Ethnopharmacological Survey of Endemic Medicinal Plants in Paphos District of Cyprus

Paphos district is an unexplored area in the field of ethnopharmacology. Traditional medicine combines a mix of superstitions and beliefs with the therapeutic use of medical plants that grow wild. In this report we discuss the ethnopharmacological, historical and medical aspects of the use of endemic medical plants in the area of Paphos of Cyprus. Paphos is cited in the east region of the island, characterized by its unique flora.. Many plants were used in an unusual way for therapeutic purposes by local people, comprising a significant part of their tradition that accompanies them up to today in their daily life

Functional brain imaging studies of youth depression: A systematic review

AbstractBackgroundThere is growing interest in understanding the neurobiology of major depressive disorder (MDD) in youth, particularly in the context of neuroimaging studies. This systematic review provides a timely comprehensive account of the available functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) literature in youth MDD.MethodsA literature search was conducted using PubMED, PsycINFO and Science Direct databases, to identify fMRI studies in younger and older youth with MDD, spanning 13–18 and 19–25years of age, respectively.ResultsTwenty-eight studies focusing on 5 functional imaging domains were identified, namely emotion processing, cognitive control, affective cognition, reward processing and resting-state functional connectivity. Elevated activity in “extended medial network” regions including the anterior cingulate, ventromedial and orbitofrontal cortices, as well as the amygdala was most consistently implicated across these five domains. For the most part, findings in younger adolescents did not differ from those in older youth; however a general comparison of findings in both groups compared to adults indicated differences in the domains of cognitive control and affective cognition.ConclusionsYouth MDD is characterized by abnormal activations in ventromedial frontal regions, the anterior cingulate and amygdala, which are broadly consistent with the implicated role of medial network regions in the pathophysiology of depression. Future longitudinal studies examining the effects of neurodevelopmental changes and pubertal maturation on brain systems implicated in youth MDD will provide a more comprehensive neurobiological model of youth depression

An FMRI investigation of emotion regulation in youth depression

© 2018 Dr Katerina StephanouThe ability to regulate emotions plays an important role in social development during adolescence and young adulthood. Further, impaired ability to regulate emotions using cognitive strategies is a hallmark feature of major depressive disorder. Currently, there is a limited understanding of the neural underpinnings of emotion regulation in young people and how cognitive forms of emotion regulation (like cognitive reappraisal) develop. This issue is particularly pertinent to improving our understanding of depression in young people, given that the period from adolescence to young adulthood is associated with substantial brain maturational changes in regions associated with emotion–regulation and it is a time when most first episodes of depression occur. In the present study, a cognitive reappraisal paradigm containing social–stimuli was designed to probe the neural correlates of emotion regulation in depressed youth: in particular, to determine whether there were differences in the way that depressed and control participants regulated social–affective material, as well as developmental effects observed within the two groups. tudy participants—a large group of 15– to 25–year–old depressed participants and a matched control group—underwent fMRI where they used cognitive strategies to reinterpret negative social imagery. As expected, this cognitive reappraisal paradigm robustly activated regions involved in cognitive control and social–affective processing in both groups. Among healthy 15– to 25–year–olds (Study One), younger participants exhibited greater activation of temporal and occipital brain regions during reappraisal—implicated in processing social material—in combination with weaker suppression of amygdala reactivity. Further analyses demonstrated that these age–related influences on amygdala reactivity were specifically mediated by activation of the fusiform face area. Study Two revealed that depressed youth were significantly less able to reduce negative affect during reappraisal (compared to healthy individuals), which corresponded to blunted modulation of amygdala activity. Depressed youth also showed heightened activation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and reduced activation of the dorsal midline cortex. Further, as distinct from the healthy youth, there was no relationship between development and modulation of amygdala activation in the depressed group. As the largest study of reappraisal in a young sample to date, our results in healthy controls highlight the importance of activation changes in social–processing and emotion processing networks, as being crucial to potential differences in the ability for adolescents to regulate their emotions. Enhanced neural sensitivity to social stimuli (e.g., facial stimuli) in younger individuals suggests a sensitivity to emotions of others during reappraisal that may be both adaptive in facilitating learning, but might also suggest difficulty disengaging from aversive social–cues. Findings in depressed youth are consistent with those in adults which suggest depression–related disturbances in both extended medial prefrontal (‘generative’) as well as dorsal (‘regulatory’) systems that contribute to adaptive emotional processing. Excessive engagement of the vmPFC—a region emphasised in contemporary neural systems models of MDD— may, in particular, be central to understanding how the process of assigning a new meaning to negative emotional material may be altered in depressed youth, with implications for treatment

Combined study on clastogenic, aneugenic and apoptotic properties of doxorubicin in human cells in vitro

