate and targets it for degradation by the 26S proteasome. The SCF (Skp1–Cul1–F-box) and ECS (Elongin C–Cul2–SOCS box) complexes are two well-defined cullin-based E3-ligases1, 2, 3. The cullin subunits serve a scaffolding function and interact through their C terminus with the RING-finger-containing protein Hrt1/Roc1/Rbx1, and through their N terminus with Skp1 or Elongin C, respectively. In Caenorhabditis elegans, the ubiquitin-ligase activity of the CUL-3 complex is required for degradation of the microtubule-severing protein MEI-1/katanin at the meiosis-to-mitosis transition4. However, the molecular composition of this cullin-based E3-ligase is not known. Here we identified the BTB-containing protein MEL-26 as a component required for degradation of MEI-1 in vivo. Importantly, MEL-26 specifically interacts with CUL-3 and MEI-1 in vivo and in vitro, and displays properties of a substrate-specific adaptor. Our results suggest that BTB-containing proteins may generally function as substrate-specific adaptors in Cul3-based E3-ubiquitin ligases