Prediction of Body Weight by Using PCA-Supported Gradient Boosting and Random Forest Algorithms in Water Buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) Reared in South-Eastern Mexico.

This study aims to use advanced machine learning techniques supported by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to estimate body weight (BW) in buffalos raised in southeastern Mexico and compare their performance. The first stage of the current study consists of body measurements and the process of determining the most informative variables using PCA, a dimension reduction method. This process reduces the data size by eliminating the complex structure of the model and provides a faster and more effective learning process. As a second stage, two separate prediction models were developed with Gradient Boosting and Random Forest algorithms, using the principal components obtained from the data set reduced by PCA. The performances of both models were compared using R2, RMSE and MAE metrics, and showed that the Gradient Boosting model achieved a better prediction performance with a higher R2 value and lower error rates than the Random Forest model. In conclusion, PCA-supported modeling applications can provide more reliable results, and the Gradient Boosting algorithm is superior to Random Forest in this context. The current study demonstrates the potential use of machine learning approaches in estimating body weight in water buffalos, and will support sustainable animal husbandry by contributing to decision making processes in the field of animal science.

Experimental and theoretical investigation of synthesis and properties of dodecanethiol-functionalized MoS2.

Herein, we investigate the DDT (1-dodecanethiol) functionalization of exfoliated MoS2 by using experimental and theoretical tools. For the functionalization of MoS2, DDT treatment was incorporated into the conventional NMP (N-methyl pyrrolidone) exfoliation procedure. Afterward, it has been demonstrated that the functionalization process is successful through optical, morphological and theoretical analysis. The D, G and 2LA peaks seen in the Raman spectrum of exfoliated NMP-MoS2 particles, indicate the formation of graphitic species on MoS2 sheets. In addition, as the DDT ratio increases, the vacant sites on MoS2 sheets diminish. Moreover, at an optimized ratio of DDT-NMP, the maximum number of graphitic quantum dots (GQDs) is observed on MoS2 nanosheets. Specifically, the STEM and AFM data confirm that GQDs reside on the MoS2 nano-sheets and also that the particle size of the DDT-MoS2 is mostly fixed, while the NMP-MoS2 show many smaller and distributed sizes. The comparison of PL intensities of the NMP-MoS2 and DDT-MoS2 samples states a 10-fold increment is visible, and a 60-fold increment in NIR region photoluminescent properties. Moreover, our results lay out understanding and perceptions on the surface and edge chemistry of exfoliated MoS2 and open up more opportunities for MoS2 and GQD particles with broader applications.

Nivolumab-induced sensory ganglionopathy.

INTRODUCTION: Nivolumab is s a human monoclonal antibody. Due to its widespread use in many cancers, including Merkel cell carcinoma, adverse reactions associated with nivolumab, such as neuropathies, endocrinopathies, gastrointestinal problems, and skin toxicities have been increasing. Sensory ganlionopathy is rarely observed in these patients. CASE DESCRIPTION: We present a 63-year-old male with a medical history of Merkel cell carcinoma that recurred two times in the inguinal region. After undergoing surgery with adjuvant radiotherapy, a second surgery was performed. The patient suffered from tingling in all four limbs plus difficulty in walking after initiation of the third dose of nivolumab. MANAGEMENT AND OUTCOME: After 1 month of 1 mg/kg/day methylprednisolone treatment, he showed significant improvement. Subsequently, the systemic corticosteroid regimen was tapered to 5 mg every other day. The treatment resulted in significant improvement in all extremities. DISCUSSION: Sensory ganlionopathy can be seen as a side effect of an immune checkpoint inhibitor, even though it is very extraordinary. This is the case in the literature to develop sensory ganlionopathy due to nivolumab. We believe that patients using nivolumab may develop sensory ganlionopathy and management should be taken on this point.

Integration of Machine Learning Algorithms and Discrete-Event Simulation for the Cost of Healthcare Resources.

