Prevalence and Perceived Efficacy in the treatment of Rheumatoid and Psoriatic Arthritis with Curcumin and Cannabinoids

Introduction Rheumatoid (RA) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) are autoimmune conditions that progressively destroy joints, causing chronic, often debilitating pain and drastically affecting the quality of life. Though cannabis has been legalized for medical use in most states in the United States (US), the safety and efficacy of its use in inflammatory arthritis have still not been satisfactorily established. It is also suggested that curcumin possesses potent anti-inflammatory properties. Methods This study utilized an observational, cross-sectional design to survey patients with RA and PsA presenting to a rheumatology clinic to establish the prevalence and perceived efficacy of curcumin and cannabinoids in an arthritic patient population. Results Data was collected from 290 patients, 71% RA and 40% PsA patients admitted to the current cannabinoid usage. There were self-reported pain, fatigue, and swelling improvements with both curcumin and cannabinoid compounds. Discussion This study found that a notable portion of this inflammatory arthritis population reported a history of use or ongoing cannabinoid and curcumin usage. Patients also had self-reported perceptions of symptom relief, possibly attributable to the placebo effect

ANTIULCER ACTIVITY OF POLYHERBAL FORMULATION

The lesion of peptic ulcer disease is a disruption in the mucosal layer of the stomach or duodenum. Recent researchers have discovered a number of newer risk factors regulating the development of disease which are not addressed properly by the current clinical therapies. In this study polyherbal formulation was prepared consisting of Glycyrrhiza glabra, Garcinia cambogia, deglycyrrhizinated licorice extract and Azadirachta indica. Suitable extracts depending on effective chemical composition was prepared and studied on four antiulcer models, namely Naproxen induced ulcers, Histamine induced ulcers, Cysteamine induced ulcers and Ethanol induced ulcer models. This polyherbal formulation significantly reduces ulcer index and ulcer area and shows protection index around 80%, the formulation also shows good antioxidant activity. All results show that polyherbal formulation show gastric healing property by multiple mechanisms. These entire drugs target specific etiological and pathological step which take part in development of ulcers

Fold change based approach for identification of significant network markers in breast, lung and prostate cancer

Cancer belongs to a class of highly aggressive diseases and a leading cause of death in the world. With more than 100 types of cancers, breast, lung and prostate cancer remain to be the most common types. To identify essential network markers (NMs) and therapeutic targets in these cancers, the authors present a novel approach which uses gene expression data from microarray and RNA-seq platforms and utilises the results from this data to evaluate protein–protein interaction (PPI) network. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) are extracted from microarray data using three different statistical methods in R, to produce a consistent set of genes. Also, DEGs are extracted from RNA-seq data for the same three cancer types. DEG sets found to be common in both platforms are obtained at three fold change (FC) cut-off levels to accurately identify the level of change in expression of these genes in all three cancers. A cancer network is built using PPI data characterising gene sets at log-FC (LFC)>1, LFC>1.5 and LFC>2, and interconnection between principal hub nodes of these networks is observed. Resulting network of hubs at three FC levels highlights prime NMs with high confidence in multiple cancers as validated by Gene Ontology functional enrichment and maximal complete subgraphs from CFinder

Suprasellar arachnoid cyst with spontaneous intracystic hemorrhage : a rare complication : role of MR and illustration of a case

Background: Arachnoid cysts are congenital or developmental intra-arachnoidal CSF-filled lesions, which develop probably as a result of splitting or duplication of the arachnoid membrane. Most of them are asymptomatic and are detected as incidental findings on Computed Tomography or Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the head carried out for other reasons. Although complications such as intracystic, subdural, and extradural hematomas are well known after a trauma, spontaneous hemorrhage in an arachnoid cyst is a rare and serious complication with atypical imaging features on cross-sectional imaging and only less than ten cases are documented in the literature till date, with none of them in the suprasellar location. Case Report: A 40-year-old female patient presented with history of headache since two months, which was sudden in onset, holocranial. Conclusions: Spontaneous intracystic hemorrhage is an uncommon and serious complication of arachnoid cysts, which can give rise to atypical features on imaging. Therefore familiarity with this rare complication is indeed essential

Expression of human cardiac-specific genes: a novel method for post-mortem interval estimation = Ekspresja genów specyficznych dla ludzkiego serca: nowa metoda szacowania interwału pośmiertnego

W medycynie sądowej określenie interwału pośmiertnego (PMI) jest nie tylko ważnym, ale i jednym z najtrudniejszych aspektów. Do oszacowania PMI stosuje się kilka metod, takich jak metody fizykochemiczne, entomologiczne, biochemiczne, metaboliczne, autolityczne i fizyczne. Metody te zapewniają szeroki zakres PMI, ponieważ wpływają na nie różne czynniki. Podejście zastosowane w niniejszym badaniu polega na obliczeniu dokładnego PMI przy użyciu degradacji mRNA i zmiany krotności ekspresji (FCE) genów specyficznych dla serca, a mianowicie N-końcowego peptydu natriuretycznego typu pro-B (NPPB) i troponiny sercowej I (TNNI3). Siedemnaście tkanek serca ze zwłok analizowano w przedziale czasowym do 12 godzin od czasu śmierci, w różnych odstępach czasu w temperaturze pokojowej. Określono ekspresję genów, a dane przeanalizowano, stosując wartość średniej wartości delta Ct (ΔCt) ocenianego genu i genu metabolizmu podstawowego. Metodę delta delta Ct (ΔΔCt) zastosowano do obliczenia FCE w różnych grupach. FCE dla TNNI3 była prawie stabilna do 15 godzin PMI, a następnie po 15 godzinach ekspresja wykazała spadek do 24 godzin po śmierci; podczas gdy FCE dla NPPB była stabilna do 12 godzin PMI, a następnie po 12 godzinach ekspresja wykazała spadek do 24 godzin po śmierci. FCE dla NPPB i TNNI3 były prawie stabilne do 12 godzin. Zatem oszacowanie PMI poprzez analizę FCE genów specyficznych dla serca może być nową obiecującą metodą w medycynie sądowej