Abstract Background Doxorubicin is a widely used anticancer drug due to its broad spectrum of antitumor activity. Various mechanisms have been proposed for its cytostatic activity, including DNA intercalation, topoisomerase II inhibition, generation of free radicals and apoptosis. The present study aims to further clarify the cytostatic activity of doxorubicin by its specific effect on (a) DNA damage, (b) micronucleation and (c) apoptosis, using a combination of different methods and cell systems such as human lymphocytes and HL-60 human leukemic cells. DNA lesions were analyzed by the alkaline comet assay in combination with formamidopyrimidine (Fpg) and human 8-oxoguanine (hOGG1) repair enzymes. Micronucleation was investigated by the Cytokinesis-Block Micronucleus assay (CBMN) in combination with Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization analysis. Impairment on mitotic apparatus was investigated by double immunofluorescence of β- and γ-tubulin. Apoptotic cell frequency was determined by the CBMN cytome assay. Complementary to the above, caspase-3 level was investigated by Western blot. Results It was found that doxorubicin generates DNA breakage induced by oxidative damage in DNA bases, which can be repaired by the Fpg and hOGG1 enzymes. Increased micronucleus frequency was identified mainly through chromosome breakage and, at a lesser extent, through chromosome delay. Analysis of mitotic spindle showed disturbance of chromosome orientation and centrosome duplication and/or separation, leading to aneuploidy. Enhanced frequency of apoptotic leukemic cells was also observed. Caspase-3 seems to be involved in the generation of apoptosis. Conclusions The aforementioned findings derived from different treatment schedules, doses and time of exposure on primary versus transformed cells extend our knowledge about doxorubicin genotoxicity and contribute to the better understanding of the mechanisms by which doxorubicin induces genotoxic effects on human cells

Specific functional connectivity alterations of the dorsal striatum in young people with depression

Background: Altered basal ganglia function has been implicated in the pathophysiology of youth Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Studies have generally focused on characterizing abnormalities in ventral “affective” corticostriatal loops supporting emotional processes. Recent evidence however, has implicated alterations in functional connectivity of dorsal “cognitive” corticostriatal loops in youth MDD. The contribution of dorsal versus ventral corticostriatal alterations to the pathophysiology of youth MDD remains unclear. Methods: Twenty-one medication-free patients with moderate-to-severe MDD between the ages of 15 and 24 years old were matched with 21 healthy control participants. Using resting-state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging we systematically investigated connectivity of eight dorsal and ventral subdivisions of the striatum. Voxelwise statistical maps of each subregion's connectivity with other brain areas were compared between the depressed and control groups. Results: Depressed youths showed alterations in functional connectivity that were confined to the dorsal corticostriatal circuit. Compared to controls, depressed patients showed increased connectivity between the dorsal caudate nucleus and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex bilaterally. Increased depression severity correlated with the magnitude of dorsal caudate connectivity with the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. There were no significant between-group differences in connectivity of ventral striatal regions. Conclusions: The results provide evidence that alterations in corticostriatal connectivity are evident at the early stages of the illness and are not a result of antidepressant treatment. Increased connectivity between the dorsal caudate, which is usually associated with cognitive processes, and the more affectively related ventrolateral prefrontal cortex may reflect a compensatory mechanism for dysfunctional cognitive-emotional processing in youth depression

Prenatal exposure to multiple organochlorine compounds and childhood body mass index

Background: Prenatal exposure to organochlorine compounds (OCs) has been associated with increased childhood body mass index (BMI); however, only a few studies have focused on longitudinal BMI trajectories, and none of them used multiple exposure mixture approaches. Aim: To determine the association between in-utero exposure to eight OCs and childhood BMI measures (BMI and BMI z-score) at 4 years and their yearly change across 4-12 years of age in 279 Rhea child-mother dyads. Methods: We applied three approaches: (1) linear mixed-effect regressions (LMR) to associate individual compounds with BMI measures; (2) Bayesian weighted quantile sum regressions (BWQSR) to provide an overall OC mixture association with BMI measures; and (3)Bayesian varying coefficient kernel machine regressions (BVCKMR) to model nonlinear and nonadditive associations. Results: In the LMR, yearly change of BMI measures was consistently associated with a quartile increase in hexachlorobenzene (HCB) (estimate [95% Confidence or Credible interval] BMI: 0.10 [0.06, 0.14]; BMI z-score: 0.02 [0.01, 0.04]). BWQSR results showed that a quartile increase in mixture concentrations was associated with yearly increase of BMI measures (BMI: 0.10 [0.01, 0.18]; BMI z-score: 0.03 [0.003, 0.06]). In the BVCKMR, a quartile increase in dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene concentrations was associated with higher BMI measures at 4 years (BMI: 0.33 [0.24, 0.43]; BMI z-score: 0.19 [0.15, 0.24]); whereas a quartile increase in HCB and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB)-118 levels was positively associated with BMI measures yearly change (BMI: HCB:0.10 [0.07, 0.13], PCB-118:0.08 [0.04, 012]; BMI z-score: HCB:0.03 [0.02, 0.05], PCB-118:0.02 [0.002,04]). BVCKMR suggested that PCBs had nonlinear relationships with BMI measures, and HCB interacted with other compounds. Conclusions: All analyses consistently demonstrated detrimental associations between prenatal OC exposures and childhood BMI measures