A healthcare resource allocation generally plays a vital role in the number of patients treated (pnt) and the patient waiting time (wt) in healthcare institutions. This study aimed to estimate pnt and wt as output variables by considering the number of healthcare resources employed and analyze the cost of health resources to the hospital depending on the cost coefficient (δi) in an emergency department (ED). The integration of the discrete-event simulation (DES) model and machine learning (ML) algorithms, namely random forest (RF), gradient boosting (GB), and AdaBoost (AB), was used to calculate the estimation of the output variables depending on the δi of resources cost. The AB algorithm performed best in almost all scenarios based on the results of the analysis. According to the AB algorithm based on the δ0.0, δ0.1, δ0.2, and δ0.3, the accuracy data were calculated as 0.9838, 0.9843, 0.9838, and 0.9846 for pnt; 0.9514, 0.9517, 0.9514, and 0.9514 for wt, respectively in the training stage. The GB algorithm had the best performance value, except for the results of the δ0.2 (AB had a better accuracy at 0.8709 based on the value of δ0.2 for pnt) in the test stage. According to the AB algorithm based on the δ0.0, δ0.1, δ0.2, and δ0.3, the accuracy data were calculated as 0.7956, 0.9298, 0.8288, and 0.7394 for pnt; 0.8820, 0.8821, 0.8819, and 0.8818 for wt in the training phase, respectively. All scenarios created by the δi coefficient should be preferred for ED since the income provided by the pnt value to the hospital was more than the cost of healthcare resources. On the contrary, the wt estimation results of ML algorithms based on the δi coefficient differed. Although wt values in all ML algorithms with δ0.0 and δ0.1 coefficients reduced the cost of the hospital, wt values based on δ0.2 and δ0.3 increased the cost of the hospital.

The Therapeutic Potential of Ethnomedicinally Important Anatolian Thyme Species: A Phytochemical and Biological Assessment.

Thyme has been used for various therapeutic purposes in many different cultures, which makes it one of the most riveting medicinal plants throughout history. From its beneficial effects on the respiratory tract or the gastrointestinal system, to its unique skin-related activities, the investigation of the medicinal properties of thyme has always been an alluring topic for researchers aiming to develop conventional medications from this traditional herb. With an incentive to contribute to the extensive thyme research, three Thymus L. species namely Thymus cariensis Hub-Mor. & Jalas (endemic), Thymus praceox subsp. grossheimii (Ronniger) Jalas, and Thymus pubescens Boiss. et Kotschy ex Celak from Turkey were deeply investigated within this study. The analysis of the phytochemical constituents of the extracts was conducted by LC-MS/MS. 12 biologically important secondary metabolites (p-coumaric acid, caffeic acid, salicylic acid, quinic acid, fumaric acid, vanillin, malic acid, rutin, apigenin, naringenin, and nicotiflorin) were detected in all extracts. Their total phenolic and flavonoid contents were calculated (11.15 ± 0.17-61.12 ± 2.59 µg PEs/mg extract, 2.53 ± 0.04-40.28 ± 0.92 µg QEs/mg extract, respectively), and the antioxidant potential of the extracts was evaluated by DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging and CUPRAC activity methods, accordingly, the extracts were shown to possess significant antioxidant activity. Among them, Thymus cariensis Hub-Mor. & Jalas was the most active with IC50 values of 34.97 ± 1.00 µg/ml and 9.98 ± 0.04 µg/ml regarding the DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging assays, respectively, and an A0.5 value of 5.80 ± 0.02 µg/ml according to CUPRAC activity method. Their anticholinesterase, antityrosinase, and antiurease activities were also tested, Thymus cariensis Hub-Mor. & Jalas (35.61 ± 1.20%) and Thymus pubescens Boiss. et Kotschy ex Celak aerial part extract (33.49 ± 1.39%) exhibited moderate antibutyrylcholinesterase activity at 200 µg/ml concentration. The results of the cell viability assay indicated that the extracts demonstrated moderate-to-low cytotoxicity on A498 human renal cell lines. Furthermore, all studied extracts exerted noteworthy antimicrobial activity, especially against Candida tropicalis (MIC values: 19.53-78.12 µg/ml). The presented data substantiates the use of thyme extracts as therapeutic agents in both ethnomedicine and conventional therapies.

Terpenoid and Fatty Acid Profiling along with Anti-Tyrosinase and Anti-Urease Potentials of Scorzonera pygmaea Sibth. & Sm. an Endemic Plant of Turkey.

