Food,water, energy,and macronutrient intake of non-breastfed infants and young children (0–3 years)

European Journal of Nutrition - The French Nutri-Bébé 2013 study aimed to assess the nutritional intake of infants and young children in comparison with the recommendations of the 2013...     

Intravenous fate of poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate)-based polyplexes

The objective of this study was to assess the in vivo fate of poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (pDMAEMA)-based polyplexes after intravenous administration into mice. Circulation kinetics and tissue distribution in terms of plasmid localization and transfection efficiency were assessed. To gain more insight into the observed biodistribution and gene expression profile, the interaction of pDMAEMA-based polyplexes with blood components (erythrocytes and albumin) was investigated in vitro. In the case of i.v. injection of positively charged polyplexes at a dose of 30 microg DNA most of the radioactivity was found in the lungs and the liver 60 min after injection. In the case of pDMAEMA/DNA polyplexes with a negative charge, uptake occurred mainly by the liver. Administration of positively charged complexes at a 30 microg DNA dose resulted in reporter gene expression primarily in the lungs. Injection of negatively charged complexes and naked plasmid did not result in luciferase expression in any of the organs examined. In vitro turbidity experiments showed the induction of a charge dependent aggregation process upon addition of albumin to the polyplexes pointing out to the involvement of aggregate formation in the dominant lung uptake of the positively charged polyplexes. Also, incubations of polyplexes after pre-incubation with a physiological concentration of albumin with washed erythrocytes confirmed that polyplexes induce the formation of extremely large structures. This paper underlines the need for the design of systems with reduced interaction with blood components to promote the delivery of DNA to target tissues outside the lungs.     

Influence of food on the pharmacokinetics of quinapril and its active diacid metabolite, CI-928

A randomized two-way crossover study was conducted in 12 healthy volunteers to assess the effect of food on the pharmacokinetics of quinapril (CI-906) and its active metabolite, CI-928, after quinapril dosing. Forty-milligram oral quinapril doses were administered in a fasted or a fed state with a one-week washout period between treatments. No significant treatment differences were observed in quinapril and CI-928 values for maximum plasma concentration, area under the plasma concentration-time curve, or percentage of dose excreted in the urine. Small but significant increases of less than 0.5 hour in quinapril and CI-928 tmax values were observed after consumption of food. The pharmacokinetic profiles of quinapril and CI-928 were not significantly altered by the administration of food.     

Assessment of neutrophil leukocyte secretory response to fMLP in whole blood in vitro.

A simple, precise method has been developed for assessing neutrophil secretory responses (release of vitamin B12 binding protein from specific granules) to challenge of aliquots of whole blood with the bacterial chemotactic peptide N-formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMLP). Dose-response studies performed on blood from normal healthy volunteers showed higher maximal secretory responses in males than females (33.3 +/- SEM 2.2 vs. 27.4 +/- 2.5, P less than .005) a left shift in dose-response curves after feeding compared to fasting (P less than .005), spontaneous up-regulation of responses in blood incubated at 37 degrees C for 1 h, and marked upregulation in response to preincubation with endotoxin. This whole blood challenge method may be used to study neutrophil responses in groups of individuals or patients without the confounding effects of changes in cell responses resulting from cell isolation procedures. The method may also be used as a bioassay for neutrophil-activating factors.     

Myocardial injury during standard treatment of an adult with status asthmaticus.

Asthma affects 5%-10% of adults in the United States. Older adults (> 65 years) with asthma have higher rates of fatal asthma than younger adults. The occurrence of a respiratory emergency, such as status asthmaticus, would seem likely to create a situation of cardiopulmonary dysfunction conducive to myocardial ischemia. However, multiple studies of fatal or near-fatal asthma have failed to incriminate myocardial infarction as a contributing factor. We report a patient without underlying coronary artery disease who sustained myocardial injury consistent with myocardial ischemia and infarction during status asthmaticus while receiving recommended treatment without intravenous sympathomimetics or theophylline.     

The use of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the quantitation of Calloselasma rhodostoma (Malayan pit viper) venom and venom antibodies

The specificity and sensitivity of an indirect and two (an ‘ordinary’ and a ‘rapid’) double sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) procedures for the quantitation of Calloselasma rhodostoma (Malayan pit viper) venom were examined. The three assays were equally sensitive and the accuracy of the assays was not substantially affected by individual variation in the venom composition. The specificity of the assays was examined against 26 venoms from snakes of the families Viperidae and Elapidae. While the double sandwich ELISA procedures were sufficiently specific to be used in the clinical immunodiagnosis of C. rhodostoma bite in Malaysia, the indirect ELISA procedure exhibited extensive cross-reactivity with other Malaysian pit viper venoms. Attempts were made to improve the specificity of the indirect ELISA procedure for the quantitation of C. rhodostoma venom. A ‘low ELISA cross-reactivity’ venom fraction (termed VF52) was isolated from C. rhodostoma venom by repeated Sephadex G-100 gel filtration chromatography. The indirect ELISA procedure using antibodies to VF52 as immunoreagent showed an improvement in specificity. The use of the indirect ELISA procedure for the detection of C. rhodostoma antibodies was also examined and the results show that the assay was sufficiently specific to be used for retrospective diagnosis of C. rhodostoma bite in Malaysia, in particular when VF52 was used as the coating antigen.     

Recent insights into platinum drug resistance in cancer.

Cisplatin and its analogs have become important components of chemotherapeutic regimens for the treatment of solid tumors, however, their overall effectiveness is limited by the emergence of drug-resistant tumor cells. Resistance to the platinum drugs is multifactorial consisting of mechanisms that prevent the formation of lethal platinum-DNA adducts and mechanisms that operate downstream of the drug/target interaction to promote cell survival. Continued progress in the study of the drug resistance phenotype as well as the development of new platinum analogs may eventually lead to improved therapies and increased survival rates.     

Transcervical Resection of the Endometrium Using Intracervical Block Only A Review of 278 Procedures

Summary: The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety aspects of performing transcervical endometrial resection (T.C.R.E.) on a selected group of 278 patients with menstrual disorders under local analgesia (intracervical block) only. Patient acceptance of the procedure was high, with only 3 cases not completed due to insufficient analgesia (1.07%), although a further 9 (3.2%) were completed with the help of intravenous sedation. Patient satisfaction at 4 months was 90%. There were 4 perforations (1.4%), but no laparotomy was required. Five cases (1.7%) of haemorrhage required a Foley catheter, with 1 needing a transfusion. There was no case of clinically evident glycine overload. Twelve patients required an overnight stay.
Patient acceptance of T.C.R.E. under local analgesia, and the incidence of major complications, compared favourably with other published series, including a series of 330 cases performed concurrently by the same operators under general anaesthesia.