Research progress on the roles of dopamine and dopamine receptors in digestive system diseases.

Dopamine (DA) is a neurotransmitter synthesized in the human body that acts on multiple organs throughout the body, reaching them through the blood circulation. Neurotransmitters are special molecules that act as messengers by binding to receptors at chemical synapses between neurons. As ligands, they mainly bind to corresponding receptors on central or peripheral tissue cells. Signalling through chemical synapses is involved in regulating the activities of various body systems. Lack of DA or a decrease in DA levels in the brain can lead to serious diseases such as Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, addiction and attention deficit disorder. It is widely recognized that DA is closely related to neurological diseases. As research on the roles of brain-gut peptides in human physiology and pathology has deepened in recent years, the regulatory role of neurotransmitters in digestive system diseases has gradually attracted researchers' attention, and research on DA has expanded to the field of digestive system diseases. This review mainly elaborates on the research progress on the roles of DA and DRs related to digestive system diseases. Starting from the biochemical and pharmacological properties of DA and DRs, it discusses the therapeutic value of DA- and DR-related drugs for digestive system diseases.

Hydrothermally Stimulated Molecular Interfaces for Augmented Electron Delocalization in Wet-Chemical Phosphorus Recovery from Incineration Ash of Sewage Sludge.

Wet-chemically recovering phosphorus (P) from sewage sludge incineration ash (SSIA) has already become a global initiative to address P deficit, but effectively isolating P from these accompanying metals (AMs) through adsorption in a SSIA-derived extract remains elusive. Here, we devised a hydrothermal stimulus-motivated thermodynamic and kinetic enhancement to gain anionic ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) molecular interfaces for AM enclosure to resolve this conundrum. A new dosage rule based on the EDTA coordination ratio with AMs was established for the first time. Upon hydrothermal extraction at 140 °C for 1 h, the P extraction efficiency reached 96.7% or higher for these obtained SSIA samples, and then exceptional P sequestration from these EDTA-chelated AMs was realized by the peculiar lanthanum (La)-based nanoadsorbent (having 188.86 mg P/g adsorbent at pH ∼ 3.0). Relevant theoretical calculations unraveled that these delocalized electrons of tetravalent EDTA molecules boosted the enclosure of liberated AMs, thereby entailing a substantially increased negative adsorption energy (-408.7 kcal/mol) of P in the form of H2PO4- through intruding lattice-edged carbonates to coordinate La with monodentate mononuclear over LaCO5(1 0 1). This work highlights the prospect of molecular adaptation of these common extractants in wet-chemical P recovery from various P-included wastes, further sustaining global P circularity.

Evaluating the beam shape coefficients of Bessel-Gauss beams with radial quadrature: a comparison with angular spectrum decomposition and finite series methods.

The Bessel-Gauss beam (BGB) stands as a physically realizable beam extensively employed in applications such as micromanipulation and optical trapping. In these contexts, the assessment of beam shape coefficients (BSCs) becomes imperative. Previous research reveals that the BSCs of the BGBs obtained with different methods deviate from each other under certain circumstances. In this paper, the formulation of BSCs employs the radial quadrature method, and a comparative analysis is conducted with counterparts formulated using the angular spectrum decomposition and the finite series technique. Contributions stemming from evanescent waves and the situation of the BSC blowing-ups are discussed, offering a deep insight of pertinent BSC evaluation methods. The paper provides an alternative approach for calculating the BSCs of the BGBs.

Protective effects of oyster polypeptide on cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppressed rats.

