Nachweis einiger Heilmittel in der Kniegelenksynovialflüssigkeit

Zusammenfassung Mittels Gaschromatographie und Dünschichtchromatographie wiesen die Autoren 11 Substanzen nach, welche durch Injektion oder nach Verabreichung per os in die Kniegelenksynovialflüssigkeit eindrangen. In ihrer Aufstellung konnten sie eine direkte Beziehung zwischen Struktur sowie chemischphysikalischen Eigenschaften der Substanz und ihrer Fähigkeit, aus dem Blut in die Kniegelenksynovialflüssigkeit einzudringen, nicht nachweisen, außer der Tatsache, daß Substanzen mit starker Affinität zu Eiweißstoffen erst in höheren Dosen nachweisbar waren.     

Synthesis,Cytotoxicity and Antileishmanial Activity of Some N-(2-(indol-3-yl)ethyl)-7-chloroquinolin-4-amines

We report herein the condensation of 4,7-dichloroquinoline (1) with tryptamine (2) and D-tryptophan methyl ester (3) . Hydrolysis of the methyl ester adduct (5) yielded the free acid (6) . The compounds were evaluated in vitro for activity against four different species of Leishmania promastigote forms and for cytotoxic activity against Kb and Vero cells. Compound (5) showed good activity against the Leishmania species tested, while all three compounds displayed moderate activity in both Kb and Vero cells.     

Emerging drugs for epilepsy

Epilepsy affects ≤ 1% of the world's population. Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are the mainstay of treatment, although more than a third of patients are not rendered seizure free with existing medications. Uncontrolled epilepsy is associated with increased mortality and physical injuries, and a range of psychosocial morbidities, posing a substantial economic burden on individuals and society. Limitations of the present AEDs include suboptimal efficacy and their association with a host of adverse reactions. Continued efforts are being made in drug development to overcome these shortcomings employing a range of strategies, including modification of the structure of existing drugs, targeting novel molecular substrates and non-mechanism-based drug screening of compounds in traditional and newer animal models. This article reviews the need for new treatments and discusses some of the emerging compounds that have entered clinical development. The ultimate goal is to develop novel agents that can prevent the occurrence of seizures and the progression of epilepsy in at risk individuals.     

盐酸达泊西汀中甲磺酸甲酯、甲磺酸乙酯及甲磺酸异丙酯的顶空毛细管GC-ECD法测定

建立了衍生化顶空毛细管气相色谱-电子捕获检测器(ECD)法测定盐酸达泊西汀中的甲磺酸甲酯(MMS)、甲磺酸乙酯(EMS)和甲磺酸异丙酯(IMS).应用碘化钠衍生技术,使用PW-5毛细管柱,载气为氮气,ECD检测,程序升温.MMS、EMS和IMS分别在0.03～0.30、0.05～0.50和0.05～0.50 μg/ml浓度范围内线性关系良好,平均回收率分别为63.5％、100.3％和96.2％,最低检测限分别为0.30、0.50和0.50 ng/ml.     

Lung disease and PKCs

The lung offers a rich opportunity for development of therapeutic strategies focused on isozymes of protein kinase C (PKCs). PKCs are important in many cellular responses in the lung, and existing therapies for pulmonary disorders are inadequate. The lung poses unique challenges as it interfaces with air and blood, contains a pulmonary and systemic circulation, and consists of many cell types. Key structures are bronchial and pulmonary vessels, branching airways, and distal air sacs defined by alveolar walls containing capillaries and interstitial space. The cellular composition of each vessel, airway, and alveolar wall is heterogeneous. Injurious environmental stimuli signal through PKCs and cause a variety of disorders. Edema formation and pulmonary hypertension (PHTN) result from derangements in endothelial, smooth muscle (SM), and/or adventitial fibroblast cell phenotype. Asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and lung cancer are characterized by distinctive pathological changes in airway epithelial, SM, and mucous-generating cells. Acute and chronic pneumonitis and fibrosis occur in the alveolar space and interstitium with type 2 pneumocytes and interstitial fibroblasts/myofibroblasts playing a prominent role. At each site, inflammatory, immune, and vascular progenitor cells contribute to the injury and repair process. Many strategies have been used to investigate PKCs in lung injury. Isolated organ preparations and whole animal studies are powerful approaches especially when genetically engineered mice are used. More analysis of PKC isozymes in normal and diseased human lung tissue and cells is needed to complement this work. Since opposing or counter-regulatory effects of selected PKCs in the same cell or tissue have been found, it may be desirable to target more than one PKC isozyme and potentially in different directions. Because multiple signaling pathways contribute to the key cellular responses important in lung biology, therapeutic strategies targeting PKCs may be more effective if combined with inhibitors of other pathways for additive or synergistic effect. Mechanisms that regulate PKC activity, including phosphorylation and interaction with isozyme-specific binding proteins, are also potential therapeutic targets. Key isotypes of PKC involved in lung pathophysiology are summarized and current and evolving therapeutic approaches to target them are identified.     

