Tocotrienol is a cardioprotective agent against ageing-associated cardiovascular disease and its associated morbidities

Abstract Ageing is a nonmodifiable risk factor that is linked to increased likelihood of cardiovascular morbidities. Whilst many pharmacological interventions currently exist to treat many of these disorders such as statins for hypercholesterolemia or beta-blockers for hypertension, the elderly appear to present a greater likelihood of suffering non-related side effects such as increased risk of developing new onset type 2 diabetes (NODM). In some cases, lower efficacy in the elderly have also been reported. Alternative forms of treatment have been sought to address these issues, and there has been a growing interest in looking at herbal remedies or plant-based natural compounds. Oxidative stress and inflammation are implicated in the manifestation of ageing-related cardiovascular disease. Thus, it is natural that a compound that possesses both antioxidative and anti-inflammatory bioactivities would be considered. This review article examines the potential of tocotrienols, a class of Vitamin E compounds with proven superior antioxidative and anti-inflammatory activity compared to tocopherols (the other class of Vitamin E compounds), in ameliorating ageing-related cardiovascular diseases and its associated morbidities. In particular, the potential of tocotrienols in improving inflammaging, dyslipidemia and mitochondrial dysfunction in ageing-related cardiovascular diseases are discussed

A review of canine babesiosis: the European perspective

Canine babesiosis is a significant tick-borne disease caused by various species of the protozoan genus Babesia. Although it occurs worldwide, data relating to European infections have now been collected for many years. These data have boosted the publication record and increased our working knowledge of these protozoan parasites. Both the large and small forms of Babesia species (B. canis, B. vogeli, B. gibsoni, and B. microti-like isolates also referred to as "B. vulpes" and "Theileria annae") infect dogs in Europe, and their geographical distribution, transmission, clinical signs, treatment, and prognosis vary widely for each species. The goal of this review is to provide veterinary practitioners with practical guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of babesiosis in European dogs. Our hope is that these guidelines will answer the most frequently asked questions posed by veterinary practitioners

A stacked record of relative geomagnetic paleointensity for the past 270 kyr from the western continental rise of the Antarctic Peninsula

Paleomagnetic and rock magnetic investigations were carried out on four gravity cores recovered from the western continental rise of the Antarctic Peninsula during the SEDANO II cruise of RV OGS-Explora. The studied cores, each about 6.5 m-long, were collected at a depth of 3700–4100 m below the sea level, on the distal gentle side of sediment Drift 7, and consist of very fine-grained sediments spanning through various glacial–interglacial cycles. Detailed analysis of the paleomagnetic and rock magnetic data allowed to reconstruct relative paleointensity (RPI) records (NRM20 mT/ARM20 mT) for each core.We established a refined age model for the studied sequences by correlating individual SEDANO RPI curves to the global RPI stack SINT-800 [Y. Guyodo, J.-P. Valet, Global changes in intensity of the Earth's magnetic field during the past 800 kyr, Nature 399 (1999) 249–252]. The individual normalized SEDANO RPI records are in mutual close agreement; they were thus merged in a RPI stacking curve spanning the last 270 kyr and showing a low standard deviation. This study also points out that RPI records may provide a viable tool to date otherwise difficult-to-date sedimentary sequences, such as those deposited along peri-Antarctic margins. The new RPI chronology indicates that the sampled sedimentary sequence is younger than previously thought and allows a new high-resolution correlation to oxygen isotope stages. Furthermore, we recognized variations in the rock magnetic parameters that appear to be climatically-driven, with changes in the relative proportion of two magnetic mineral populations with distinct coercivities. Rock magnetic and lithological trends observed in the SEDANO cores indicate that during the climatic cycles of the Late Pleistocene this sector of the peri-Antarctic margin was subjected to subtle, yet identifiable, environmental changes, confirming a relatively higher instability of theWest Antarctic ice sheet with respect to the East Antarctic counterpart