BACKGROUND: Oyster polypeptide (OP) is a mixture of oligopeptides extracted from oysters through enzyme lysis, separation, and purification. It is associated with immunomodulatory effects, but the underlying mechanisms are not known. This study therefore combined proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) urinary metabolomics and 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the gut microbiome to determine the immunoprotective mechanisms of OP in rats subjected to cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppression. RESULTS: Oyster polypeptide restored the body weight and the structure of spleen and thymus in rats with cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppression. It upregulated the levels of white blood cells (WBCs), hemoglobin (HGB), platelets (PLT), red blood cells (RBCs), immunoglobulin G (IgG), immunoglobulin M (IgM), cytokines such as interleukin­6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and increased the numbers of CD3+ and CD4+ T cells in the immunosuppressed rats. The 1H-NMR metabolomics results showed that OP significantly reversed the levels of ten metabolites in urine, including 2-oxoglutarate, citrate, dimethylamine, taurine, N-phenylacetylglycine, alanine, betaine, creatinine, uracil, and benzoate. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing results showed that OP restored the gut microbiome homeostasis by increasing the abundance of beneficial bacteria and reducing the abundance of pathogenic bacteria. Finally, a combination of metabolomics and microbiomics found that the metabolism of taurine and hypotaurine, and the metabolism of alanine, aspartate, and glutamate were disturbed, but these metabolic pathways were restored by OP. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that OP had immunoprotective effects in rats with cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppression by restoring key metabolic pathways and the gut microbiome homeostasis. Our findings provide a framework for further research into the immunoregulatory mechanisms of OP and its potential use in drugs and nutritional supplements. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

Ion channels and transporters regulate nutrient absorption in health and disease.

Ion channels and transporters are ubiquitously expressed on cell membrane, which involve in a plethora of physiological process such as contraction, neurotransmission, secretion and so on. Ion channels and transporters is of great importance to maintaining membrane potential homeostasis, which is essential to absorption of nutrients in gastrointestinal tract. Most of nutrients are electrogenic and require ion channels and transporters to absorb. This review summarizes the latest research on the role of ion channels and transporters in regulating nutrient uptake such as K+ channels, Ca2+ channels and ion exchangers. Revealing the mechanism of ion channels and transporters associated with nutrient uptake will be helpful to provide new methods to diagnosis and find potential targets for diseases like diabetes, inflammatory bowel diseases, etc. Even though some of study still remain ambiguous and in early stage, we believe that ion channels and transporters will be novel therapeutic targets in the future.

Morphology-Tailored Hydroxyapatite Nanocarrier for Rhizosphere-Targeted Phosphorus Delivery.

High hydrophilicity and soil fixation collectively hamper the delivery of phosphorus (P) released from conventional chemical phosphorus fertilizers (CPFs) to plant rhizosphere for efficient uptake. Here, a phosphorus nutrient nanocarrier (PNC) based on morphology-tailored nanohydroxyapatite (HAP) is constructed. By virtue of kinetic control of building blocks with designed calcium phosphate intermediates, rod-like and hexagonal prism-like PNCs are synthesized, both having satisfactory hydrophobicity (water contact angle of 105.4- 132.9°) and zeta potential (-17.43 to -58.4 mV at pH range from 3 to 13). Greenhouse experiments demonstrate that the P contents increase by up to 183% in maize rhizosphere and up to 16% in maize biomass when compared to the CPF. Due to the water potential gradient driven by photosynthesis and transpiration, both PNCs are stably transported to maize rhizosphere, and they are capable to counteract soil fixation prior to uptake by plant roots. Within the synergies of the HAP morphological characteristics and triggered phosphate starvation response, root anatomy confirms that two pathways are elucidated to enhance plant P replenishment from the PNCs. Together with structure tunability and facile synthesis, our results offer a new nanodelivery prototype to accommodate plant physiological traits by tailoring the morphology of HAP.

Neuroprotective Effects of Savinin on LPS-Induced Neuroinflammation In Vivo via Regulating MAPK/NF-κB Pathway and NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation.

