Association between chronic undernutrition and hypertension

In developing countries nutritional deficit during prenatal and continuing in post‐natal life is very common. This condition leads to stunting and important metabolic changes. Over 30% of children in the world are stunted. The metabolic resultants of nutritional deficit during growth are classically known to aim at energy conservation. This review summarizes data from Brazil, a developing country undergoing the double burden of obesity and undernutrition, especially among the poor, and suggests that stunting or chronic undernutrition increases the risk of obesity and hypertension later in life. Around 60 million people are under the poverty line in Brazil. In São Paulo, the richest city of the country, 20% of the population live in slums and in Maceió, the capital of one of the poorest states, this percentage reaches 50%. Undernutrition in this population is around 20% among children, with high frequency of infections, anemia, and parasitic infestations, associated with poor sanitation. Among stunted adolescents, we found a high prevalence of hypertension (21%) that is a considerably higher estimate compared to non‐stunted adolescents (less than 10%). The prevalence of hypertension in undernourished pre‐school children, or in those who recovered from undernutrition, was higher than that in controls (29%, 20% and 2%, respectively, P < 0.001). Among stunted adults eating no more than 66% of the requirements (adjusted for stature), overweight/obesity was 35% in women and 25% in men. The prevalence of hypertension was 44% among stunted women and 18% among stunted men. Fifty per cent of stunted and obese women had hypertension. These data reinforce the important association between undernutrition and hypertension from childhood through adulthood. Health policies for preventing and combating childhood undernutrition should have an impact on the morbidity and mortality related to hypertension during adulthood.     

Deficient fear conditioning in psychopathy: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

CONTEXT: Psychopaths belong to a larger group of persons with antisocial personality disorder and are characterized by an inability to have emotional involvement and by the repeated violation of the rights of others. It was hypothesized that this behavior might be the consequence of deficient fear conditioning. OBJECTIVE: To study the cerebral, peripheral, and subjective correlates of fear conditioning in criminal psychopaths and healthy control subjects. DESIGN: An aversive differential pavlovian delay conditioning paradigm with slides of neutral faces serving as conditioned and painful pressure as unconditioned stimuli. SETTING: The Department of Medical Psychology at the University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany. PARTICIPANTS: Ten male psychopaths as defined by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised and 10 age- and education-matched healthy male controls. The psychopaths were criminal offenders on bail and waiting for their trial or were on parole. The healthy controls were recruited from the community. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Brain activation based on functional magnetic resonance imaging, electrodermal responses, emotional valence, arousal, and contingency ratings. RESULTS: The healthy controls showed enhanced differential activation in the limbic-prefrontal circuit (amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, insula, and anterior cingulate) during the acquisition of fear and successful verbal and autonomic conditioning. The psychopaths displayed no significant activity in this circuit and failed to show conditioned skin conductance and emotional valence ratings, although contingency and arousal ratings were normal. CONCLUSION: This dissociation of emotional and cognitive processing may be the neural basis of the lack of anticipation of aversive events in criminal psychopaths.     

Multiple interaction sites of galnon trigger its biological effects

Galnon was first reported as a low molecular weight non-peptide agonist at galanin receptors [Saar et al. (2002) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99, 7136-7141]. Following its systemic administration, this synthetic ligand affected a range of important physiological processes including appetite, seizures and pain. Physiological activity of galnon could not be explained solely by the activation of the three known galanin receptors, GalR1, GalR2 and GalR3. Consequently, it was possible that galnon generates its manifold effects by interacting with other signaling pathway components, in addition to via GalR1-3. In this report, we establish that galnon: (i) can penetrate across the plasma membrane of cells, (ii) can activate intracellular G-proteins directly independent of receptor activation thereby triggering downstream signaling, (iii) demonstrates selectivity for different G-proteins, and (iiii) is a ligand to other G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) in addition to via GalR1-3. We conclude that galnon has multiple sites of interaction within the GPCR signaling cascade which mediate its physiological effects.     

Multiple pathways process stalled replication forks

Impairment of replication fork progression is a serious threat to living organisms and a potential source of genome instability. Studies in prokaryotes have provided evidence that inactivated replication forks can restart by the reassembly of the replication machinery. Several strategies for the processing of inactivated replication forks before replisome reassembly have been described. Most of these require the action of recombination proteins, with different proteins being implicated, depending on the cause of fork arrest. The action of recombination proteins at blocked forks is not necessarily accompanied by a strand-exchange reaction and may prevent rather than repair fork breakage. These various restart pathways may reflect different structures at stalled forks. We review here the different strategies of fork processing elicited by different kinds of replication impairments in prokaryotes and the variety of roles played by recombination proteins in these processes.     

Technology evaluation: FluINsure, ID Biomedical

ID Biomedical (formerly Intellivax International) is developing a trivalent nasal influenza vaccine, FluINsure, for the potential treatment of influenza. The vaccine is currently in phase II clinical trials.     

Follicular fluid antibodies to Chlamydia trachomatis and human heat shock protein-60 kDa and infertility in women

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to establish the relationship between presence of anti-Chlamydia trachomatis and anti-HSP60 antibodies in serum and follicular fluid of infertile women. METHODS: Serum IgG and follicular fluid IgA to Chlamydia trachomatis and human heat shock protein 60 (HSP60) were determined in 41 women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). RESULTS: A significant association was found between presence of bacterial antibodies in serum and IgA anti-HSP60 in follicular fluid. CONCLUSIONS: Chlamydia trachomatis infection might be triggering an autoimmune process that could negatively affect the success of IVF.     

