SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC METHOD FOR THE ESTIMATION OF TOTAL ALKALOIDS IN THE TINOSPORA CORDIFOLIA M. AND ITS HERBAL FORMULATIONS

Objective: A simple spectrophotometric method was developed for the estimation of total alkaloids in Tinospora cordifolia M. and its formulations.Methods: The method based on the formation of yellow colored complex by reaction between bromocresol green (BCG) and alkaloids in medicinal plants. A yellow colored complex forms is easily extractable by chloroform at pH 4.7.Results: The method was linear in concentration range of 2-10 μg/ml with λmax at 415 nm. The LOD and LOQ were found to be 0.215 and 0.652 respectively. The intra-day and inter-day precision and accuracy were within the acceptable criteria (relative standard deviation<2.0% and accuracy within 100±2%). Conclusion: The developed method is simple, precise and accurate and can be adopted for the routine quality control and standardization of plant materials containing alkaloids and its pharmaceutical products.Â

Women’s and Providers’ Experiences with Injectable Contraceptives (Depo-Provera): A View from Vadodara, India

Objective: To compare users’ and providers’ perspectives on injectable contraceptives (IC). Methods: This qualitative study employed semi-structured in-depth interview technique. Sixty women with experience of using IC and 10 doctors involved in providing IC were selected. Telephonic interviews of doctors were also conducted. Results: Over 50% of the women had side effects and had discontinued use within 1 year. The most common ‘likes’ according to women included ease of use, being tension free for 3 months and being effective and those of the providers were that it reduced anemia, privacy could be maintained, noncontraceptive benefits, good substitute, not to be taken daily like pills, safe and effective. The most common ‘dislikes’ reported by providers and clients were excessive bleeding, amenorrhea, irregular periods, spotting, weight gain and frequent pregnancy tests. Conclusion: Although certain distinct advantages of IC have been expressed, the associated problems are equally significant and therefore IC should not be an over-the-counter contraceptive

The antigenic determinant that defines thymic nurse cells is expressed by thymic epithelial progenitor cells

Stromal thymic epithelial cells with the multicellular structure unique to thymic nurse cells (TNCs) express the pH91 antigen on their cell surfaces. The multicellular TNC-complexes develop through an intimate association between αβTCR+CD4+CD8+ thymocytes and pH91-expressing cortical epithelial cells. TNCs participate in MHC-restriction and exhibit epithelial cell progenitor characteristics. In this report, we show that as early as E11.5 stage of thymus development, the pH91 antigen is expressed in association with K8, K5, Foxn1, and p63. The expression of these epithelial progenitor markers along with the pH91 antigen persists throughout thymic development in the murine thymus. At E13.5, pH91+ cells express relatively low levels of MHC class II. After E17.5, the first multicellular TNC complexes are recognizable along with increased cell surface expression of MHC class II. Our data suggest that epithelial cells bearing the “progenitor phenotype” develop into the multicellular TNCs

Systematic review into motivational strategies that support adherence to exercise for people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia

Introduction: Physical exercise has a positive effect on cognitive functioning, mobility and activities of daily living in people with dementia (Forbes & al., 2013; Pitkälä & al., 2013). Most exercise studies employ motivational strategies to support adherence to the exercise intervention but it is unclear how effective these strategies are. The purpose of this systematic literature review was to establish the range and effect of motivational strategies used in exercise studies for people with MCI and dementia. Method: Articles were identified from the following databases: CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsychINFO and Web of Science. Independently, a minimum of two authors assessed relevant articles based on in- and exclusion criteria. Studies using quantitative as well as qualitative methods to evaluate the effectiveness of motivational strategies were included. Results: The review analysed 28 articles that were identified to report the use of motivational strategies in exercise studies and partly evaluated their effectiveness. Employed strategies included supervision of sessions by instructors, caregivers or students, group settings, goal setting, exercise diaries, tailoring of programme, telephone calls and music. The effectiveness of strategies was only evaluated in a minority of the studies (use of group setting, goal setting and music). Discussion: Adherence to exercise intervention and continuation of the physical activity after completion of the intervention is an ongoing issue in exercise research. Given the limited evidence regarding the effectiveness of motivational strategies, tried and new strategies should be evaluated for people with MCI and dementia to ensure optimal support of physical exercise in this group

Kallikrein family proteases KLK6 and KLK7 are potential early detection and diagnostic biomarkers for serous and papillary serous ovarian cancer subtypes.

BACKGROUND: Early detection of ovarian cancer remains a challenge due to widespread metastases and a lack of biomarkers for early-stage disease. This study was conducted to identify relevant biomarkers for both laparoscopic and serum diagnostics in ovarian cancer. METHODS: Bioinformatics analysis and expression screening in ovarian cancer cell lines were employed. Selected biomarkers were further validated in bio-specimens of diverse cancer types and ovarian cancer subtypes. For non-invasive detection, biomarker proteins were evaluated in serum samples from ovarian cancer patients. RESULTS: Two kallikrein (KLK) serine protease family members (KLK6 and KLK7) were found to be significantly overexpressed relative to normal controls in most of the ovarian cancer cell lines examined. Overexpression of KLK6 and KLK7 mRNA was specific to ovarian cancer, in particular to serous and papillary serous subtypes. In situ hybridization and histopathology further confirmed significantly elevated levels of KLK6 and KLK7 mRNA and proteins in tissue epithelium and a lack of expression in neighboring stroma. Lastly, KLK6 and KLK7 protein levels were significantly elevated in serum samples from serous and papillary serous subtypes in the early stages of ovarian cancer, and therefore could potentially decrease the high false negative rates found in the same patients with the common ovarian cancer biomarkers human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) and cancer antigen 125 (CA-125). CONCLUSION: KLK6 and KLK7 mRNA and protein overexpression is directly associated with early-stage ovarian tumors and can be measured in patient tissue and serum samples. Assays based on KLK6 and KLK7 expression may provide specific and sensitive information for early detection of ovarian cancer