The traditional herb Eleutherococcus henryi Oliv. is commonly used to treat inflammatory conditions including rheumatism, arthritis, and hepatitis, as well as mental fatigue and amnesia, according to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory. Savinin is a natural lignan obtained from the roots of E. henryi. The present study was undertaken to determine whether savinin can relieve LPS-induced neuroinflammation and if so, what the mechanism is. Groups of male C57BL/6 mice were administered savinin (5, 10, 20 mg/kg) and DEX (10 mg/kg) by gavage once daily for a continuous 7 days. On the 5th day of continuous pre-administration, LPS (2.5 mg/kg) was injected into the lateral ventricles of the mice for modeling 48 h. We found that treatment with savinin decreased the levels of neuroinflammatory cytokines and histopathological alterations dramatically. Consequently, it improved the LPS-induced neuroinflammatory response in mice. Furthermore, savinin inhibited the up-regulated expression of related proteins in the activated MAPK/NF-κB and NLRP3 inflammasome signaling pathways caused by LPS. Docking studies demonstrated the binding of savinin to three receptors (MAPK, NF-κB and NLRP3) using a well-fitting mode. These findings suggest that savinin may suppress neuroinflammation induced by LPS in vivo via modulating MAPK/NF-κB and NLRP3 signaling pathways.

[Construction of a Risk Prediction Model for Lung Cancer Based on Lifestyle Behaviors in the UK Biobank Large-Scale Population Cohort].

Objective: To identify the risk factors related to lifestyle behaviors that affect the incidence of lung cancer, to build a lung cancer risk prediction model to identify, in the population, individuals who are at high risk, and to facilitate the early detection of lung cancer. Methods: The data used in the study were obtained from the UK Biobank, a database that contains information collected from 502 389 participants between March 2006 and October 2010. Based on domestic and international guidelines for lung cancer screening and high-quality research literature on lung cancer risk factors, high-risk population identification criteria were determined. Univariate Cox regression was performed to screen for risk factors of lung cancer and a multifactor lung cancer risk prediction model was constructed using Cox proportional hazards regression. Based on the comparison of Akaike information criterion and Schoenfeld residual test results, the optimal fitted model assuming proportional hazards was selected. The multiple factor Cox proportional hazards regression was performed to consider the survival time and the population was randomly divided into a training set and a validation set by a ratio of 7:3. The model was built using the training set and the performance of the model was internally validated using the validation set. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve ( AUC) was used to evaluate the efficacy of the model. The population was categorized into low-risk, moderate-risk, and high-risk groups based on the probability of occurrence of 0% to <25%, 25% to <75%, and 75% to 100%. The respective proportions of affected individuals in each risk group were calculated. Results: The study eventually covered 453 558 individuals, and out of the cumulative follow-up of 5 505 402 person-years, a total of 2 330 cases of lung cancer were diagnosed. Cox proportional hazards regression was performed to identify 10 independent variables as predictors of lung cancer, including age, body mass index (BMI), education, income, physical activity, smoking status, alcohol consumption frequency, fresh fruit intake, family history of cancer, and tobacco exposure, and a model was established accordingly. Internal validation results showed that 8 independent variables (all the 10 independent variables screened out except for BMI and fresh fruit intake) were significant influencing factors of lung cancer ( P<0.05). The AUC of the training set for predicting lung cancer occurrence at one year, five years, and ten years were 0.825, 0.785, and 0.777, respectively. The AUC of the validation set for predicting lung cancer occurrence at one year, five years, and ten years were 0.857, 0.782, and 0.765, respectively. 68.38% of the individuals who might develop lung cancer in the future could be identified by screening the high-risk population. Conclusion: We established, in this study, a model for predicting lung cancer risks associated with lifestyle behaviors of a large population. Showing good performance in discriminatory ability, the model can be used as a tool for developing standardized screening strategies for lung cancer.

[Mechanism of Danggui Sini Decoction in improving kidney injury caused by blood stasis syndrome based on metabolomics and network pharmacology].

