Effects of cigarette smoking on priapism induced by quetiapine: a case report

Priapism is defined as an unwanted, prolonged, and painful erection which is unrelated to sexual stimulation. Some case studies suggest that priapism is an adverse effect of antipsychotic medications. In our case study a 30 year-old Iranian male with schizophrenia was experiencing recurrent priapism associated with quetiapine use. There are three interesting facts about this case: Firstly, the patient suffered priapism after even low dose consumption of quetiapine. Secondly, this case had experienced priapism with risperidone, olanzapine, and even clozapine in the past, suggesting a possible pharmacodynamic interaction of antipsychotics and inner biological traits in this particular case. Thirdly, priapism induced by low dose quetiapine was resolved after cigarette smoking.     

The community ecology of barley/cereal yellow dwarf viruses in Western US grasslands

Research on plant viruses in natural ecosystems has been increasing rapidly over the past decade. This paper reviews recent research on the barley and cereal yellow dwarf viruses (B/CYDVs) in grasslands of the western US, beginning with the evidence that the disease caused by these viruses facilitated the invasion of western US grasslands by European annual grasses. Observational and experimental studies of B/CYDVs were carried out along a latitudinal gradient (33.8-48.8°N) from southern California to southern Canada. The prevalence and community composition of B/CYDVs were assessed over a variety of scales and under a range of biotic and abiotic conditions. The findings indicate that both biotic and abiotic factors are important influences on virus ecology and epidemiology. Introduced annual grasses are high-quality hosts that amplify both virus and vector populations in this system, but our research suggests that endemic perennial grasses are critically important for sustaining virus populations in contemporary grasslands largely composed of introduced species. Experiments indicated that increased phosphorus supply to hosts resulted in greater host biomass and higher virus prevalence. Using experimental exclosures, it was found that the presence of grazing vertebrate herbivores increased the abundance of annual grasses, resulting in increased virus prevalence. The results of these studies suggest that patterns of B/CYDV prevalence and coinfection in western US grasslands are strongly shaped by the interactions of host plants, vectors, vertebrate herbivores, and abiotic drivers including nutrients.     

Therapeutic effects of a combinatorial treatment of simvastatin and bone marrow stromal cells on experimental embolic stroke

In this study, we investigated the therapeutic effects of simvastatin administered in combination with bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) following experimentally induced embolic stroke in rats. Effects on infarct volume, brain oedema and neurological deficits were examined. Focal ischaemic brain injury was induced by emblazing a preformed clot into the middle cerebral artery in rats. Animals were administered simvastatin (40 mg/kg) at 1 hr after stroke, or BMSCs (3 × 10(6)) at 24 hr after stroke or a combination of these two treatments. Rats receiving a dose of simvastatin in combination with BMSC administration demonstrated a significant reduction in neurological deficits, a significant reduction in infarct volume and a significant decrease in brain oedema. Our data show that combining simvastatin administration with BMSCs has an additive effect on improving functional outcome in this thromboembolic stroke model.     

Transplantation of retrovirally transduced bone marrow prevents autoimmune disease in aged mice by peripheral tolerance mechanisms

Transplantation of bone marrow (BM) engineered to express self-antigen has been shown to protect 100% of young mice from myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG)-induced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), with thymic clonal deletion as a tolerance mechanism. Here, we asked whether aged mice can also be tolerised following transplantation with self-antigen-engineered BM and whether castration-induced thymus regrowth can enhance this outcomes. Then, 50% of aged mice were protected from EAE regardless of castration-induced thymus regrowth. EAE-free and diseased mice demonstrated MOG-specific lymphocyte proliferation and antibody production regardless of castration-induced thymus regrowth, consistent with lack of intrathymic deletion of self-antigen-reactive T cells. Although low chimerism levels (?相似文献   

The effect of l-arginine and l-NAME on pentylenetetrazole induced seizures in ovariectomized rats,an in vivo study

The role of ovarian hormones and nitric oxide (NO) on seizure and their interaction have been widely investigated. The present study carried out to evaluate the effect of chronic administration of l-arginine (lA) and l-NAME (lN) on pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) induced epilepsy in ovariectomized (OVX) and naïve female rats.Fourty-eight female rats were randomly divided into six groups (n = 8) as follows: (1) sham, (2) ovarectomized (OVX), (3) sham-lA, (4) sham-lN, (5) OVX-lA, and (6) OVX-lN.The animals of sham-lA and OVX-lA received daily injection of 500 mg/kg l-arginine (i.p.) during 4 weeks. Sham-lN and OVX-lN were treated by 10 mg/kg l-NAME (i.p.) daily for 4 weeks. The animals of sham and OVX groups received 1 ml/kg saline (i.p.) instead of l-arginine and l-NAME. The latencies to minimal clonic seizures (MCS) and generalized tonic–clonic seizures (GTCS) after intraperitoneal injection of penetylenetetrazole (PTZ, 90 mg/kg) was recorded and compared between groups.A significant increase in the GTCS, but not MCS, latency was seen in OVX rats in comparison with sham-operated animals. Pretreatment of animals with l-NAME resulted in a significant increase in the GTCS and MCS latencies in sham group while no significant effects were seen in OVX rats. On the contrary, while pretreatment with l-arginine had no effects on MCS and GTCS latencies in sham group, a significant decrease in GTCS latency was observed in OVX rats.It is concluded that ovarian sex hormones affect seizure thresholds induced by PTZ and NO has a role on seizures susceptibility following PTZ administration. This NO effect might be differing in the presence or absence of ovarian hormones, but further investigations need to be done.     