Gender-related symptoms and correlates of alcohol dependence among men and women with a lifetime diagnosis of alcohol use disorders

This study explored gender-related symptoms and correlates of alcohol dependence in a crosssectional study of 150 men and 150 women with a lifetime diagnosis of alcohol use disorders (AUD). Participants were recruited in equal numbers from treatment settings, correctional centres and the general community. Standardized measures were used to determine participants' use of substances, history of psychiatric disorders and psychosocial stress, their sensation seeking and family history of substance use and mental health disorders. Multivariate analyses were used to detect patterns of variables associated with gender and the lifetime severity of AUD. Men had a longer history of severe AUD than women. Women had similar levels of alcohol dependence and medical and psychological sequelae as men, despite 6 fewer years of AUD. More women than men had a history of severe psychosocial stress, severe dependence on other substances and antecedent mental health problems, especially mood and anxiety disorders. There were differences in family history of alcohol-related problems approximating same-gender aggregation. The severity of a lifetime AUD was predicted by its earlier age at onset and the occurrence of other disorders, especially anxiety, among both men and women. The limitations in the generalizability of these findings due to sample idiosyncrasies are discussed.     

血管内皮生长因子的异常与子(癎)前期发病的关系

目的:研究血浆可溶性细胞间黏附分子-1(sICAM-1)浓度和胎盘组织血管内皮生长因子(VEGF)、胎盘生长因子(PLGF)及其血管内皮生长因子受体1(VEGFR1,Flt-1)、可溶性血管内皮生长因子受体1(sVEGFR1,sFlt-1)mRNA的表达与子前期的关系.方法:采用酶联免疫吸附测定法(ELISA)检测45例子前期患者和45例健康产妇血清sICAM-1的浓度,逆转录-聚合酶链反应(RT-PCR)方法检测胎盘组织中VEGF、PLGF、Flt-1、sFlt-1 mRNA的表达.结果:(1)子前期组sICAM-1水平为(218.45±29.93) μg/L,显著高于对照组的(168.84±19.39) μg/L(P < 0.01).(2)子前期患者胎盘组织VEGF、PLGF、Flt-1、sFlt-1 mRNA的相对表达量显著高于对照组(均P < 0.01).(3)血清sICAM-1浓度与胎盘组织中sFlt-1mRNA的相对表达量呈正相关(r = 0.90,P < 0.01).结论:子前期患者血清sICAM-1浓度升高,其胎盘组织VEGF、PLGF、Flt-1、sFlt-1 mRNA的相对表达量也升高.胎盘组织sFlt-1mRNA的高表达与子前期内皮损伤等有密切关系.     

Biochemical and molecular characterisation of cubozoan protein toxins

Class Cubozoa includes several species of box jellyfish that are harmful to humans. The venoms of box jellyfish are stored and discharged by nematocysts and contain a variety of bioactive proteins that are cytolytic, cytotoxic, inflammatory or lethal. Although cubozoan venoms generally share similar biological activities, the diverse range and severity of effects caused by different species indicate that their venoms vary in protein composition, activity and potency. To date, few individual venom proteins have been thoroughly characterised, however, accumulating evidence suggests that cubozoan jellyfish produce at least one group of homologous bioactive proteins that are labile, basic, haemolytic and similar in molecular mass (42-46 kDa). The novel box jellyfish toxins are also potentially lethal and the cause of cutaneous pain, inflammation and necrosis, similar to that observed in envenomed humans. Secondary structure analysis and remote protein homology predictions suggest that the box jellyfish toxins may act as α-pore-forming toxins. However, more research is required to elucidate their structures and investigate their mechanism(s) of action. The biological, biochemical and molecular characteristics of cubozoan venoms and their bioactive protein components are reviewed, with particular focus on cubozoan cytolysins and the newly emerging family of box jellyfish toxins.     

