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Toxicology Reports 2022The study compares the toxicity of 53 selected medicinal plants commonly used in the Philippines to treat various diseases. It uses as a benchmark L., which was...
The study compares the toxicity of 53 selected medicinal plants commonly used in the Philippines to treat various diseases. It uses as a benchmark L., which was approved by the Philippine Food and Drug Administration as an herbal drug for cough and asthma after passing clinical trials for safety and efficacy. The methods were chosen for their simplicity and accessibility even for resource-limited laboratories. Extracts (95 % ethanol) of the medicinal parts of the plants were (1) chemically profiled using qualitative phytochemical tests that detect the presence of key classes of bioactive compounds; and (2) evaluated for toxicity using the brine shrimp ( sp.) lethality assay (BSLA). General phytochemical screening revealed the presence of tannins in 50 plant extracts, alkaloids in 43, glycosides in 33, flavonoids in 31, steroids in 21, triterpenoids in 20, anthraquinones in 10, and saponins in 8. Extracts from eight plants had LC values lower than the potassium dichromate control (approximately 12 μg/mL) and were considered highly toxic; extracts from 21 plants had LC values between 12 μg/mL and 100 μg/mL and were considered moderately toxic; extracts from 19 plant extracts, including Vitex negundo and some common vegetables, had LC values between 100 μg/mL and 500 μg/mL, and were considered mildly toxic and likely to have reasonable safety margins; five plant extracts, including common vegetables, had LC values above 500 μg/mL and were considered essentially nontoxic. No apparent correlation could be found between toxicity and chemical diversity or a specific class of phytochemicals present. Our findings may serve as a guide for herbal drug and nutraceutical development, especially in prioritizing plants for more detailed safety studies.
PubMed: 34976744
DOI: 10.1016/j.toxrep.2021.12.002 -
BMJ Case Reports Mar 2021We present a rare case of single pulmonary arteriovenous malformation (PAVM) with multiple metal allergies, including for platinum. A 47-year-old woman presented to our...
We present a rare case of single pulmonary arteriovenous malformation (PAVM) with multiple metal allergies, including for platinum. A 47-year-old woman presented to our hospital without any symptoms. Enhanced computed tomography showed a single PAVM in S6 of the right lung. Interviews prompted us to suspect a history of palmoplantar pustulosis associated with metal dental filling. Dermatology patch tests for metal allergy were positive for platinum, cobalt, tin and potassium dichromate. The first choice of treatment for PAVM is endovascular treatment using a metal coil. Since the coil is composed of platinum alloy, we performed partial lung resection for PAVM without metal implants. Although metal allergy is rare for endovascular treatment, it causes an additional stress of removal of causative metal or long-term steroidal treatment. Therefore, for single PAVM with multiple metal allergies to the implants, surgical treatment without metal implants should be considered.
Topics: Arteriovenous Fistula; Arteriovenous Malformations; Female; Humans; Hypersensitivity; Middle Aged; Pulmonary Artery; Pulmonary Veins
PubMed: 33692060
DOI: 10.1136/bcr-2020-240275 -
Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences Mar 2023Budesonide (BUD), a glucocorticoids drug, inhibits all steps in the inflammatory response. It can reduce and treat inflammation and other symptoms associated with acute...
Budesonide (BUD), a glucocorticoids drug, inhibits all steps in the inflammatory response. It can reduce and treat inflammation and other symptoms associated with acute lung injury such as COVID-19. Loading BUD into bilosomes could boost its therapeutic activity, and lessen its frequent administration and side effects. Different bilosomal formulations were prepared where the independent variables were lipid type (Cholesterol, Phospholipon 80H, L-alpha phosphatidylcholine, and Lipoid S45), bile salt type (Na cholate and Na deoxycholate), and drug concentration (10, 20 mg). The measured responses were: vesicle size, entrapment efficiency, and release efficiency. One optimum formulation (composed of cholesterol, Na cholate, and 10 mg of BUD) was selected and investigated for its anti-inflammatory efficacy in vivo using Wistar albino male rats. Randomly allocated rats were distributed into four groups: The first: normal control group and received intranasal saline, the second one acted as the acute lung injury model received intranasal single dose of 2 mg/kg potassium dichromate (PD). Whereas the third and fourth groups received the market product (Pulmicort® nebulising suspension 0.5 mg/ml) and the optimized formulation (0.5 mg/kg; intranasal) for 7 days after PD instillation, respectively. Results showed that the optimized formulation decreased the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, and TGF-β contents as well as reduced PKC content in lung. These findings suggest the potentiality of BUD-loaded bilosomes for the treatment of acute lung injury with the ability of inhibiting the pro-inflammatory cytokines induced COVID-19.
