Effective treatment of experimental acute otitis media by application of volatile fluids into the ear canal

Essential oils are volatile and can have good antimicrobial activity. We compared the effects of oil of basil (Ocimum basilicum) and essential oil components (thymol, carvacrol, and salicylaldehyde) to those of a placebo when placed in the ear canal of rats with experimental acute otitis media caused by pneumococci or Haemophilus influenzae. Progress was monitored by otomicroscopic examination and middle ear cultures. The treatment with oil of basil or essential oil components cured or healed 56%-81% of rats infected with H. influenzae and 6%-75% of rats infected with pneumococci, compared with 5.6%-6% of rats in the placebo group. Essential oils or their components placed in the ear canal can provide effective treatment of acute otitis media.     

Increase in the incidence of alcoholic pancreatitis and alcoholic liver disease in Iceland: impact of per capita alcohol consumption

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the incidence of acute alcoholic pancreatitis and of severe alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and its association with per capita alcohol consumption with identification of both alcoholic cirrhosis (AC) and severe alcoholic hepatitis (AH), in a population-based setting.

Methods: A search was undertaken in diagnoses database for diagnostic codes in order to find patients hospitalized with incident acute alcoholic pancreatitis (AP) and alcoholic liver disease in Iceland in 2001–2015. Diagnoses were verified in all patients who were retrospectively reviewed. Those with ALD had either AC or AH. Alcohol sales during the study period were obtained from Statistics Iceland.

Results: Overall, 273 patients with acute AP, mean age at diagnosis 50 (14) years, 74% males and 159 patients with ALD, mean age 57 (11) years, 73% males, were identified. Mean per capita alcohol consumption was 6.95 (0.4) liters and increased by 21% over the study period. The annual incidence of AP increased from 4.2 per 100.000 to 9.5 and ALD from 1.6 to 6.1 per 100.000. Trend analysis showed a significant annual increase of 7% (RR 1.07, 95%CI 1.04–1.10) for AP and an annual increase of 10.5% (RR 1.10, 95%CI 1.06–1.15) for ALD. The increase was only significant in males.

Conclusions: Increase per capita alcohol consumption over a 15?year study period was associated with an increase in the incidence of severe alcoholic liver disease and alcohol-related acute pancreatitis in males but not in females.     

Functional human transcobalamin II isoproteins are secreted by insect cells using the baculovirus expression system

Transcobalamin II (TCII) is a cobalamin (Cbl, vitamin B12)-binding protein in mammalian plasma that facilitates the cellular uptake of the vitamin. To obtain human TCII in sufficient quantity for analytical studies, the complementary DNA (cDNA) encoding TCII was inserted into the plasmid PVL 1393, and the baculovirus expressing TCII was obtained by homologous recombination in Spodoptera frugiperda (SF9) insect cells by cotransfection with the wildtype virus. Under optimized conditions, SF9 cells infected with the recombinant virus secreted 2 to 4 micrograms of TCII per milliliter of culture medium. TCII did not accumulate in the SF9 cells and seemed to be constitutively secreted as observed previously in cultured human endothelial cells. The purified recombinant TCII has the same molecular weight by SDS-PAGE as purified human TCII. The recombinant TCII cross-reacts with an antiserum to native human TCII, binds Cbl and facilitates the uptake of Cbl in eukaryotic cells by binding to the receptor for TCII-Cbl on the plasma membrane of K562 cells. Amino acid sequence analysis of the purified recombinant TCII identified two polypeptides, one identical to the amino acid sequence deduced from the cDNA and a second lacking the first and second N-terminal residues. These sequences are identical to two TCII polypeptides purified from Cohn fraction III of pooled human plasma. The two forms of recombinant TCII have the same isoelectric points as the two predominant isoprotein forms of TCII in human serum. Since the baculovirus construct contains a single cDNA that can encode only one amino acid sequence, the two isoproteins in recombinant TCII must be generated by a mechanism other than allele specific expression. A plausible mechanism for generating isoproteins of nonglycosylated peptides, such as TCII, may be by splicing of the leader peptide at alternative sites.     

Eye movement deficits in schizophrenia

BACKGROUND: Deficits in antisaccade (AS) and smooth pursuit eye movements (SPEM) are promising endophenotypes in genetic studies of schizophrenia. The Icelandic population lends itself ideally to genetic studies due to its ethnic homogeneity and well-documented genealogy. The primary aim of this study was to assess AS and SPEM performance in a large Icelandic sample. Additional aims were to investigate the relationship between AS and SPEM task performance and to assess internal consistency, within-session performance changes and effects of SPEM target velocity on performance. METHOD: Patients with schizophrenia (N = 118) and healthy controls (N = 109) matched for age and gender underwent infrared oculographic assessment of AS and SPEM (at target velocities of 12 degrees , 24 degrees and 36 degrees /s). RESULTS: On the AS task patients displayed significantly more reflexive errors, longer latency, increased intra-individual latency variability, and reduced amplitude gain compared to controls. On the SPEM task, patients had significantly lower velocity gain and more frequent saccades during pursuit at all velocities, but group differences in velocity gain increased with increasing target velocity. Internal consistency of performance was high for all variables in both groups (Cronbach's alpha >0.77 for AS and >0.85 for SPEM) except for AS spatial error in patients (alpha = 0.38). A moderate association was found between AS and SPEM performance. By and large, patients and controls showed similar patterns of systematic within-session performance changes. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings confirm the existence of robust eye movement deficits in schizophrenia in a large sample. These measures may be studied as endophenotypes in future studies of potential schizophrenia risk genotypes in the genetically homogenous Icelandic population.