Antiparasitic protozoan vaccines

Parasitic infections caused by pathogenic protozoa affect over 1 billion people worldwide and impose a substantial health and economic burden, particularly on inter-tropical less-developed countries where they are more prevalent. Despite encouraging progress in vaccine development, chemotherapy remains the single most effective, efficient and inexpensive means to control most parasitic infections [1]. However, day to day parasites are becoming increasingly resistant to drugs currently in use, such as Plasmodium towards chloroquine, lending to the start of a promising future for vaccines. Patent applications regarding vaccines for the prevention, control and diagnosis of parasitic protozoan infections are reviewed for the period December 1996 - October 2000. However, vaccines for some of the protozoan infections do not appear in the literature in the period reviewed; only, vaccines against malaria, leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis, cryptosporidiosis, pneumocystosis, eimeriosis, toxoplasmosis and neosporosis, as well as Babesia microti infections have been found.     

Dose tolerability of chronically inhaled voriconazole solution in rodents

Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is a fungal disease of the lung associated with high mortality rates in immunosuppressed patients despite treatment. Targeted drug delivery of aqueous voriconazole solutions has been shown in previous studies to produce high tissue and plasma drug concentrations as well as improved survival in a murine model of IPA. In the present study, rats were exposed to 20 min nebulizations of normal saline (control group) or aerosolized aqueous solutions of voriconazole at 15.625 mg (low dose group) or 31.25 mg (high dose group). Peak voriconazole concentrations in rat lung tissue and plasma after 3 days of twice daily dosing in the high dose group were 0.85 ± 0.63 μg/g wet lung weight and 0.58 ± 0.30 μg/mL, with low dose group lung and plasma concentrations of 0.38 ± 0.01 μg/g wet lung weight and 0.09 ± 0.06 μg/mL, respectively. Trough plasma concentrations were low but demonstrated some drug accumulation over 21 days of inhaled voriconazole administered twice daily. Following multiple inhaled doses, statistically significant but clinically irrelevant abnormalities in laboratory values were observed. Histopathology also revealed an increase in the number of alveolar macrophages but without inflammation or ulceration of the airway, interstitial changes, or edema. Inhaled voriconazole was well tolerated in a rat model of drug inhalation.     

The debate on DDT

The paper reviews the early toxicologic and pharmacologic studies carried out by the author and his associates from 1943 to 1947, which were largely responsible for launching DDT as an agent for the control of typhus, malaria, yellow fever, and related vector-borne diseases. After reviewing recent studies conducted at the University of Miami, which dealt with organochlorine pesticides in human tissues, the tumorigenicity of aldrin, dieldrin and endrin (rat), six-generation mouse and three-generation dog reproduction studies, synergism of DDT and aldrin (dog), and the fate of DDT and aldrin during a period of severe starvation (rat), it is pointed out that it is primarily the overuse and misuse of DDT in pest control that have caused the pollution in our ecology. It is emphasized that the requirements for pest control differ the world over and that it must therefore be left to the national regulatory agencies to legislate the safe use of DDT and related pesticides. It is recommended that future human and animal studies with DDT and its derivatives give consideration to: (a) the balance and metabolism of the various hormones, (b) reproduction (estrus, libido, mammary development, milk production, (c) hepatic microsomal enzyme activities, (d) cancer prevention and cancer production, (e) excessive body weight changes induced by disease, unbalanced diet or starvation, and (f) the effects of DDT and its derivatives when absorbed in combination with other related and even unrelated compounds.Presented at the joint meeting of the Scandinavian and German Pharmacological Societies, Copenhagen, Denmark, July 20–23, 1971.