Petroleum ether (PE), chloroform (CH), ethyl acetate (EA) and butanol (BU) fractions were obtained from ethanol extracts of the roots (SPR) and the above ground (SPH) parts of S. pygmaea. PE fractions were evaluated by GC/MS for profiling the terpenoids and the fatty acids of the plant. 29 compounds in total including saturated (major palmitic acid), unsaturated (major linoleic acid) fatty acids and triterpenes were tentatively determined. Short-term extraction methods might be preferred to avoid esterification of fatty acids. Phytochemical profiles of SPR-PE and SPH-PE were found to be similar to each other and to other few Scorzonera species reported previously. These results will contribute to the chemotaxonomic studies about the genus which is considered taxonomically complex genus. Activity studies were carried out using kojic acid (87.10 % inhibition) standard for tyrosinase and thiourea (95.83 % inhibition) standard for urease. SPR-CH was determined as the most potent fraction with 55.94 % and 55.10 % inhibition of tyrosinase and urease, respectively at the same concentration of the standards (200 microgram/mL). These moderate results might be considered encouraging for more detailed studies to determine the active compounds and to evaluate the plant's potential in pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic industries in terms of tyrosinase and urease inhibition.

Protective effect of creatine on amikacin-induced ototoxicity.

INTRODUCTION: Aminoglycosides are widely known for their ototoxic side effects. Nevertheless, they are potent antibiotics used in the treatment of life-threatening conditions because of the current concern for antibiotic resistance. We hypothesized that creatine supplements which are believed to improve mitochondrial antioxidant defense system and maintain optimal energy homeostasis may improve the ototoxic side effects. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the protective effects of creatine monohydrate against ototoxicity induced by amikacin in rats in an experimental animal model, using distortion product otoacoustic emissions and auditory brainstem response. METHODS: Twenty healthy rats were assigned to four groups (5 rats in each): the control group, the creatine monohydrate group, the amikacin group and the amikacin+creatine monohydrate group. The creatine monohydrate group received creatine at a dose of 2g/kg once daily via gastric gavage for 21 days. The amikacin group received amikacin at a dose of 600mg/kg by intramuscular injections once daily for 21 days. The amikacin+creatine monohydrate group received intramuscular injections of amikacin (600mg/kg) once daily for 21 days and creatine monohydrate (2g/kg) once daily via gastric gavage for 21 days. The control group received nothing. The distortion product otoacoustic emissions and auditory brainstem response measurements were performed on all rats on days 0, 7, 21. RESULTS: Regarding auditory brainstem response values, a significant increase in the auditory threshold was observed in the amikacin group on day 21 (p< 0.001). The amikacin+creatine monohydrate group showed significantly lower levels of auditory brainstem response auditory thresholds on day 21 in comparison to the amikacin group (p< 0.001). Additionally, the control group and the amikacin+creatine monohydrate group did not differ significantly with respect to auditory brainstem response thresholds on treatment day 21 (p> 0.05). When we compare distortion product otoacoustic emissions values, there was no significant difference between the amikacin and amikacin+creatine monohydrate groups on day 7 (p> 0.05), However significantly greater distortion product otoacoustic emissions values were observed in the amikacin+creatine monohydrate group on day 21 compared to the amikacin group (p< 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrate that creatine treatment protects against amikacin ototoxicity when given at a sufficient dose and for an adequate time period.

EndoSLAM dataset and an unsupervised monocular visual odometry and depth estimation approach for endoscopic videos.