This article analyzed the mechanism of Danggui Sini Decoction(DSD) in improving kidney injury caused by blood stasis syndrome(BSS) in rats. Firstly, 32 female SD rats were randomly divided into the following four groups: a normal group and a BSS group, both receiving an equal amount of distilled water by gavage; a normal+DSD group and a BSS+DSD group, both receiving 5.103 g·kg~(-1) DSD orally for a total of 14 days. Daily cold water bath was given to establish the BSS model, and on the 14th day, BSS rats were subcutaneously injected with 0.8 mg·kg~(-1) adrenaline. Normal rats were subjected to the water bath at 37 ℃ and injected with an equal volume of distilled water. After the experiment, 24-hour urine, serum, and kidney samples were collected for metabolomic analysis, biochemical measurements, and hematoxylin-eosin(HE) staining. The study then employed ~1H-NMR metabolomic technology to reveal the metabolic network regulated by DSD in improving BSS-induced kidney injury and used network pharmacology to preliminarily elucidate the key targets of the effectiveness of DSD. Pathological and biochemical analysis showed that DSD intervention significantly reduced inflammation and abnormal levels of blood creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, and urine protein in the kidneys. Metabolomic analysis indicated that DSD attenuated BSS-induced kidney injury primarily by regulating 10 differential metabolites and three major metabolic pathways(taurine and hypotaurine metabolism, citrate cycle, and acetaldehyde and dicarboxylic acid metabolism). Network pharmacology analysis suggested that the protective effect of DSD against BSS-induced kidney injury might be related to two key genes, ATP citrate lyase(ACLY) and nitric oxide synthase 2(NOS2), and two main metabolic pathways, i.e., arginine biosynthesis, and arginine and proline metabolism. This study, from the perspective of network regulation, provides initial insights and evidence into the mechanism of DSD in improving kidney injury induced by BSS, offering a basis for further investigation into the molecular mechanisms underlying its efficacy.

Left Atrial Function Predicts Outcome in Dilated Cardiomyopathy: Fast Long-Axis Strain Analysis Derived from MRI.

Background There is increasing recognition that left atrial (LA) function is prognostically important in cardiovascular disease. LA strain is a sensitive parameter to describe complex LA phasic function. However, the prognostic value of LA strain in participants with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) remains unclear. Purpose To evaluate the prognostic value of LA strain derived from cardiac MRI in study participants with idiopathic DCM. Materials and Methods Participants with idiopathic DCM who underwent cardiac MRI between June 2012 and November 2018 were prospectively enrolled. The fast long-axis strain MRI method was performed to assess LA strain. The primary end point was all-cause mortality and heart transplant, and the secondary end point was a combination of primary end point, heart failure readmission, and aborted sudden cardiac death. Cox regression analyses and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis were performed to identify the association between variables and outcomes. Results There were 497 participants (mean age, 47 years ± 14 [standard deviation]; 357 men) evaluated. During a median follow-up of 36 months (interquartile range, 26-54 months), 113 participants reached primary end points and 203 participants reached secondary end points. LA reservoir, conduit and booster strain, and strain rate were lower in participants with primary end points (P < .001). In multivariable Cox regression analysis, LA reservoir strain and conduit strain were independent predictors for primary end point (hazard ratio [HR] per 1% increase, 0.95 [95% CI: 0.91, 0.99; P = .008] and 0.92 [95% CI: 0.87, 0.98; P = .010], respectively) and secondary end points (HR per 1% increase, 0.95 [95% CI: 0.93, 0.97; P < .001] and 0.93 [95% CI: 0.89, 0.97; P < .001], respectively). In addition, LA reservoir strain and conduit strain added incremental prognostic value to clinical risk factors and late gadolinium enhancement presence (all, P < .05). Conclusion Left atrial reservoir and conduit strain, derived from cardiac MRI by using the fast long-axis method, were independent predictors of adverse clinical outcomes in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. © RSNA, 2021 Online supplemental material is available for this article. See also the editorial by Ambale-Venkatesh in this issue.

Causal relationship between genetically predicted depression and cancer risk: a two-sample bi-directional mendelian randomization.

