Pharmacotherapy of normobaric and hyperbaric oxygen

O oxigénio é considerado como um fármaco, que pode ser facilmente administrado em condições normobáricas, mas quando é utilizado em condições de pressão superiores à atmosférica requer compressão.Objectivo: Descrever estas duas modalidades terapêuticas – oxigenoterapia normobárica e oxigenoterapia hiperbárica.Fontes de dados: EBSCO, Pubmed, Elsevier, Science Direct, Springer link e Scielo. Métodos de Revisão: Artigos disponíveis desde 1980.Resultados: Foram incluídos artigos integrais de revisão e experimentais, que reportam a aplicação de oxigenoterapia normobárica e/ou hiperbárica em humanos e em modelo animal.Conclusões: As duas modalidades terapêuticas, oxigenoterapia normobárica e hiperbárica, têm normas específicas que devem ser minuciosamente seguidas de modo a ter um baixo risco de complicações.Oxygen is considered a drug that can be easily administered at normobaric conditions, but when is submitted to pressures higher than the atmospheric, it requires compression.Objective: To describe these two treatment modalities – normobaric oxygen therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.Data base: EBSCO, Pubmed, Elsevier, Science Direct, Springer link and Scielo. Review Methods: Articles available since 1980.Results: were included review and experimental articles that explored the application of normobaric and hyperbaric oxygen therapy in human or in animals.Conclusions: The normobaric and hyperbaric oxygen therapy have specific rules that must be followed carefully in order to have a low risk of complications

Evaluation of cardiovascular protective effect of different apple varieties - Correlation of response with composition

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Food Chemistry. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Food Chemistry, Vol. 135, Issue 4, 2012. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2012.07.067"Epidemiological evidence supports the concept that diets rich in fruits and vegetables promote health and attenuate or delay the onset of cardiovascular disease (CVD). In particular, a reduced risk of CVD has been associated with apple consumption, probably due to the cholesterol-lowering effect of the main bioactive compounds, namely fiber and polyphenols. In this work, the effect of diet supplementation with 20% of three Portuguese apple cultivars (Bravo de Esmolfe, Malápio Serra and Golden), containing distinct phenolic and fiber concentrations, on serum lipid profile and oxLDL of male Wistar rats fed a cholesterol-enriched diet (2%) was evaluated. After 30 days, only Bravo de Esmolfe apple was able to decrease significantly serum levels of triglycerides, total and LDL cholesterol concentrations (reductions of 27.2%, 21.0% and 20.4%, respectively, in relation to the cholesterol-enriched diet group, p<0.05) . The levels of oxLDL were also significantly improved with the consumption of this apple variety (reductions of 20.0% and 11.9%, in relation to the cholesterol-enriched diet group and control group, respectively, p>0.05) as well as with Malapio da Serra apple (reductions of 9.8% in relation to the cholesterol-enriched diet group, p<0.05). Correlation of the bioactive response with chemical composition showed that catechin, epicatechin, procyanidin B1 and -carotene are the major phytocompounds responsible for the cholesterol lowering ability of apples. The antioxidant potential may have also contributed to this beneficial effect.

Development of Exon Skipping Therapies for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: A Critical Review and a Perspective on the Outstanding Issues

Functional Genomics of Muscle, Nerve and Brain Disorder

Hemin reduces inflammation associated with TNBS-induced colitis

Vanessa Mateus,1,2 Jo&atilde;o Rocha,2 H&eacute;lder Mota-Filipe,2 Bruno Sepodes,2 Rui Pinto2,3 1H&amp;TRC &ndash; Health and Technology Research Center, ESTeSL &ndash; Lisbon School of Health Technology, Instituto Polit&eacute;cnico de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal; 2iMed.ULisboa, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal; 3Dr. Joaquim Chaves, Laboratory of Clinical Analysis, Joaquim Chaves Sa&uacute;de, Lisbon, Portugal Purpose: Hemin is a heme-oxygenase inducer, which can confer anti-inflammatory, cytoprotective, and antiapoptotic effects. These properties are beneficial therapeutical effects to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). IBD is a worldwide health problem characterized by chronic inflammation of intestinal epithelium, which promotes intestinal and extraintestinal symptomatology. Current treatment only induces and maintains the patient in remission and results in many side effects. The research of other pharmacologic approaches is crucial to the treatment of IBD. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of hemin in the 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced colitis model.Materials and methods: Male CD-1 mice with TNBS-induced colitis were treated with a daily dose of hemin 5 mg/kg body weight/day and 10 mg/kg body weight/day intraperitoneal, during 4 days. The evaluated parameters were fecal hemoglobin, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), myeloperoxidase, tumor necrosis factor-&alpha;, interleukin (IL)-1&beta;, IL-10, histopathologic analysis, urea, creatinine, and alanine aminotransferase.Results: The hemin-treated mice presented a decrease in fecal hemoglobin, ALP, and proinflammatory cytokine concentrations compared to the TNBS group. Histopathology analysis confirmed the decrease in lesion extension produced by hemin.Conclusion: These findings suggest that hemin treatment reduces hemorrhagic focus, intestinal damage, tissue inflammation, and lesion extension associated with experimental colitis. Keywords: inflammatory bowel disease, experimental colitis, anti-inflammatory effect, heme-oxygenase induce