Protective effects of gallic acid against chronic cerebral hypoperfusion-induced cognitive deficit and brain oxidative damage in rats

Free radical induced neural damage is implicated in cerebral hypoperfusion disorders and antioxidants have protective effects. In the present study, we examined the effect of gallic acid (GA; 100 mg/kg, p.o. for 10 days) on cognitive deficit and cerebral oxidative stress induced by permanent bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (2VO) as an animal model of vascular dementia (VD). The results showed that 2VO significantly reduced the spatial memory performance in Morris water maze as well as non enzymatic (total thiol) and enzymatic glutathione peroxidase (GPx)] antioxidant contents and increased the level of malondialclehyde (MDA) in the hippocampus and frontal cortex of vehicle-treated group as compared to sham-operated rats. Furthermore, chronic administration of GA significantly restored the spatial memory, total thiol and GPx contents and also decreased MDA levels in these tissues. GA alone did not show any change neither in the status of various antioxidants nor behavioral tests over sham values. The results demonstrate that GA has beneficial activity against 2VO-induced cognitive deficits via enhancement of cerebral antioxidant defense. Taken together, the present study suggested that GA might be useful in the treatment of VD. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Gallic acid improves cognitive, hippocampal long-term potentiation deficits and brain damage induced by chronic cerebral hypoperfusion in rats

Cerebral Hypoperfusion Ischemia (CHI) has important role in neuronal damage and behavioral deficits, including memory and Long-term Potentiation (LTP) impairment. Protective effects of Gallic Acid (GA) on memory, hippocampus LTP and cell viability were examined in permanent bilateral common carotid artery occlusion in rats. Animals were divided into 9 groups: Control (Cont); sham operated (Sho); Cerebral Hypoperfusion Ischemia (CHI); CHI received normal saline (CHI +Veh); CHI treated with different doses gallic acid (50,100, 200 mg kg-1 for 5 days before and 5 days after CHI induction, orally); CHI treated with phenytoin (50 mg kg-1, ip) (CHI+Phe); and sham operated received 100 mg kg-1, orally (Sho+GAl 00). CHI was induced by bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (2VO). Behavioral, electrophysiological and histological evaluations were performed. Data were analyzed by one-way and repeated measures ANOVA followed by tukey's post-hoc test. GA improved passive avoidance memory, hippocampal LTP and cell viability in hippocampus and cortex of ischemic rats significantly (p<0.01). The results suggest that gallic acid via its antioxidative and free radicals scavenging properties attenuates CHI induced behavioral and electrophysiological deficits and has significant protective effect on brain cell viability. Dose of 100 mg kg-1 GA has affected the ischemic but not intact rats and its effect was more potent significantly than phenytoin, a routine drug for ischemic subjects. © 2014 Asian Network for Scientific Information

Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017

A double burden of malnutrition occurs when individuals, household members or communities experience both undernutrition and overweight. Here, we show geospatial estimates of overweight and wasting prevalence among children under 5 years of age in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2000 to 2017 and aggregate these to policy-relevant administrative units. Wasting decreased overall across LMICs between 2000 and 2017, from 8.4% (62.3 (55.1–70.8) million) to 6.4% (58.3 (47.6–70.7) million), but is predicted to remain above the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025. Prevalence of overweight increased from 5.2% (30 (22.8–38.5) million) in 2000 to 6.0% (55.5 (44.8–67.9) million) children aged under 5 years in 2017. Areas most affected by double burden of malnutrition were located in Indonesia, Thailand, southeastern China, Botswana, Cameroon and central Nigeria. Our estimates provide a new perspective to researchers, policy makers and public health agencies in their efforts to address this global childhood syndemic

Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of diseases and injuries. Methods: GBD estimates incidence, prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to 369 diseases and injuries, for two sexes, and for 204 countries and territories. Input data were extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service use, air pollution monitors, satellite imaging, disease notifications, and other sources. Cause-specific death rates and cause fractions were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Cause-specific deaths were adjusted to match the total all-cause deaths calculated as part of the GBD population, fertility, and mortality estimates. Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age to calculate YLLs. A Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR 2.1, was used to ensure consistency between incidence, prevalence, remission, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality for most causes. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases and injuries to calculate YLDs. We considered results in the context of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and fertility rate in females younger than 25 years. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered 1000 draw values of the posterior distribution. Findings: Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates. After taking into account population growth and ageing, the absolute number of DALYs has remained stable. Since 2010, the pace of decline in global age-standardised DALY rates has accelerated in age groups younger than 50 years compared with the 1990–2010 time period, with the greatest annualised rate of decline occurring in the 0–9-year age group. Six infectious diseases were among the top ten causes of DALYs in children younger than 10 years in 2019: lower respiratory infections (ranked second), diarrhoeal diseases (third), malaria (fifth), meningitis (sixth), whooping cough (ninth), and sexually transmitted infections (which, in this age group, is fully accounted for by congenital syphilis; ranked tenth). In adolescents aged 10–24 years, three injury causes were among the top causes of DALYs: road injuries (ranked first), self-harm (third), and interpersonal violence (fifth). Five of the causes that were in the top ten for ages 10–24 years were also in the top ten in the 25–49-year age group: road injuries (ranked first), HIV/AIDS (second), low back pain (fourth), headache disorders (fifth), and depressive disorders (sixth). In 2019, ischaemic heart disease and stroke were the top-ranked causes of DALYs in both the 50–74-year and 75-years-and-older age groups. Since 1990, there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries. In 2019, there were 11 countries where non-communicable disease and injury YLDs constituted more than half of all disease burden. Decreases in age-standardised DALY rates have accelerated over the past decade in countries at the lower end of the SDI range, while improvements have started to stagnate or even reverse in countries with higher SDI. Interpretation: As disability becomes an increasingly large component of disease burden and a larger component of health expenditure, greater research and developm nt investment is needed to identify new, more effective intervention strategies. With a rapidly ageing global population, the demands on health services to deal with disabling outcomes, which increase with age, will require policy makers to anticipate these changes. The mix of universal and more geographically specific influences on health reinforces the need for regular reporting on population health in detail and by underlying cause to help decision makers to identify success stories of disease control to emulate, as well as opportunities to improve. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens

Evaluation of Serum Vaspin and Chemerin Levels in Type 2 Diabetic and Treated with Anti Diabetic Drugs Metformin and Acarbose in Rats

Background & Objective: The serum levels of adipose tissue hormons, Vaspin and Chemerin, alter in some disorder conditions such as diabetes. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of two anti-diabetic drugs (Metformin and Acarbose) and their combination on serum concentration of Vaspin and Chemerin in type 2 diabetic rats. Materials & Methods: 30 male, wistar rats are randomly divided into 5 groups, while 4 groups are suffered from type 2 diabetes, and 3 groups of these diabetics are cured using metformin, acarbose, and combination of both, respectively, during 6 weeks. Body weight, fasting glucose, glycated hemoglobin, lipid profile, and serum’s vaspin and chemerin are being examined. Statistic data are analyzed using SPSS software. Results report by mean ± standard deviation, and statistic difference considers significant by P˂0.05. Results: Findings of this study show a significant decrease for vaspin (P=0.001) and a significant increase for chemerin levels (P=0.004) in diabetic control group compared with normal control group. Treatment of all groups show a significant increase in serum levels of vaspin (P=0.001) while treatment by metformin results in a significant decrease in chemerin level in this group (P=0.036). In this study, fasting blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin, and lipid profile in treated group with both of drugs show decrease that is more significant. Conclusion: Probably metformin and acarbose through increase of serum level of vaspin leads to reduction of insulin resistance

Effects of Venlafaxine & Methadone Alone and in Combination with Spontaneous Morphine withdrawal Syndrome & Pain Sensation in Rats

