Evidence of Lactobacillus reuteri to reduce colic in breastfed babies: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate evidence for the treatment of childhood colic by supplementing Lactobacillus reuteri in infants breastfed with breast milk. METHODS: The study was conducted according to the PRISMA protocol. The databases used for acquiring data were PubMed and Web of Science, applying MeSH terms and free terms. Meta-analysis was conducted using Stata ™ 12.0. The risk of bias was evaluated by the Review Manager (RevMan) 5.3 tool, and the strength of evidence was assessed by the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE). RESULTS: Ten clinical trials were included in the review. The administration of L. reuteri (DSM 17938 or ATCC55730) was tested in infants (n = 248) versus the control/placebo group (n = 229). Eight articles were included in the meta-analysis. There was a significant response in reducing crying time (minutes/day) and treatment effectiveness (reduction ≥ 50% in average daily crying time) in the first week (p = 0.001 and p = 0.003, respectively). These results were similar in the second, third weeks (p < 0.001 for both outcomes) and fourth weeks (p<0.001 and p = 0.002, respectively). The risk of bias was low for the majority of the studies. Confidence in evidence was considered very low for crying time and low for effectiveness treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence shows that the administration of Lactobacillus reuteri to babies fed with breast milk reduces the crying time in babies diagnosed with colic. But our confidence in the effect estimate is limited.

Vitamin K3 induces antiproliferative effect in cervical epithelial cells transformed by HPV 16 (SiHa cells) through the increase in reactive oxygen species production.

PURPOSE: Cervical cancer is characterized as an important public health problem. According to latest estimates, cancer of the cervix is the fourth most common cancer among women. Due to its high prevalence, the search for new and efficient drugs to treat this infection is continuous. The progression of HPV-associated cervical cancer involves the expression of two viral proteins, E6 and E7, which are rapidly degraded by the ubiquitin-proteasome system through the increase in reactive oxygen species generation. Vitamins are essential to human substances, participate in the regulation of metabolism, and facilitate the process of energy transfer. METHODS: Some early studies have indicated that vitamin K3 exerts antitumor activity by inducing cell death by apoptosis through an increase in the generation of reactive oxygen species. Thus, we evaluated the antiproliferative effect and a likely mechanism of action of vitamin K3 against cervical epithelial cells transformed by HPV 16 (SiHa cells) assessing the production of total ROS, the mitochondrial membrane potential, the cell morphology, the cell volume, and the cell membrane integrity. RESULTS: Our results show that vitamin K3 induces an increase in ROS production in SiHa cells, triggering biochemical and morphological events, such as depolarization of mitochondrial membrane potential and decreasing cell volume. CONCLUSION: Our data showed that vitamin K3 generates an oxidative imbalance in SiHa cells, leading to mechanisms that induce cell death by apoptosis.