BACKGROUND: Depression has been reported to be associated with some types of cancer in observational studies. However, the direction and magnitude of the causal relationships between depression and different types of cancer remain unclear. METHODS: We performed the two-sample bi-directional mendelian randomization with the publicly available GWAS summary statistics to investigate the causal relationship between the genetically predicted depression and the risk of multiple types of cancers, including ovarian cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, glioma, pancreatic cancer, lymphoma, colorectal cancer, thyroid cancer, bladder cancer, and kidney cancer. The total sample size varies from 504,034 to 729,150. Causal estimate was calculated by inverse variance weighted method. We also performed additional sensitivity tests to evaluate the validity of the causal relationship. RESULTS: After correction for heterogeneity and horizontal pleiotropy, we only detected suggestive evidence for the causality of genetically predicted depression on breast cancer (OR = 1.09, 95% CI: 1.03-1.15, P = 0.0022). The causal effect of depression on breast cancer was consistent in direction and magnitude in the sensitivity analysis. No evidence of causal effects of depression on other types of cancer and reverse causality was detected. CONCLUSIONS: The result of this study suggests a causative effect of genetically predicted depression on specific type of cancer. Our findings emphasize the importance of depression in the prevention and treatment of breast cancer.

Evaluating the role of Ubiquitin D gene expression in types of leukemia.

Using animal models to develop new treatments is essential, especially in diseases like cancer. In this study, we induced leukemia by intravenous injection of cancer cells (BCL1 cell line) and the examination of cell markers in the animal's blood to study the changes in the expression of the UBD gene as a biomarker for diagnosing and examining the progress of the disease. For this purpose, five million BCL-1 cells were injected into the tail vein of BALBIe mice of the same breed. Fifty mice were killed after four weeks, and we examined peripheral blood cells and histological changes. Then RNA of the samples was extracted, and cDNA synthesis was done with the help of MMuLV enzyme, Oligo dT, and Random hexamer primers. Specific primers for UBD were designed using Primer Express software, and the expression level of the UBD gene was measured by the method. The results showed that in the CML group, the lowest expression level was 1.70 times, and in the ALL group, the highest expression level was 7.97 times compared to the control group. The average increase in UBD gene expression was 3.21 times in the CLL group and 4.94 times in the AML group. The UBD gene can be further investigated so that it may be used as a proposed biomarker for the diagnosis of leukemia. Therefore, the evaluation of the expression level of this gene can be used to diagnose leukemia. However, more studies than the currently applied methods are needed in cancer diagnosis, which has many errors compared to the technique used in this study, and to prove its accuracy and sensitivity.

Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Resource Allocation for Satellite Internet of Things with Diverse QoS Guarantee.

Large-scale terminals' various QoS requirements are key challenges confronting the resource allocation of Satellite Internet of Things (S-IoT). This paper presents a deep reinforcement learning-based online channel allocation and power control algorithm in an S-IoT uplink scenario. The intelligent agent determines the transmission channel and power simultaneously based on contextual information. Furthermore, the weighted normalized reward concerning success rate, power efficiency, and QoS requirement is adopted to balance the performance between increasing resource efficiency and meeting QoS requirements. Finally, a practical deployment mechanism based on transfer learning is proposed to promote onboard training efficiency and to reduce computation consumption of the training process. The simulation demonstrates that the proposed method can balance the success rate and power efficiency with QoS requirement guaranteed. For S-IoT's normal operation condition, the proposed method can improve the power efficiency by 60.91% and 144.44% compared with GA and DRL_RA, while its power efficiency is only 4.55% lower than that of DRL-EERA. In addition, this method can be transferred and deployed to a space environment by merely 100 onboard training steps.

Meta-Knowledge and Multi-Task Learning-Based Multi-Scene Adaptive Crowd Counting.

