Nutritional therapy and infectious diseases: a two-edged sword

The benefits and risks of nutritional therapies in the prevention and management of infectious diseases in the developed world are reviewed. There is strong evidence that early enteral feeding of patients prevents infections in a variety of traumatic and surgical illnesses. There is, however, little support for similar early feeding in medical illnesses. Parenteral nutrition increases the risk of infection when compared to enteral feeding or delayed nutrition. The use of gastric feedings appears to be as safe and effective as small bowel feedings. Dietary supplementation with glutamine appears to lower the risk of post-surgical infections and the ingestion of cranberry products has value in preventing urinary tract infections in women

Alkylcyanoacrylate drug carriers: I. Physicochemical characterization of nanoparticles with different alkyl chain length

Alkylcyanoacrylate particles were physico-chemically characterized in terms of size, surface charge, zeta potential, interaction with charged serum components and surface hydrophobicity as relevant parameters influencing the in vitro interaction with cells in culture and the in vivo organ distribution and fate after intravenous administration. Methyl-, ethyl-, isobutyl- and isohexyl-cyanoacrylate particles were found to be very similar with regard to these properties. Large differences existed with regard to their degradation behaviour. The type of degradation (surface erosion) was determined by photon correlation spectroscopy, and the degradation velocity was evaluated using a turbidimetric assay. Surface modification of the particles by a polymer coating affected neither the type nor the velocity of the degradation