Topics: Rats; Animals; Budesonide; Rats, Wistar; COVID-19; Acute Lung Injury; Cytokines; Cholesterol
PubMed: 36228754
DOI: 10.1016/j.xphs.2022.10.001 -
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Mar 2024Geopolymers show great potential in complex wastewater treatment to improve water quality. In this work, general geopolymers, porous geopolymers and geopolymer...
Geopolymers show great potential in complex wastewater treatment to improve water quality. In this work, general geopolymers, porous geopolymers and geopolymer microspheres were prepared by the suspension curing method using three solid waste products, coal gangue, fly ash and blast furnace slag. The microstructure, morphology and surface functional groups of the geopolymers were studied by SEM, XRD, XRF, MIP, FTIR and XPS. It was found that the geopolymers possess good adsorption capacities for both organic and inorganic pollutants. With methylene blue and potassium dichromate as the representative pollutants, in order to obtain the best removal rate, the effects of the adsorbent type, dosage of adsorbent, concentration of methylene blue and potassium dichromate and pH on the adsorption process were studied in detail. The results showed that the adsorption efficiency of the geopolymers for methylene blue and potassium dichromate was in the order of general geopolymers < porous geopolymers < geopolymer microspheres, and the removal rates were up to 94.56% and 79.46%, respectively. Additionally, the competitive adsorption of methylene blue and potassium dichromate in a binary system was also studied. The mechanism study showed that the adsorption of methylene blue was mainly through pore diffusion, hydrogen bond formation and electrostatic adsorption, and the adsorption of potassium dichromate was mainly through pore diffusion and redox reaction. These findings demonstrate the potential of geopolymer microspheres in adsorbing organic and inorganic pollutants, and, through five cycles of experiments, it is demonstrated that MGP exhibits excellent recyclability.
PubMed: 38611839
DOI: 10.3390/molecules29071560 -
Indian Journal of Pharmacology 2021Stress exacerbates the pathophysiology of major neurodegenerative disorders. In this study, the zebrafish (Danio rerio), the frequently used model for experimental...
OBJECTIVE
Stress exacerbates the pathophysiology of major neurodegenerative disorders. In this study, the zebrafish (Danio rerio), the frequently used model for experimental studies of stress and other central nervous system disorders, was used to evaluate the anxiolytic potential of flavonoids, namely silibinin and naringenin on alleviating acute stress-induced anxiety.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A molecular docking study with Molegro Virtual Docker software was done to assess the binding potential of flavonoids on serotonin and dopamine receptors. To determine the bioactivity and investigate the toxicity of the flavonoids, silibinin, and naringenin, brine shrimp lethality assay, and an acute toxicity study was conducted according to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Test Guideline 203. The effect of silibinin and naringenin was assessed using behavioral tasks such as the novel tank assay and the light-dark test on the zebrafish model of acute stress.
RESULTS
Molecular docking studies showed a higher affinity of silibinin and naringenin for the serotonin and dopamine receptors. In comparison to the LC value, 13.15 μg/ml of the reference standard potassium dichromate, silibinin, and naringenin yielded higher LC values, 34.10 μg/ml and 91.33 μg/ml, respectively. The LC value of silibinin and naringenin was observed to be >100 mg/l from the acute toxicity study on adult zebrafish. After transferring to a novel tank, silibinin and naringenin-treated zebrafish groups were found to explore the upper level of the tank, similar to standard drugs, and spent a long time in the upper level of the tank compared to the control group (p < 0.01). Both silibinin and naringenin treatment group spent increased amounts of time in the tank's illuminated part in contrast to that of the dark side as evidenced by the number of zebrafish entering or remaining in the illuminated part of the tank through the light-dark test. Silibinin and naringenin treated groups were found to spend increased time in the light side significantly on the day 15 of evaluation as compared to the control group (p < 0.05 and p < 0.001, respectively).
CONCLUSION
The flavonoids, silibinin, and naringenin were found to mitigate acute stress-induced anxiety, owing to their anxiolytic properties in the zebrafish model and may be explored as the potential therapeutic agents for treating anxiety.
Topics: Animals; Anti-Anxiety Agents; Anxiety Disorders; Artemia; Behavior, Animal; Citrus; Disease Models, Animal; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; Female; Flavanones; Inhibitory Concentration 50; Male; Silybum marianum; Molecular Docking Simulation; Phytotherapy; Random Allocation; Silybin; Zebrafish
PubMed: 34975133
DOI: 10.4103/ijp.IJP_18_20 -
Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic... Nov 2016Allergic contact dermatitis is an important cause of hand eczema. Patch testing is the only investigation available to prove the diagnosis of allergic contact...