Vitamin C reduces spatial learning deficits in middle-aged and very old APP/PSEN1 transgenic and wild-type mice

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease characterized by a build up of amyloid β (Aβ) deposits, elevated oxidative stress, and deterioration of the cholinergic system. The present study investigated short-term cognitive-enhancing effects of acute intraperitoneal (i.p.) Vitamin C (ascorbate) treatment in APP/PSEN1 mice, a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. Middle-aged (12 months) and very old (24 months) APP/PSEN1 bigenic and wild-type mice were treated with ascorbate (125 mg/kg i.p.) or the vehicle 1 h before testing on Y-maze spontaneous alternation and Morris water maze tasks. Very old mice performed more poorly on cognitive tasks than middle-aged mice. Ascorbate treatment improved Y-maze alternation rates and swim accuracy in the water maze in both wild-type and APP/PSEN1 mice. Aβ deposits and oxidative stress both increased with age, and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity was significantly reduced in APP/PSEN1 compared to wild-type mice. However, the short course of acute ascorbate treatment did not alter Alzheimer-like neuropathological features of plaque deposition, oxidative stress, or AChE activity. These data suggest that ascorbate may have noötropic functions when administered parenterally in high doses and that the mode of action is via an acute, pharmacological-like mechanism that likely modulates neurotransmitter function.     

Association between the polymorphisms of IL-4 gene promoter (-590C>T), IL-13 coding region (R130Q) and IL-16 gene promoter (-295T>C) and allergic asthma

Allergic asthma is a multifactorial disease, influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Recent family-based studies have revealed evidence for linkage of human chromosomes 5q31-33, 12q15-24, 11q13 and 15q23.6 as regions likely to contain genes related to asthma. Among the candidate genes in these regions are the genes encoding for human interleukin-4, interleukin-13 and interleukin-16. To evaluate this linkage, we examined an Iranian population of patients with asthma. A total of 30 patients with allergic asthma and 50 normal subjects were studied. Allergic asthma was confirmed using skin prick test and spirometry. DNA was extracted from blood cells and IL-4 (-590C>T), IL-13 (R130Q) and IL-16 (-295T>C) polymorphisms were determined by PCR-RFLP method. Out of 30 patients with allergic asthma, the following genotypes for IL-4, IL-13 and IL-16 cytokines were found: IL-4 genotypes consisted of 17 (56.7%) CC, 8 (26.7%) CT and 5 (16.7%) TT; IL-13 genotypes consisted of 11 (36.7%) GG, 13 (43.3%) GA and 6 (20%) AA; IL-16 genotypes consisted of 23 (76.7%) TT and 7 (23.3%) CT. No patient showed CC genotype for IL-16. A higher proportion of case subjects with the C allele for the IL-4, G allele for the IL-13 and T allele for the IL-16 polymorphisms was found compared with the T, A and C alleles, respectively. These results suggest an influence of genetic variability at the promoter of IL-4 gene (-590C>T) and a coding region of IL-13 gene (R130Q) on the occurrence of allergic asthma and no relationship between IL-16 promoter polymorphism (-295T>C) and this disease.     

Development and validation of LC–MS/MS method for the determination of cyproheptadine in several pharmaceutical syrup formulations

A rapid and sensitive liquid chromatographic–tandem mass spectrometric (LC–MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the qualitative and quantitative assay of cyproheptadine (CP) in pharmaceutical samples. Diphenylpyraline hydrochloride (DPP) was used as an internal standard (IS). Two multiple reaction-monitoring (MRM) transitions for each analyte were observed: 288.1/96.1 and 288.1/191.2 for CP and 282.1/167.2 and 282.1/116.3 for DPP. The retention time of the drug was 7.29 min. The analytical method was successfully validated for linearity (1–100 ng/ml), intra-day precision, inter-day precision, and accuracy. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were 0.86 and 0.98 ng/ml, respectively. The proposed method was applied to analyse the cyproheptadine content from seven different syrup formulations.