In this paper, we propose a multi-scene adaptive crowd counting method based on meta-knowledge and multi-task learning. In practice, surveillance cameras are stationarily deployed in various scenes. Considering the extensibility of a surveillance system, the ideal crowd counting method should have a strong generalization capability to be deployed in unknown scenes. On the other hand, given the diversity of scenes, it should also effectively suit each scene for better performance. These two objectives are contradictory, so we propose a coarse-to-fine pipeline including meta-knowledge network and multi-task learning. Specifically, at the coarse-grained stage, we propose a generic two-stream network for all existing scenes to encode meta-knowledge especially inter-frame temporal knowledge. At the fine-grained stage, the regression of the crowd density map to the overall number of people in each scene is considered a homogeneous subtask in a multi-task framework. A robust multi-task learning algorithm is applied to effectively learn scene-specific regression parameters for existing and new scenes, which further improve the accuracy of each specific scenes. Taking advantage of multi-task learning, the proposed method can be deployed to multiple new scenes without duplicated model training. Compared with two representative methods, namely AMSNet and MAML-counting, the proposed method reduces the MAE by 10.29% and 13.48%, respectively.

Evolving landscape and academic attitudes toward the controversies of global immuno-oncology trials.

This cross-sectional and longitudinal descriptive analysis aimed to track the evolving landscape of global immuno-oncology (IO) trials and provide insight into the resolution of IO-related controversies. Clinical trials (n = 4510) registered on ClinicalTrials.gov in 2007 to 2019 studying immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), adoptive cell transfer (ACT), cancer vaccines and immune modulators were included. Most of IO trials are Phase 2 and focus on ICIs and multiple IO therapies. The United States leads global IO research, with stable growth and the best methodological quality. Mainland China ranks first in the number of ACT trials but has the lowest article publication rate (6.2%). A multiple-arm comparative design is often adopted in multiple IO therapies trials (44.0%). Trials studying ICIs and multiple IO therapies are likely to use early registration (80.0% and 86.6%) and stringent corticosteroid-/infection-related criteria. Hospitals have provided the most extensive and strongest support for all IO categories. Big pharma prefers to fund Phase 3-4 ICI trials (6.98%), while small pharma has a wider sponsorship favoring Phase 1-2 trials. The "partial-use-of-corticosteroids" strategy is generally well accepted in ICI trials with a definitive trend (32.5%; P < .001) but is associated with the poor dissemination of results (P ≤ .020), while the complete disclosure and standardization of dose/timing limits are still lacking. Disparities in design features and dissemination of results are widespread in IO trials and are modulated by IO category, cancer type and sponsor. We propose policy reforms to redefine the timely publication of IO trials and standardize the resolution of corticosteroid-/infection-related issues.

Intersection Between Diabetes and Heart Failure: Is SGLT2i the "One Stone for Two Birds" Approach?

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major comorbidity of heart failure (HF). Comparing the similarities and differences in disease characteristics and treatment between the HF patients with and without DM, this review was to investigate whether and how the novel class of sodium-glucose transport protein 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) would benefit both populations. RECENT FINDINGS: Despite the obviously different clinical profiles, patients of HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) should be treated the same with guideline directed medical therapy, irrespective of DM status. Upon the mounting evidence that supported its use in diabetic patients at high risk of HF, recent large clinical trials demonstrated that SGLT2i could further reduce HF hospitalization or cardiovascular mortality and improve quality of life in diabetic and non-diabetic HFrEF patients who were optimally managed. SGLT2i expands the foundation of HFrEF therapy. Whether it is equally effective in HF with preserved ejection fraction awaits more evidence.

Multi-Objective Optimisation in Multi-QoS Routing Strategy for Software-Defined Satellite Network.

The satellite network plays an increasingly important role in the global communication. With the development of communication technology, quality of service requirements have become more and more complex and diverse and the quality of service routing strategy of software-defined satellite network has become a more and more hot and difficult issue. In this paper, an interval-type-2 fuzzy set routing algorithm is proposed. Firstly, the multi- quality of service routing problem in software-defined satellite network is modeled. Then, the interval-type-2 fuzzy set routing algorithm is proposed to make fuzzy decisions. A series of experiments conducted in Network Simulator (Version 2.35) have proved that the proposed interval type-2 fuzzy set routing algorithm can reduce average delay, increase total throughput and reduce packet drop rate.

Acanthopanax henryi: Review of Botany, Phytochemistry and Pharmacology.

