Benefit of inhalation aromatherapy as a complementary treatment for stress and anxiety in a clinical setting - A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this systematic review is to ascertain the impact of inhalation aromatherapy on stress and anxiety in clinical settings. METHODS: A search strategy was developed using various databases. Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) as well as single and double-blind pilot clinical studies (non-RCT) using inhalation aromatherapy with an essential oil blend or a single essential oil were examined. All studies included a control intervention and use of a validated measurement tool. The time period under review was years 2000-2021. Due to the high level of heterogeneity and element of bias, a narrative synthesis was conducted. RESULTS: The search strategy initially retrieved 628 studies and through application of the selection criteria and the removal of duplicates, 76 studies were selected for review with a total of 6539 patients. In 42% of the RCTs, physiological measures including vital signs and/or salivary cortisol were used in addition to questionnaires. Over 70% of the studies reported a positive effect on anxiety levels in the aromatherapy intervention groups compared with the control. However, in many cases this is limited by the absence of safety data, imprecise reporting of plant species and dosage of essential oil. CONCLUSION: Inhalation aromatherapy has the potential to reduce stress and anxiety with data emerging to further support this result across a wide modality of clinical treatments. However, there is a clear need for the development of standard protocols for research in this area, generating measurable results which will create the opportunity for more rigorous evidence-based outcomes.

Cis-regulatory architecture of human ESC-derived hypothalamic neuron differentiation aids in variant-to-gene mapping of relevant complex traits.

The hypothalamus regulates metabolic homeostasis by influencing behavior and endocrine systems. Given its role governing key traits, such as body weight and reproductive timing, understanding the genetic regulation of hypothalamic development and function could yield insights into disease pathogenesis. However, given its inaccessibility, studying human hypothalamic gene regulation has proven challenging. To address this gap, we generate a high-resolution chromatin architecture atlas of an established embryonic stem cell derived hypothalamic-like neuron model across three stages of in vitro differentiation. We profile accessible chromatin and identify physical contacts between gene promoters and putative cis-regulatory elements to characterize global regulatory landscape changes during hypothalamic differentiation. Next, we integrate these data with GWAS loci for various complex traits, identifying multiple candidate effector genes. Our results reveal common target genes for these traits, potentially affecting core developmental pathways. Our atlas will enable future efforts to determine hypothalamic mechanisms influencing disease susceptibility.

Smooth muscle relaxant activity of pterosin Z and related compounds.

The natural products pterosin Z, acetylpterosin Z, originally from the fern Pteridium aquilinum, and their isopterosin analogues have been synthesized and their smooth muscle relaxation activity has been measured. All of the test compounds show activity with pterosin Z being the most active (EC50 = 1.3 +/- 0.1 x 10(-6) M), exhibiting 100 times the activity reported for the related fern metabolites onitin (EC50 = 1 x 10(-4) M), onotisin (EC50 = 2 x 10(-3) M) and otninoside (EC50 = 7 x 10(-4) M). The smooth muscle relaxant activity of pterosin Z is approximately equipotent with that of the related fungal pterosin (EC50 of 2.9 +/- 1.6 x 10(-6) M). These results suggest that smooth muscle relaxant activity is reduced when a phenol group is present in the pterosin nucleus and when one of the dimethyl groups is derivatized.