The effects of Zataria multiflora aromatic water and nano emulsion of Z. multiflora essential oil on the serum level of IFN-γ and IL-4 in mice with hydatidosis.

The aim of the present investigation was to evaluate the impacts of Zataria multiflora aromatic water (ZMAW) and nano emulsion (NE) of Z. multiflora essential oil (ZMEO) on IL-4 (Th2-derived cytokine) and IFN-γ (Th1-derived cytokine) concentrations in mice with hydatidosis. Sixty four healthy BALB/c female mice were intraperitoneally injected by 1500 live protoscoleces of Echinococcus granulosus. Five month after injection, the infected mice were divided into seven treatment groups, including: Albendazole (100 mg/kg), ZMAW (100 ml/L), Albendazole 100 + ZMAW (Albendazole 100 mg/kg and ZMAW 100 ml/L), Albendazole 50 + ZMAW (Albendazole 50 mg/kg and ZMAW 100 ml/L), Albendazole 100 + NE of ZMEO (Albendazole 100 mg/kg and NE of ZMEO 10 ml/L), albendazole 50 + NE of ZMEO (albendazole 50 mg/kg and NE of ZMEO 10 ml/L) and the control group with no treatment. The mice received the ZMAW, NE of ZMEO and/or albendazole through drinking water for 90 days. At the end of treatment (90 days), blood specimens were harvested from all mice. A significant reduction in IL-4 concentration was revealed in the albendazole 50 group + NE of ZMEO, when compared to the control group (P < 0.05). No significant difference was noticed for the IFN-γ concentration between the trial groups. Increased IFN-γ: IL-4 ratio was observed in the albendazole 50 + ZMAW, Albendazole 50 + NE of ZMEO, Albendazole 100 + NE of ZMEO groups in comparison with the control group (P < 0.05). The findings observed in the current study showed that the administration of ZMAW and NE of ZMEO along with albendazole could enhance the IFN-γ: IL-4 ratio (Th1/Th2 balance), which may have therapeutic value in the treatment of hydatid disease.

Zataria multiflora would attenuate the hepatotoxicity of long-term albendazole treatment in mice with cystic echinococcosis.

Hepatic injury is the major limitation of long-term albendazole administration in patients with cystic echinococcosis (CE), which could give rise to cessation of treatment. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the protective effects of Zataria multiflora aromatic water (AW) against the hepatic injury induced by long-term albendazole treatment in mice with CE. Fifty healthy BALB/c female mice were infected intraperitoneally by injection of 1500 protoscoleces per animal. Five months after infection, the infected animals were divided into five treatment groups including Z. multiflora (40ml/l in drinking water for 90days), albendazole (200mg/kg/day for 90days), Z. multiflora+albendazole 200 (40ml/l Z. multiflora and 200mg/kg/day albendazole for 90days), Z. multiflora+albendazole100 (40ml/l Z. multiflora and 100mg/kg/day albendazole for 90days), and untreated (control) group. At the end of the treatment period, anesthesia was performed and blood samples were collected directly from the heart prior to euthanasia. Liver variables and oxidative stress markers were measured in the blood serum samples. A decrease in serum liver enzyme activity in the both Z. multiflora+albendazole groups was observed when compared to control, Z. multiflora and albendazole groups; however, the results for Z. multiflora+albendazole 100 were significant (p<0.007) and superior compared to those for Z. multiflora+albendazole 200. No significant differences for oxidative stress markers were observed between the different groups. The results of the present study revealed that a combined therapy with Z. multiflora AW and albendazole is effective against hepatic injury induced by CE and/or long term albendazole administration in mice with cystic echinococcosis.

The effect of electro-acupuncture on pro-oxidant antioxidant balance values in overweight and obese subjects: a randomized controlled trial study.

Objective To undertake a randomized controlled trial in 196 obese subjects to examine the effect of electro-acupuncture on serum pro-oxidant antioxidant balance (PAB) values. Methods Subjects received authentic acupuncture (cases) or sham acupuncture (controls) for 6 weeks in combination with a low-calorie diet. In the following 6 weeks, they received the low-calorie diet alone. Serum PAB was measured at baseline, and 6 and 12 weeks later. Results We found that serum PAB values decreased significantly in the group receiving the authentic acupuncture compared to the sham treatment (p<0.001) at week 6, and whilst serum PAB increased significantly (p<0.05) in the second phase of the study, a significant difference between two groups remained at 12 weeks (p<0.05). Conclusions Electro-acupuncture in combination with a low-calorie diet was more effective at reducing serum PAB values in obese subjects compared to diet alone. Further work is required to determine the mechanism by which electro-acupuncture has this effect.