Introduction: Methadone has been used as a drug to detoxify opioid tolerance. Naloxane precipitated morphine withdrawal behaviours were attenuated by venlafaxine as an antidepressant. On the contrary, after detoxifying the opioids, spontaneous withdrawal syndrome may occur with pain sensitivity. Therefore the present study aimed to examine the effects of chronic methadone (70 mg/kg, in drinking water, 7 days), venlafaxine (80 mg/kg/day, intraperitoneally, 7 days) and their combinations with the spontaneous morphine withdrawal syndrome and pain sensitivity. Methods: Twenty eight young male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: control, venlafaxine treated, methadone treated and venlafaxine + methadone treated. Morphine sulfate (10 mg/kg/day, subcutaneously, 4 days) was injected to all animals. Then primary withdrawal behaviours and tail flick test were performed. The test was then followed by methadone or its vehicle administration. Second intervention was venlafaxine or its vehicle injection. Then final withdrawal behaviours and tail flick test were performed. Results: Combination of chronic methadone substitution and venlafaxine administration, significantly reduced freezing behaviour of spontaneous morphine withdrawal syndrome (p<0.01, 379±144%). Chronic methadone administration (p<0.05, 35±8% difference with venlafaxine treated group) induced hyperalgesia. A positive correlation (p=0.001, +63%) was observed between the animals final freezing scores and their response latencies to the painful stimulus. Discussion: Combination of chronic methadone and venlafaxine administrations reduces freezing withdrawal behaviour. Further investigations on analgesic interventions are needed to overcome this hyperalgesia

Effects of fresh, aged and cooked garlic extracts on short- and long-term memory in diabetic rats

Objective: The present study was hypothesized to investigate the beneficial effects of fresh, aged, and cooked garlic extracts on blood glucose and memory of diabetic rats induced by streptozocine (STZ). Material and Methods: Diabetes was induced by an intraperitoneal injection of STZ (60 mg/kg body weight). An oral dose of 1000 mg/kg of each garlic extract was given daily for 4 weeks after diabetes induction. Five days after STZ injection, five groups were formed: Control (intact) rats (Cont) + Vehicle of garlic extract (normal saline) (Veh), STZ + Veh, STZ + Fresh (row) garlic (FG), STZ + Aged garlic (AG), and STZ + cooked (boiled) garlic (CG). In order to assess the passive avoidance memory, rats were gently placed on the wooden platform, and latency to step-down (SDL) was recorded as initial phase, after then a light electrical shock [0.3 mA, 3 sec, Alternative current (AC)] was delivered to their foot paw. The retrieval tests were done for short- and long-term memories, respectively. Blood glucose was assayed by glucometer before and after treatment with STZ and garlic extracts. Results: Hyperglycemia induced by STZ decreased short-term memory in both diabetic males and females rats significantly compared with the controls (

MAPPING LOCAL PATTERNS OF CHILDHOOD OVERWEIGHT AND WASTING IN LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES BETWEEN 2000 AND 2017

A double burden of malnutrition occurs when individuals, household members or communities experience both undernutrition and overweight. Here, we show geospatial estimates of overweight and wasting prevalence among children under 5 years of age in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2000 to 2017 and aggregate these to policy-relevant administrative units. Wasting decreased overall across LMICs between 2000 and 2017, from 8.4% (62.3 (55.1–70.8) million) to 6.4% (58.3 (47.6–70.7) million), but is predicted to remain above the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025. Prevalence of overweight increased from 5.2% (30 (22.8–38.5) million) in 2000 to 6.0% (55.5 (44.8–67.9) million) children aged under 5 years in 2017. Areas most affected by double burden of malnutrition were located in Indonesia, Thailand, southeastern China, Botswana, Cameroon and central Nigeria. Our estimates provide a new perspective to researchers, policy makers and public health agencies in their efforts to address this global childhood syndemic