Switch from depression to mania, or from mania to depression

By means of two retrospective record studies of 300 patients hospitalized for mania, and 906 patients hospitalized for depression, the rate and point of switch from mania to depression and from depression to mania between 1920 and 1981 were investigated. The switch rate is mainly explained by polarity; patients with a previous history of mania/ hypomania have switch rates of 21 per cent (mania to depression) to 29 per cent (depression to mania)-in prospective studies the rates are around 30 per cent. Unipolar depressive patients have a switch rate of 2.7-4.6 per cent, which may be due to potential bipolars. The switches occur about 4 months after onset of the episodes and about 7 weeks after hospital admission (medians). The lack of any significant change within this time period does not support the existence of a substantial drug-induced switch. The majority of switches seem to occur as a consequence of the spontaneous course of bipolar illness.     

Journey from Serendipity to Biologics

Pharmaceutical Chemistry Journal - The world today is largely focused on biologics-based treatment for many diseases as it is a very specific way to treat any disease and also happens to have the...     

左旋四氢巴马亭生物转化为左旋紫堇达明的研究

对链霉菌等10株菌种进行筛选，发现灰色链霉菌(Streptomyces griseus)YD-007菌株将左旋四氢巴马亭转化为左旋紫堇达明的转化率较高。通过碳、氮源筛选、正交实验，得到最佳培养基配方为：玉米粉30g，黄豆粉10g，酵母粉5g，K2HPO4 2g，NaCl 5g，蒸馏水1000ml，pH7.O；转化率从6．03％提高到17．00％。研究了转化温度和时间对转化率的影响，同时比较了链霉菌细胞在不同转化液中的转化率，并选用不同pH磷酸缓冲液，确定转化最适pH为pH5.0。     

运动有益的前提是适合自己

运动能促进健康，似乎人人知道，但掌握不当适得其反却并非人人都清楚。同样的运动项目，由于运动强度不同。一人体生理．反应不同，对健康的影响差别很大。     

Cannabis - from cultivar to chemovar

The medicinal use of Cannabis is increasing as countries worldwide are setting up official programs to provide patients with access to safe sources of medicinal-grade Cannabis. An important question that remains to be answered is which of the many varieties of Cannabis should be made available for medicinal use. Drug varieties of Cannabis are commonly distinguished through the use of popular names, with a major distinction being made between Indica and Sativa types. Although more than 700 different cultivars have already been described, it is unclear whether such classification reflects any relevant differences in chemical composition. Some attempts have been made to classify Cannabis varieties based on chemical composition, but they have mainly been useful for forensic applications, distinguishing drug varieties, with high THC content, from the non-drug hemp varieties. The biologically active terpenoids have not been included in these approaches. For a clearer understanding of the medicinal properties of the Cannabis plant, a better classification system, based on a range of potentially active constituents, is needed. The cannabinoids and terpenoids, present in high concentrations in Cannabis flowers, are the main candidates. In this study, we compared cultivars obtained from multiple sources. Based on the analysis of 28 major compounds present in these samples, followed by principal component analysis (PCA) of the quantitative data, we were able to identify the Cannabis constituents that defined the samples into distinct chemovar groups. The study indicates the usefulness of a PCA approach for chemotaxonomic classification of Cannabis varieties.     

Scaling from discs to pleated devices

Membrane discs offer a convenient format for evaluating membrane performance in normal flow filtration. However, while pleated devices of different sizes tend to scale in close proportion to their contained areas, they do not necessarily scale in direct proportion from flat discs. The objectives of this study are to quantify differences in performance among sterilizing-grade membrane devices as a function of device type and size, to develop an understanding of the factors that affect device scalability, and to develop a mathematical model to predict a cartridge-to-disc scalability factor based on membrane properties and porous support properties and dimensions. Measured and predicted normalized water permeability scalability factors for seven types of pleated cartridges, including 0.1-micro and 0.2-micro rated PES, and 0.2-micro rated polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) sterilizing-grade filters in nominal 1-inch to 5-inch lengths, were determined. The results of this study indicate that pleated cartridge performance can be closely predicted based on 47-mm disc performance provided that a number of measured device parameters are properly accounted for, most importantly parasitic pressure losses in the filter device and plumbing connections, intrinsic membrane variability, true effective device filtration area, and the hydraulic properties of all porous support materials. Throughput scalability factors (discs to devices) tend to converge towards unity, especially for highly plugging streams. As the membrane fouls, the resistance through the membrane dominates other resistances, so the flux scales more linearly with membrane area and the overall scaling factor becomes close to one. The results of throughput tests on seven different cartridge types and five different challenge streams (with widely varying fouling characteristics) show that most of the throughput scaling factors were within +/-10% of 1.0. As part of this study, the effects of pressure and temperature were also evaluated. Neither of these factors was found to have a significant effect on scalability.