The Role Of Dream In The Regulation Of Formalin Induced Pain In Rapid Eye Movement (REM) Sleep Deprived Rats

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep deprivation has been shown to decrease pain threshold after various pain stimuli. Down regulatory antagonist modulator (DREAM) is a transcriptional repressor of prodynorphin gene. This study evaluates the effect on DREAM in relation to REM sleep deprivation, formalin induced pain or combination of both; and its relationship to the formalin induced pain behavioural responses. Male Sprague Dawley rats (250-300 g) were divided into four major treatments; free moving control (n=36), REM sleep deprivation (n=36), tank control (n=36) and sleep recovery (n=36). REM sleep deprivation was elicited for 72 hours using the inverted flower pot technique. Each group was further divided into two groups which consisted of rats that were either not or subjected to 2.5% formalin subcutaneous injection. Food consumption and body weight gain were measured before and after the treatments. The formalin induced pain behavioural responses were recorded for one hour for rats that subjected to formalin injection. The ventrobasal thalamic complex of brain (VB) were removed from each group for immunohistochemistry (n=6), Western blot (n=6) and real-time PCR analysis (n=6) separately. The ‘inverted flower’ pot technique was confirmed to induce REM sleep deprivation in the REM sleep deprived and sleep recovered rats by the classic pattern of hyperphagia with converse loss of body weight. There is a marked hypoalgesia demonstrated in the second phase of formalin induced pain in the REM sleep deprived rats. REM sleep deprivation per se did induce morphological change and reduced the number of DREAM positive neurons (DPN) bilaterally

Fragrance Impact on Driving Performance

Previous studies have indicated that certain types of fragrance in the vehicle are useful in keeping the driver alert. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of lavender or vanilla flavor fragrances toward driving performance. Ten human subjects were tested using the driving simulator in three different conditions; driving with vanilla, lavender flavor fragrance and driving without fragrance. A questionnaire was distributed to examine the emotion states of the driver after driving the simulator. Our results indicate that fragrance did not affect the speed reduction. The emotions of the drivers were calm due to the presence of the fragrance.2398-4279 © 2017 The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, UniversitiTeknologi MARA, Malaysia.Keywords: driving performance, vehicle fragrance, speed reduction

Aloe emodin induces apoptosis in ER+-breast cancer cells; MCF-7 through IGF-1R signalling pathway

Two-third of breast cancer patients expressed estrogen receptors (ER)s and received endocrine treatment with established anti-estrogens such as tamoxifen. But the action and acquired resistance during treatment are largely unknown. In contrary, phytochemicals are more selective and less cytotoxic to normal cells. Accordingly, we found aloe emodin, an anthraquinone to inhibit the proliferation of ER+-breast cancer cells, MCF-7 with IC50 of 80 μM, but not affecting control breast cells, MCF-10A. Tamoxifen was non-selective to both cells with IC50 of 27 and 38 μM, respectively. Thus, we aimed to investigate the anti-proliferative mechanism of aloe emodin on MCF-7 and its underlying signalling compared to tamoxifen. Cells were treated separately with aloe emodin and tamoxifen at respective IC50 for 72 h. Apoptosis was determined using Annexin V-FITC/PI staining. The expression of insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R), insulin-like growth factor binding protein (IGFBP)-2 and B-raf gene was investigated using QuantiGene 2.0 Plex assay. Paired-student t-test and ANOVA test were used to compare between untreated and treated cells on the measured parameters. Each treatment was conducted in triplicate and repeated three times. Significance was set at p<0.05. The presences of early and late apoptosis in MCF-7 were seen in both treatments. All target genes were down regulated. The anti-proliferation effect of aloe emodin on MCF-7 is similar with tamoxifen which mediates inhibition of IGF-1R signalling pathway. This suggests aloe emodin as a potential anti-cancer agent to be used in combined anti-estrogen therapy to enhance its efficacy in ER+-breast cancer treatment