INTRODUCTION
Allergic contact dermatitis is an important cause of hand eczema. Patch testing is the only investigation available to prove the diagnosis of allergic contact dermatitis. Exposures to allergens differ according to geographical, occupational, economic and social factors. Accordingly, patterns of allergic contact dermatitis differ in different parts of the world and different regions of the same country.
AIM
To study the causes of allergic contact dermatitis in adult patients with hand eczema with the help of patch testing.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This was a cross-sectional study involving 54 hand eczema patients conducted between October 2013 and June 2015, at a tertiary care centre in Southern India. After a detailed history including history of occupational exposure and detailed examination, patch test was done on these patients with Indian standard series. The patches were removed after 48 hours. Another reading was taken after 72 hours. The readings were interpreted according to International Contact Dermatitis Research Group criteria and noted down. The data were summarized using mean and standard deviation for continuous variables and percentages for categorical and dichotomous variables. The test of association was done with Fisher's-exact test.
RESULTS
Hyperkeratotic hand eczema was the commonest morphological type (29%), followed by discoid eczema. Pompholyx was significantly more common among patients with history of atopy. A total of 20 patients (37%) showed patch test positivity to a total of 25 allergens. Nickel was the most common allergen (11.11%) followed by para-phenylenediamine (PPD) (7.4%). Nickel (6 patients) and cobalt (3 patients) were the common allergens among women, while potassium dichromate (3 patients) and parthenium (2 patients) were the common allergens among men. Potassium dichromate allergy was significantly more common among masons and PPD allergy was significantly more common among hair dye users. Discoid pattern of hand eczema was common among patients with allergy to potassium dichromate.
CONCLUSION
Majority of the cases of hand eczema are not due to allergic contact dermatitis. History of atopy is common among patients with pompholyx. Allergic contact dermatitis due to nickel remains a common cause of hand eczema.
PubMed: 28050486
DOI: 10.7860/JCDR/2016/23994.8884 -
Heliyon Aug 2023With the rapid development of industry, the increasing discharge of sewage causes the detection of water quality to be of increasing importance. Potassium dichromate...
With the rapid development of industry, the increasing discharge of sewage causes the detection of water quality to be of increasing importance. Potassium dichromate titration is one of the most important testing methods in water quality detection; the ability to accurately identify the titration end-point of potassium dichromate is currently a research challenge. To identify titration end-point quickly and accurately, this study proposes a ResNet14Attention network, which utilizes residual modules that focus on original image information and an attention mechanism that focuses highly on classification targets. The proposed ResNet14Attention network is compared with 12 convolutional neural networks such as ResNet series networks, VGG, and GoogLeNet. The results of comparison experiments reveal that only the proposed ResNet14Attention network has the highest training and testing accuracy of 100% among all convolutional neural networks in the comparison experiment; the proposed ResNet14Attention network has the highest training speed compared to all the networks that over 90% accuracy.
PubMed: 37609400
DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e18992 -
Indian Journal of Dermatology 2021Hand eczema (HE), foot eczema (FE), and hand-foot eczema (HFE) manifest on exposure to various agents in day-to-day life or in occupations or both.
BACKGROUND
Hand eczema (HE), foot eczema (FE), and hand-foot eczema (HFE) manifest on exposure to various agents in day-to-day life or in occupations or both.
OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this study were to identify pattern of allergens causing HE, FE, and HFE and to identify multiple and concurrent contact allergies.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A study was conducted from October 2013 to August 2015 which included 190 patients. Patch test was performed for 78.94% of patients ( = 150). The statistical tests used were descriptive, Cramer's V, and Chi-square tests.
RESULTS
The most commonly affected group was HFE (55.8%) followed by HE (22.1%) and FE (22.1%). Allergens showed positivity either singly 56.3% ( = 67) or in combination 43.69% ( = 52). Nickel (41.79%) was the most common allergen in all the three groups followed by potassium dichromate. Late reactions (after day 7) were observed in 17.64% of patients ( = 21). Nickel was observed in 42.85% ( = 9) and paraphenylenediamine was observed in 28.57% of patients ( = 6) with values of <0.001 and 0.050, respectively. Multiple contact allergies were seen in 44% of patients ( = 52). Concurrent reactions (55.8% [ = 29]), polysensitization (34.6% [ = 18]), and mixed reactions (9.6% [ = 5]) ( value of <0.001) were observed.