Correlation of superparamagnetic relaxation with magnetic dipole interaction in capped iron-oxide nanoparticles.

Six nanometer sized iron-oxide nanoparticles capped with an organic surfactant and/or silica shell of various thicknesses have been synthesized by a microemulsion method to enable controllable contributions of interparticle magnetic dipole interaction via tunable interparticle distances. Bare particles with direct surface contact were used as a reference to distinguish between interparticle interaction and surface effects by use of Mössbauer spectroscopy. Superparamagnetic relaxation behaviour was analyzed by SQUID-magnetometry techniques, showing a decrease of the blocking temperature with decreasing interparticle interaction energies kBT0 obtained by AC susceptibility. A many-state relaxation model enabled us to describe experimental Mössbauer spectra, leading to an effective anisotropy constant Keff ≈ 45 kJm(-3) in case of weakly interacting particles, consistent with results from ferromagnetic resonance. Our unique multi-technique approach, spanning a huge regime of characteristic time windows from about 10 s to 5 ns, provides a concise picture of the correlation of superparamagnetic relaxation with interparticle magnetic dipole interaction.

The dipole moment of the spin density as a local indicator for phase transitions.

The intra-atomic magnetic dipole moment - frequently called ⟨Tz⟩ term - plays an important role in the determination of spin magnetic moments by x-ray absorption spectroscopy for systems with nonspherical spin density distributions. In this work, we present the dipole moment as a sensitive monitor to changes in the electronic structure in the vicinity of a phase transiton. In particular, we studied the dipole moment at the Fe(2+) and Fe(3+) sites of magnetite as an indicator for the Verwey transition by a combination of x-ray magnetic circular dichroism and density functional theory. Our experimental results prove that there exists a local change in the electronic structure at temperatures above the Verwey transition correlated to the known spin reorientation. Furthermore, it is shown that measurement of the dipole moment is a powerful tool to observe this transition in small magnetite nanoparticles for which it is usually screened by blocking effects in classical magnetometry.

Direct immunofluorescence of plant microtubules based on semiconductor nanocrystals.

Fluorescence microscopy in combination with multiple, simultaneous labeling of biomolecules has been a key breakthrough in cell biology. However, the spatiotemporal resolution of this approach is limited by bleaching of the fluorescence label and illegitimate cross-reference of the label. CdSe-based semiconductor nanocrystals with their excellent bleaching stability would be an alternative to overcome this limitation. We therefore explored direct immunofluorescence based on nanocrystal-conjugated antibodies using plant microtubules as model. We compared two strategies of bioconjugation, covalent coupling of antitubulin antibodies to BSA-coated nanocrystals and covalent coupling to nanocrystals that were surrounded by functionalized silica shells. Both nanoparticle-antibody conjugates were used to follow the dynamic reorganization of microtubules through the cell cycle of a tobacco cell culture in double and triple staining with FITC as conventional fluorochrome and Hoechst 33258 as marker for mitotic duplication of DNA. BSA-coated nanocrystals visualized fluorescent dots that decorated the various arrays of microtubules. The specificity of the antibody was maintained after conjugation with the nanocrystals, and the antibodies correctly represented the dynamics of cell-cycle-dependent microtubular reorganization. However, this approach did not yield a contiguous signal. In contrast, silica-shelled nanocrystals visualized contiguous microtubules in the same pattern as found for the conventional fluorochrome FITC and thus can be used as labels for direct immunofluorescence in plant cells.

Comparison of pyrolysis-mass spectrometry with high performance liquid chromatography for the analysis of vancomycin in serum.

Mass spectrometry coupled with a pyrolysis inlet system (Pyr-ms) is compared with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for the determination of vancomycin and its crystal degradation products (CDP-Is) in human serum. Quantitative analysis of Pyr-ms was performed by selected ion monitoring (SIM) method at 108 mass:charge (m/z) of pyrolysis product of vancomycin. 3-Nitroaniline (138 m/z) was used as an internal standard. A mu-Bondapak C(18) column and the gradient mobile phase of triethylamine buffer (pH 6.2), acetonitrile and tetrahydrofuran and a photometric detection at 205 nm are found to be the optimum conditions for the HPLC determination of vancomycin and CDP-Is. The limit of detection (LOD=1 ng ml(-1)), linearity (1 ng ml(-1)-10 mg ml(-1)), relative standard deviation (R.S.D.=1%), time analysis (1/2 h) and sample volume (50 mul) of Pyr-ms are far better than of the HPLC method. However, the HPLC method can individually determine the concentration of vancomycin and its degradation products.