A 30-Year Worldwide Research Productivity of Scientific Publication in Full-Endoscopic Decompression Spine Surgery: Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis

Objective The ever-growing number of articles related to full-endoscopic spine surgery published in the last few decades presents a challenge which is perplexing and time-consuming in identifying the current research status. The study aims to identify and analyze the most cited works related to full-endoscopic decompression spine surgery, compare the articles published by different publishers and area, and show the current publication status of full-endoscopic research. Methods Using Bibliometrix, CiteSpace, and VOSviewer, we analyzed the bibliometric data selected from the Web of Science database between 1992 and 2022. Spine has the highest H-index with the most-cited journal in the field of full-endoscopic decompression spine surgery. China ranked as the most productive country, whereas the most cited with high H-index papers came from South Korea. For the author analysis, Yeung AT, Ruetten S, Hoogland T, Ahn Y, Choi G, and Mayer HM were the most impactful authors in the global and local citations. The most productive organization is Wooridul Spine Hospital. Conclusion The bibliometric study showed a growing trend of research on full-endoscopic decompression spine surgery over the past 30 years. It has demonstrated that there is a significant increase in the number of authors, institutions, and internationally collaborated countries. However, the quality of studies is still low, and the lack of high-quality clinical evidence and the trend of general journal submissions has somewhat affected the quality of endoscopy journals in recent years

Contributions of mean and shape of blood pressure distribution to worldwide trends and variations in raised blood pressure: A pooled analysis of 1018 population-based measurement studies with 88.6 million participants

© The Author(s) 2018. Background: Change in the prevalence of raised blood pressure could be due to both shifts in the entire distribution of blood pressure (representing the combined effects of public health interventions and secular trends) and changes in its high-blood-pressure tail (representing successful clinical interventions to control blood pressure in the hypertensive population). Our aim was to quantify the contributions of these two phenomena to the worldwide trends in the prevalence of raised blood pressure. Methods: We pooled 1018 population-based studies with blood pressure measurements on 88.6 million participants from 1985 to 2016. We first calculated mean systolic blood pressure (SBP), mean diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and prevalence of raised blood pressure by sex and 10-year age group from 20-29 years to 70-79 years in each study, taking into account complex survey design and survey sample weights, where relevant. We used a linear mixed effect model to quantify the association between (probittransformed) prevalence of raised blood pressure and age-group- and sex-specific mean blood pressure. We calculated the contributions of change in mean SBP and DBP, and of change in the prevalence-mean association, to the change in prevalence of raised blood pressure. Results: In 2005-16, at the same level of population mean SBP and DBP, men and women in South Asia and in Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa would have the highest prevalence of raised blood pressure, and men and women in the highincome Asia Pacific and high-income Western regions would have the lowest. In most region-sex-age groups where the prevalence of raised blood pressure declined, one half or more of the decline was due to the decline in mean blood pressure. Where prevalence of raised blood pressure has increased, the change was entirely driven by increasing mean blood pressure, offset partly by the change in the prevalence-mean association. Conclusions: Change in mean blood pressure is the main driver of the worldwide change in the prevalence of raised blood pressure, but change in the high-blood-pressure tail of the distribution has also contributed to the change in prevalence, especially in older age groups

AI is a viable alternative to high throughput screening: a 318-target study

: High throughput screening (HTS) is routinely used to identify bioactive small molecules. This requires physical compounds, which limits coverage of accessible chemical space. Computational approaches combined with vast on-demand chemical libraries can access far greater chemical space, provided that the predictive accuracy is sufficient to identify useful molecules. Through the largest and most diverse virtual HTS campaign reported to date, comprising 318 individual projects, we demonstrate that our AtomNet® convolutional neural network successfully finds novel hits across every major therapeutic area and protein class. We address historical limitations of computational screening by demonstrating success for target proteins without known binders, high-quality X-ray crystal structures, or manual cherry-picking of compounds. We show that the molecules selected by the AtomNet® model are novel drug-like scaffolds rather than minor modifications to known bioactive compounds. Our empirical results suggest that computational methods can substantially replace HTS as the first step of small-molecule drug discovery

Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol

High blood cholesterol is typically considered a feature of wealthy western countries(1,2). However, dietary and behavioural determinants of blood cholesterol are changing rapidly throughout the world(3) and countries are using lipid-lowering medications at varying rates. These changes can have distinct effects on the levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol, which have different effects on human health(4,5). However, the trends of HDL and non-HDL cholesterol levels over time have not been previously reported in a global analysis. Here we pooled 1,127 population-based studies that measured blood lipids in 102.6 million individuals aged 18 years and older to estimate trends from 1980 to 2018 in mean total, non-HDL and HDL cholesterol levels for 200 countries. Globally, there was little change in total or non-HDL cholesterol from 1980 to 2018. This was a net effect of increases in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreases in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe. As a result, countries with the highest level of non-HDL cholesterol-which is a marker of cardiovascular riskchanged from those in western Europe such as Belgium, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Malta in 1980 to those in Asia and the Pacific, such as Tokelau, Malaysia, The Philippines and Thailand. In 2017, high non-HDL cholesterol was responsible for an estimated 3.9 million (95% credible interval 3.7 million-4.2 million) worldwide deaths, half of which occurred in east, southeast and south Asia. The global repositioning of lipid-related risk, with non-optimal cholesterol shifting from a distinct feature of high-income countries in northwestern Europe, north America and Australasia to one that affects countries in east and southeast Asia and Oceania should motivate the use of population-based policies and personal interventions to improve nutrition and enhance access to treatment throughout the world.Peer reviewe