Effects of bisphenol a on neonatal cardiomyocytes beating rate and morphology

Bisphenol A (BPA) has been utilised excessively at a global capacity of 2.9 billion kg/year. It is widely used in manufacturing polycarbonate polymers and epoxy resins. Hence, humans are potentially exposed to this chemical substance in their daily life. As a typical endocrine disruptor, BPA exhibits detectable hormone-like properties. Many studies have been linking BPA exposure in humans with the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, however the direct exposure of BPA on cardiomyocytes beating rates and morphology have not been entirely explored. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of BPA on cells structure and function of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes culture. Cardiomyocytes were isolated from 0 to 2 days old newborn rats and treated with 0.001 to 100 µM concentration of BPA. All cardiomyocytes were subjected to immunostaining, beating frequency assessment assay, MTS assay and Scanning Electron microscopy (SEM). In immunostaining, cardiomyocytes showed positive staining for F-actin. This staining allows identification of the cells thus differentiate cardiomyocytes from other cell types. Significance effects of BPA on cardiomyocytes were observed in MTS assay (p<0.05) and beating rates (p<0.01). Significant reduction (48%-64%, ± 1.5280) was observed in beating rate of cardiomyocytes exposed to 0.1 to 100 µM of BPA. Meanwhile in MTS assay, significant reduction (54%, 0.067 ± 0.0026) in cell viability was observed in cells exposed to 0.1 µM of BPA only. Interestingly, under SEM, cardiomyocytes showed altered cell surface homogeneity after BPA exposure. Exposure of 0.1 to 100 µM BPA lead to flatten of cardiomyocytes cell surface and blurring of the cell borders. This study offers an in vitro evidence of BPA effects on cardiomyocytes morphology and beating rates, thus suggest the potential adverse effect of BPA exposure. However, further investigation would be required to understand how BPA effects normal cells morphology and beating rates of heart cells

The impacts of intrauterine Bisphenol A exposure on pregnancy and expression of miRNAs related to heart development and diseases in animal model

This study aimed to examine the impact of BPA exposure on pregnancy and foetuses on cardiac tissues and the expression of cardiac microRNAs (miRNAs) related to heart development and diseases. Pregnancy is known to be the “critical windows” in determining the offspring physical and cells development in their life after birth. The increment of the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a later stage of life has been reported by few studies demonstrated from prenatal exposure of BPA. BPA has been shown to alter miRNAs expression profiles for organ development, regeneration and metabolic functions. These alterations have been associated with the risk of CVDs. However, the associations between pregnancy outcomes and miRNAs expression in cardiac of mother- and foetuses-exposed to BPA are still not entirely explored. In BPA-exposed pregnant rat groups, a significant weight gained was observed in comparison to control (p < 0.05). Interestingly, significant changes in systolic and diastolic blood pressure between the first and third trimester of BPA-exposed pregnant rats were also observed (p < 0.05). In BPA-exposed pregnant rats, miR-499-5p was significantly altered in the heart (p < 0.01). Meanwhile, altered miR-17-5p, -208-3p, and -210-3p expressions were observed in all heart of the foetuses from BPA-exposed pregnant rats (p < 0.05). In H&E staining, BPA-exposed foetal hearts showed a sign of fibrosis while BPA-exposed pregnant rats showed muscle remnant. Masson trichrome staining further confirmed the presence of fibrosis observed in BPA-exposed foetal heart and reduced expression of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) was also observed in BPA-exposed foetal heart. In summary, altered cardiac miRNAs with histological changes were observed in both mother- and foetus-exposed BPA These findings put forward the importance of future work to further understand how prenatal BPA exposure affect foetuses in their later stage of life

Tualang honey modulated nociceptive responses in the thalamus of rem sleep deprivation rat model

Sleep deprivation has been shown to alter pain responses in humans and animals. The present study investigated whether the administration of Tualang honey in the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep deprivation rat model would modulate nociceptive responses with associated changes in the thalamus. Forty-eight Sprague Dawley male rats were randomised into four groups (n=12 for each group): control group (FMC), REM sleep deprivation (REMsd), REM sleep deprivation pretreated with Tualang Honey for 1 month (REMsdH) and tank control (TC). Following sleep deprivation for 72 hours, a formalin test was conducted and pain behaviour was recorded and analysed. The rats were sacrificed, and the brains were removed for histological examination and assessment of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDA R2) level in the thalamus. REMsdH group showed a significantly lower level of pain behaviour score and NMDA R2 compared to the REMsd group (p<0.05). In addition, REMsdH also demonstrated a significantly higher number of Nissl stained neurons in comparison with the REMsd group (p<0.05). Furthermore, dark neurons, suggestive of neuronal damage, were observed in the REMsd group. In conclusion, administration of Tualang honey before REM sleep deprivation modulated nociceptive responses and prevent changes in thalamic neurons and NMDA R2 level

Anti-Cancer Effect of Aloe Emodin on Breast Cancer Cells, MCF

Abstract-Phytochemicals of some plants are believed to have natural anti-proliferative properties to various cancer cells. Thus, they might have the potential as alternative choice for contemporary treatment as the latter are usually associated with many unpleasant side effects. The aim of this study is to investigate the possible anti-cancer effect of aloe emodin (AE; 1,8-Dihydroxy-3-hydro-xymethyl-anthraquinone) on estrogenpositive breast cancer cells, MCF-7. We were able to demonstrate the efficiency of AE, an antraquinone derivatives which are present in Aloe Vera leaves, in limiting the proliferation effect of MCF-7 cells in a dose and time dependent manner using WST-1 assay. Our preliminary result suggests that AE could be a promising natural candidate for future pharmacological study, targeting in breast cancer prevention strategies