CONCLUSION
Significant multiple contact allergies including concurrent reactions with nickel sulfate, potassium dichromate, cobalt chloride, and polysensitization were observed. No significant differences in allergen pattern were observed in HE, FE, and HFE.
RECOMMENDATION
Day 7 reading is recommended in HFE.
PubMed: 34446964
DOI: 10.4103/ijd.IJD_549_16 -
Frontiers in Endocrinology 2023Environmental pollution and infertility are two modern global challenges that agonize personal and public health. The causal relationship between these two deserves... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
Protective effects of melatonin against the toxic effects of environmental pollutants and heavy metals on testicular tissue: A systematic review and meta-analysis of animal studies.
BACKGROUND
Environmental pollution and infertility are two modern global challenges that agonize personal and public health. The causal relationship between these two deserves scientific efforts to intervene. It is believed that melatonin maintains antioxidant properties and may be utilized to protect the testicular tissue from oxidant effects caused by toxic materials.
METHODS
A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science to identify the animal trial studies that evaluated melatonin therapy's effects on rodents' testicular tissue against oxidative stress caused by heavy metal and non-heavy metal environmental pollutants. Data were pooled, and standardized mean difference and 95% confidence intervals were estimated using the random-effect model. Also, the risk of bias was assessed using the Systematic Review Centre for Laboratory animal Experimentation (SYRCLE) tool. (PROSPERO: CRD42022369872).
RESULTS
Out of 10039 records, 38 studies were eligible for the review, of which 31 were included in the meta-analysis. Most of them showed beneficial effects of melatonin therapy on testicular tissue histopathology. [20 toxic materials were evaluated in this review, including arsenic, lead, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, potassium dichromate, sodium fluoride, cigarette smoke, formaldehyde, carbon tetrachloride (CCl4), 2-Bromopropane, bisphenol A, thioacetamide, bisphenol S, ochratoxin A, nicotine, diazinon, Bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), Chlorpyrifos (CPF), nonylphenol, and acetamiprid.] The pooled results showed that melatonin therapy increased sperm count, motility, viability and body and testicular weights, germinal epithelial height, Johnsen's biopsy score, epididymis weight, seminiferous tubular diameter, serum testosterone, and luteinizing hormone levels, testicular tissue Malondialdehyde, glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione levels. On the other hand, abnormal sperm morphology, apoptotic index, and testicular tissue nitric oxide were lower in the melatonin therapy arms. The included studies presented a high risk of bias in most SYRCLE domains.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, our study demonstrated amelioration of testicular histopathological characteristics, reproductive hormonal panel, and tissue markers of oxidative stress. Melatonin deserves scientific attention as a potential therapeutic agent for male infertility.
SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION
https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO, identifier CRD42022369872.
Topics: Animals; Male; Melatonin; Environmental Pollutants; Semen; Testis; Antioxidants
PubMed: 36793277
DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1119553 -
Contact Dermatitis Oct 2022Allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) to Compositae is caused by sensitisation to sesquiterpene lactones (SQLs) and subsequent exposure can occur from direct handling or...
BACKGROUND
Allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) to Compositae is caused by sensitisation to sesquiterpene lactones (SQLs) and subsequent exposure can occur from direct handling or from airborne transmission. Plants from the Compositae family are ubiquitous globally and their plant extracts are also used in various products.
OBJECTIVES
Investigation of contact allergy (CA) and allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) to Compositae at a single dermatology centre.
METHODS
A retrospective case review was performed on patients undergoing patch testing to Compositae between January 2011 and December 2020 in Melbourne, Australia.
RESULTS
Of 3679 patients, 44 (1.2%) patch tested positive to Compositae and 19 (43.2%) reactions were deemed relevant. Thirteen cases (68.4%) were from direct contact with Compositae plants, mostly in gardeners. Six cases (31.6%) were from personal products and all these patients were female. Involvement of the face was significant (p = 0.007). Simultaneous allergic reactions included SQL mix in eight (42.1%), fragrance mix in seven (36.8%), potassium dichromate in three (15.8%) and colophonium in two (10.5%) cases.
CONCLUSION
Contact with Compositae from gardening contributed most cases of ACD; however, personal products accounted almost one-third of cases. Treatment options remain limited and avoidance is the most important aspect of management.
Topics: Allergens; Asteraceae; Australia; Dermatitis, Allergic Contact; Humans; Patch Tests; Plants; Retrospective Studies; Sesquiterpenes
PubMed: 35603484
DOI: 10.1111/cod.14162