The favorable impacts of silibinin polyphenols as adjunctive therapy in reducing the complications of COVID-19: A review of research evidence and underlying mechanisms.

The proceeding pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 is the latest global challenge. Like most other infectious diseases, inflammation, oxidative stress, and immune system dysfunctions play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of COVID-19. Furthermore, the quest of finding a potential pharmaceutical therapy for preventing and treating COVID-19 is still ongoing. Silymarin, a mixture of flavonolignans extracted from the milk thistle, has exhibited numerous therapeutic benefits. We reviewed the beneficial effects of silymarin on oxidative stress, inflammation, and the immune system, as primary factors involved in the pathogenesis of COVID-19. We searched PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, and Science Direct databases up to April 2022 using the relevant keywords. In summary, the current review indicates that silymarin might exert therapeutic effects against COVID-19 by improving the antioxidant system, attenuating inflammatory response and respiratory distress, and enhancing immune system function. Silymarin can also bind to target proteins of SARS-CoV-2, including main protease, spike glycoprotein, and RNA-dependent RNA-polymerase, leading to the inhibition of viral replication. Although multiple lines of evidence suggest the possible promising impacts of silymarin in COVID-19, further clinical trials are encouraged.

Bio-Inspired Evolutionary Model of Spiking Neural Networks in Ionic Liquid Space.

One of the biggest struggles while working with artificial neural networks is being able to come up with models which closely match biological observations. Biological neural networks seem to capable of creating and pruning dendritic spines, leading to synapses being changed, which results in higher learning capability. The latter forms the basis of the present study in which a new ionic model for reservoir-like networks, consisting of spiking neurons, is introduced. High plasticity of this model makes learning possible with a fewer number of neurons. In order to study the effect of the applied stimulus in an ionic liquid space through time, a diffusion operator is used which somehow compensates for the separation between spatial and temporal coding in spiking neural networks and therefore, makes the mentioned model suitable for spatiotemporal patterns. Inspired by partial structural changes in the human brain over the years, the proposed model evolves during the learning process. The effect of topological evolution on the proposed model's performance for some classification problems is studied in this paper. Several datasets have been used to evaluate the performance of the proposed model compared to the original LSM. Classification results via separation and accuracy values have shown that the proposed ionic liquid outperforms the original LSM.

Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Group Therapy on Craving, Emotion Problems, and Marital Satisfaction in Patients with Substance Use Disorders: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Objective: Psychological and environmental factors, such as difficulties in emotion regulation (ER) and marital problems, are involved in relapse and craving in patients with substance use disorders. Emotional regulation therapy can help maintain opioid withdrawal and improve marital relations by focusing on appropriate adjustment of emotions. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of emotion regulation therapy on craving, emotion regulation, and marital satisfaction in patients with substance use disorders. Method : This randomized controlled clinical trial with pretest and posttest was performed in 2014 in Noor hospital, Isfahan, Iran. In this study, 30 patients who were admitted to the addiction center of Noor hospital were selected using purposive sampling. They were assigned into two groups randomly: (1) 15 patients in treatment as usual (TAU group); (2) 15 patients in emotion regulation group therapy (ERGT). The ERGT group received eight weekly treatments, based on Gross model, to learn recognize emotions and their effects, overcome obstacles of positive emotions, accept emotions, identify regulatory maladaptive and adaptive strategies of emotions, and modify behavior. Before and after the emotion regulation sessions in experimental group, Craving Beliefs Questionnaire (CBQ), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) were administered in both groups. Results: The results of analysis of variance indicated that mean scores of marital adjustment increased in ERGT (93.66 ± 15.81) compared to TAU group (55.26 ± 20.98) and the mean scores of craving were decreased in ERGT compared to TAU group (56.66 ± 18.39 and 105.2 ± 34.5, respectively). Also, most aspects of ER improved in ERGT compared to TAU group, and the total score of ER was increased in ERGT significantly (96.69 ± 5.38 in ERGT versus 73.70 ± 5.05 in TAU). Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, emotion regulation group therapy has a significant effect on reducing Craving and improving marital adjustment and emotion regulation in Patients with Substance Use Disorders. So, it can use as a useful psychotherapy in addiction treatment centers.