Job-related accidents with chemical substances among nursing workers

This study aimed at analyzing job-related accidents with chemical substances among nursing workers. The study was performed at the University of S?o Paulo (USP) Hospital. In order to collect data, a form was used to survey accidents occurred between 1992 and 2001. Data analysis showed that accidents notified at the USP Hospital are presented in such a way not to allow an in-depth questioning of the job-related exposition to chemical substances, given the fact that the hospital environment hosts hundreds of chemical substances that can potentially cause accidents. Although notifications are few, they are rich in terms of content for analysis, which contributes to subsidize valuable and viable prevention proposals.     

Effect of oral vitamin D2 yearly bolus on hip fracture risk in elderly women: a community primary prevention study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Vitamin D deficiency is a well-known risk for hip fracture, and vitamin D insufficiency is so frequent in the elderly that population-wide preventive intervention would be useful. The objective of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of vitamin D bolus on hip fracture incidence in elderly women. METHODS: All women aged > 65 years registered at Health District 20 of the Regione Veneto, Italy, were eligible for this quasi-experimental, prospective community intervention study. A vial containing 400,000 IU vitamin D2 (Ostelin 800, Teofarma, Italy) was offered for oral administration to all women in the winters of 2000-2001 and 2001-2002. The only exclusion criteria for treatment were age and gender, and the control group included women who did not participate in the Health District initiative. Analysis of hip fracture incidence was carried out for 4 years, from 1999 to 2002. Patients with incident hip fracture were identified as soon as they were admitted to one of the 3 hospitals of the health district and interviewed regarding their participation in the vitamin D preventive intervention program. In 120 of the women (age range 68-90 years), serum concentrations of 25-OH vitamin D were measured from October to June, both before and 1 and 4 months after vitamin D administration. RESULTS: 23,325 and 24,747 women received the vitamin D bolus during winters 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 respectively, i.e. 45-47% of eligible women. The proportion of women who accepted the bolus declined with advancing age, from 50-55% in women aged 60-70 years to 22-26% in those aged > 90 years. The two-year intervention on the community decreased the incidence of fracture by 10% (p = 0.050) in comparison with the previous two years. The age-adjusted risk reduction (RR) of hip fracture during 2001 and 2002 in women who had received vitamin D, with respect to women who had not, decreased by 17% (p = 0.056) and 25% (p = 0.005) respectively. The RR was considerably greater and statistically significant over both 2001 and 2002 in the cohort aged > 75 years. 25-OH vitamin D concentrations, in the subset of women in whom it was measured, rose significantly (p < 0.0001) by 9 ng/ml over 4 months after administration. CONCLUSION: Despite several obvious limitations due to its nature, this study sufficiently documents that yearly vitamin D bolus supplements, given as primary prevention to elderly Caucasian women, may decrease the incidence of hip fracture. For its probable safety and excellent feasibility and cost-effectiveness, this primary intervention has a great potential for generalisability.     

Correlation between dopamine D(2) receptors in the ventral striatum and central processing of alcohol cues and craving

OBJECTIVE: Alcohol and other drugs of abuse stimulate dopamine release in the ventral striatum, which includes the nucleus accumbens, a core region of the brain reward system, and reinforce substance intake. Chronic alcohol intake is associated with down-regulation of central dopamine D(2) receptors, and delayed recovery of D(2) receptor sensitivity after detoxification is positively correlated with high risk for relapse. Prolonged D(2) receptor dysfunction in the ventral striatum may interfere with a dopamine-dependent error detection signal and bias the brain reward system toward excessive attribution of incentive salience to alcohol-associated stimuli. METHOD: Multimodal imaging, with the radioligand [(18)F]desmethoxyfallypride and positron emission tomography as well as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), was used to compare 11 detoxified male alcoholics with 13 healthy men. The authors measured the association of D(2)-like dopamine receptors in the ventral striatum with alcohol craving and central processing of alcohol cues. RESULTS: Activation of the medial prefrontal cortex and striatum by alcohol-associated stimuli, relative to activation by neutral visual stimuli, was greater in the detoxified alcoholics than in the healthy men. The alcoholics displayed less availability of D(2)-like receptors in the ventral striatum, which was associated with alcohol craving severity and with greater cue-induced activation of the medial prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate as assessed with fMRI. DISCUSSION: In alcoholics, dopaminergic dysfunction in the ventral striatum may attribute incentive salience to alcohol-associated stimuli, so that alcohol cues elicit craving and excessive activation of neural networks associated with attention and behavior control.     

Analgesic, antiinflammatory and central depressor effects of the hydroalcoholic extract and fractions from Aeolanthus suaveolens

This work studied antinociceptive, antiedematogenic and central depressor effects of the hydroalcoholic extract (HAE) from Aeolanthus suaveolens and its fractions: hexane (ASHAE-H), ethyl acetate (ASHAE-A), aqueous (ASHAE-E) and precipitate (ASHAE-PPT) in experimental models in mice. The highest activity in the writhing test was presented by ASHAE-A followed by ASHAE-PPT and ASHAE-E and the lowest by ASHAE-H. In the formalin test the effect was manifested at both phases, although more intensely at the 2nd phase of the response. In this test, the most active fraction was ASHAE-PPT causing inhibitions of the order of 76 and 90% of the 2nd phase of the test at the doses of 10 and 100 mg/kg i.p., respectively. Naloxone reversed the effects of ASHAE-PPT in both phases of the test, suggesting the participation of the opioid system in the antinociceptive effect. On the other hand, the HAE effect on both phases of the formalin test was only partially reversed by naloxone, suggesting that the extract presents more than one active compound, and at least one, of a polar nature, acting through the opioid system. HAE and ASHAE-PPT presented antiinflammatory activity and were very effective in decreasing the mouse paw edema induced by carrageenan. All fractions significantly decreased locomotor activity in the open field test in mice. However, only the nonpolar fractions presented myorelaxant activity as demonstrated by the rota rod test.