Acanthopanax henryi (Oliv.) Harms (Araliaceae), also known as Eleutherococcus henryi and Caoyewujia (Hengliwujia) in Chinese, is a widely used traditional Chinese herb with the effects of expelling wind and removing dampness, relaxing the muscles and stimulating the blood circulation, and regulating the flow of qi to alleviate pain in the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Acanthopanax henryi (AH, thereafter) possesses ginseng-like activities and is known as ginseng-like herb. In the past decade, a great number of phytochemical and pharmacological studies on AH have been carried out. Several kinds of chemical compositions have been reported, including terpenoids (monoterpenoids, diterpenoids, and triterpenoid saponins), phenylpropanoids, caffeoyl quinic acid derivatives, flavonoids, lignans, sterols, fatty acids, etc., among which, triterpenoid saponins were considered to be the most active components. Considerable pharmacological experiments in vitro have demonstrated that AH possessed anti-neuroinflammatory, anti-adipogenic, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, anti-cancer, anti-oxidation, anti-AChE, anti-BuChE, and antihyaluronidase activities. The present review is an up-to-date and comprehensive analysis of the botany, phytochemistry, and pharmacology of AH.

Drugs behind the veil of Islam: a view of Saudi youth.

Insufficient research exists on drug trafficking and abuse in Saudi Arabia. This paper aims to uncover how drugs are trafficked to Saudi Arabia, what factors contribute to an ever-growing drug use in the Kingdom, and what the life of illegal drug use looks like in such an Islamic environment. Documentary methods and in-depth interviews were adopted to associate drug problems with social environments. It is discovered that drug trafficking is correlated to economic disparity among regions and social strata in the Kingdom, methods of drug purchase differ regionally, and drug use is an unintended consequence of social changes. The study concludes that drug offenses, countering traditional associations of Saudi society, creates a double life in the Kingdom.

Association of Dopamine Beta-Hydroxylase Polymorphisms with Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease and Schizophrenia: Evidence Based on Currently Available Loci.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The neuropathies Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and schizophrenia (SCZ) have different pathological mechanisms but share some common neurodegenerative features, such as gradual loss of neuronal structure and function. Dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH), a gene located in the chromosomal region 9q34, plays a crucial role in the process of converting dopamine into norepinephrine (NE). Several case-control studies have reported this pathway in the pathogenesis of AD, PD and SCZ. However, the results are controversial. METHODS: We conducted a meta-analysis to estimate the associations between polymorphisms in this gene and AD, PD and SCZ. Seven databases (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wan Fang, SZ Gene and AD Gene) were searched to identify eligible studies. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to evaluate the associations of DBH variants with AD, PD and SCZ susceptibility. RESULTS: A total of 41 studies involving 10506 cases and 15083 controls were included in our meta-analysis. The analysis results indicated that a lack of association (P > 0.05) was observed between most of the currently available DBH polymorphisms and the neurological diseases AD, PD and SCZ; however, the DBH rs1611131 (allelic model: OR = 0.889, 95% CI: 0.815 - 0.969; dominant model: OR = 0.868, 95% CI: 0.778 - 0.968), rs2283123 (allelic model: OR = 0.285, 95% CI: 0.095 - 0.862; dominant model: OR = 0.290, 95% CI: 0.094 -0.897) and rs2007153 (allelic model: OR = 2.196, 95% CI: 1.506 - 3.200; dominant model: OR = 2.985, 95% CI: 1.465 - 6.084; recessive model: OR = 2.729, 95% CI: 1.548 - 4.812) variants were shown to be significantly associated with the risk of AD (the former variant) and SCZ (the latter two variants). CONCLUSION: On the one hand, most DBH polymorphisms from the currently available loci showed no linkage to AD, PD or SCZ, indicating the lower possibility of these loci serving as genetic markers of the risks of diseases with neurodegenerative characteristics. On the other hand, the DBH rs2283123 and rs2007153 polymorphisms could have opposite effects on SCZ development in Caucasians and be more specific in Croatians, while the DBH rs1611131 minor variant might have a protective effect on AD risk in Caucasians; however, these results require further study.