Bauhinia forficata in the treatment of diabetes mellitus: a patent review

Introduction: Diabetes Mellitus has been considered an epidemic by the World Health Organization, with a high risk of morbidity and mortality. The treatment of this pathology consists in glycemic control, which can be done by oral hypoglycemic agents, insulin therapy, dietary guidance, regular physical activity, and psychosocial support. In addition, other adjuvant treatments are employed, such as phytotherapic, and one of the most used plants is Bauhinia forficata.

Areas covered: In the current review, patents using Bauhinia forficata for the Diabetes Mellitus treatment have been analyzed. There were 03 patents in WIPO, 01 in Espacenet, 01 in USPTO, and 02 in INPI.

Expert opinion: Patents on the adjuvant treatment of Diabetes Mellitus by Bauhinia forficata are discussed. Although there are some phytotherapy products containing this medicinal plant which has hypoglycemic effect here is still a need for the development of more products based on natural resources, for the treatment of this pathology, without side effects and with other benefits, to assist in the glycemia control in diabetic patients, and to improve their quality of life.     

The SLC6A3 3′-UTR VNTR and intron 8 VNTR polymorphisms association in the time estimation

Objective

The present study investigated the association of 3′-UTR VNTR and intron 8 VNTR polymorphisms with a time estimation task performance.

Materials and methods

One hundred and eight men in a Brazilian Northeast population (18–32 years old) participated in the experiment. The 3′-UTR VNTR and intron 8 VNTR polymorphisms were associated alone and combined to absolute error (AE) and relative error (RE) in a time estimation task (target duration: 1 s, 4 s, 7 s and 9 s).

Results

We found an association of the behavioral variable with intron 8 VNTR for the time intervals of 1 s and 9 s (p < 0.001) and polymorphisms combinatorial effect for 1 s (p ≤ 0.05).

Conclusion

The intron 8 VNTR polymorphism and the combinatorial effect can modulate the time estimate in the domain of supra seconds, and thus our study indicates a role of the dopamine transporter in the neurobiological areas related to the time intervals judgment.

     

Variable sources of Bk virus in renal allograft recipients

BK virus is the causative agent of polyomavirus-associated nephropathy, a major cause of kidney transplant failure affecting 1%-10% of recipients. Previous studies that investigated the viral source on the kidney recipient pointed that the donor is implicated in the origin of human polyomavirus BK (BKPyV) infection in recipients, but giving the low genetic variability of BKPyV this subject is still controversial. The aim of this study was to determine if BKPyV replicating in kidney recipients after transplantation is always originated from the donor. Urine and blood samples from 68 pairs of living donors and kidney recipients who underwent renal transplantation from August 2010-September 2011 were screened for BKPyV by real time polymerase chain reaction. Only three recipients presented viremia. When both donors and recipients were BKPyV positive, a larger fragment of VP1 region was obtained and sequenced to determine the level of similarity between them. A phylogenetic tree was built for the 12 pairs of sequences obtained from urine and high level of similarity among all sequences was observed, indicating that homology inferences for donor and recipient viruses must be cautiously interpreted. However, a close inspection on the donor-recipient pairs sequences revealed that 3 of 12 pairs presented considerably different viruses and 4 of 12 presented mixed infection, indicating that the source of BKPyV infection is not exclusively derived from the donor. We report that about 60% of the renal recipients shed BKPyV genetically distinct from the donor, confronting the accepted concept that the donor is the main source of recipients’ infection.     

Killer immunoglobulin like receptor gene profiling in Western Indian population

One hundred and sixty one healthy unrelated hematopoietic stem cell transplant donors from Western Indian were enrolled in this study. The study was initiated to observe the genotypic diversity of 16 killer immunoglobulin like receptor (KIR) genes in this population. KIR genotyping was carried out using the PCR-SSP technique. 56 KIR genotypes were observed in our population, where 15 genotypes were reported for the first time in any population. The KIR genotype data for the population can be accessed from Allele Frequencies Net Database under the population name “India Western KIR” and identifier “3570”.     

6,7-Dehydroroyleanone diterpene derived from Tetradenia riparia essential oil modulates IL-4/IL-12 release by macrophages that are infected with Leishmania amazonensis

Parasitology Research - The treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis in associated with several adverse effects and therapeutic failure, resulting in patients’ abandonment of treatment. Research...