Deep learning techniques hold promise to develop dense topography reconstruction and pose estimation methods for endoscopic videos. However, currently available datasets do not support effective quantitative benchmarking. In this paper, we introduce a comprehensive endoscopic SLAM dataset consisting of 3D point cloud data for six porcine organs, capsule and standard endoscopy recordings, synthetically generated data as well as clinically in use conventional endoscope recording of the phantom colon with computed tomography(CT) scan ground truth. A Panda robotic arm, two commercially available capsule endoscopes, three conventional endoscopes with different camera properties, two high precision 3D scanners, and a CT scanner were employed to collect data from eight ex-vivo porcine gastrointestinal (GI)-tract organs and a silicone colon phantom model. In total, 35 sub-datasets are provided with 6D pose ground truth for the ex-vivo part: 18 sub-datasets for colon, 12 sub-datasets for stomach, and 5 sub-datasets for small intestine, while four of these contain polyp-mimicking elevations carried out by an expert gastroenterologist. To verify the applicability of this data for use with real clinical systems, we recorded a video sequence with a state-of-the-art colonoscope from a full representation silicon colon phantom. Synthetic capsule endoscopy frames from stomach, colon, and small intestine with both depth and pose annotations are included to facilitate the study of simulation-to-real transfer learning algorithms. Additionally, we propound Endo-SfMLearner, an unsupervised monocular depth and pose estimation method that combines residual networks with a spatial attention module in order to dictate the network to focus on distinguishable and highly textured tissue regions. The proposed approach makes use of a brightness-aware photometric loss to improve the robustness under fast frame-to-frame illumination changes that are commonly seen in endoscopic videos. To exemplify the use-case of the EndoSLAM dataset, the performance of Endo-SfMLearner is extensively compared with the state-of-the-art: SC-SfMLearner, Monodepth2, and SfMLearner. The codes and the link for the dataset are publicly available at https://github.com/CapsuleEndoscope/EndoSLAM. A video demonstrating the experimental setup and procedure is accessible as Supplementary Video 1.

Ultra-thin structures of manganese fluorides: conversion from manganese dichalcogenides by fluorination.

In this study, it is predicted by density functional theory calculations that graphene-like novel ultra-thin phases of manganese fluoride crystals, that have nonlayered structures in their bulk form, can be stabilized by fluorination of manganese dichalcogenide crystals. First, it is shown that substitution of fluorine atoms with chalcogens in the manganese dichalcogenide host lattice is favorable. Among possible crystal formations, three stable ultra-thin structures of manganese fluoride, 1H-MnF2, 1T-MnF2 and MnF3, are found to be stable by total energy optimization calculations. In addition, phonon calculations and Raman activity analysis reveal that predicted novel single-layers are dynamically stable crystal structures displaying distinctive characteristic peaks in their vibrational spectrum enabling experimental determination of the corresponding phases. Differing from 1H-MnF2 antiferromagnetic (AFM) large gap semiconductor, 1T-MnF2 and MnF3 single-layers are semiconductors with ferromagnetic (FM) ground state.

Artificial intelligence to predict overall survivals of patients with cirrhosis and outcomes of variceal bleeding.

Background and Aim: The ability to predict survival in cirrhosis is essential to management. Artificial intelligence models are promising alternatives to current scores and staging systems. The objective of this study was to test the feasibility of such a model to predict the short- and long-term survival of patients with different stages of cirrhosis. Materials and Methods: Clinical, laboratory, and survival data of patients with cirrhosis were collected retrospectively. A machine learning model was designed using feature selection. The model's prediction performance was compared with the Model for End-stage Liver Disease-serum sodium (MELD-Na) and the Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) scores using area under the curve (AUC) analysis. Results: The study population consisted of 124 cirrhotic patients. The AUC of the CTP score for 1-, 3-, and 12-month overall survival was 0.75 (CI:0.61-0.88), 0.77 (0.65-0.88), and 0.69 (CI:0.60-0.79), respectively. The AUC of the MELD-Na scores for the same time points was 0.7 (CI:0.62-0.86), 0.73 (CI:0.63-0.83), and 0.68 (CI:0.59-0.78). The machine learning model mean AUC for the entire study population was 0.87 (±0.082) for 1 month, 0.85 (±0.077) for 3 months, and 0.76 (±0.076) for 12 months. The model predicted 1-, 3-, and 12-month survival with an AUC of 0.91 (±0.03), 0.88 (±0.10), and 0.91 (±0.06), respectively, in patients with variceal bleeding. Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to test a machine learning model in this context. The model outperformed the MELD-Na and CTP scores in the prediction of short- and long-term survival and also successfully predicted high risk variceal bleeding.

Fabrication of a Postfunctionalizable, Biorepellent, Electroactive Polyurethane Interface on a Gold Surface by Surface-Assisted Polymerization.

This study describes surface-assisted (SurfAst) urethane polymerization, providing a modular/postfunctionalizable, biorepellent, electroactive ∼10 to 100 nm-thick polyurethane (PU) interface on a gold surface. SurfAst is a functionalization methodology based on sequential incubation steps of alkane diisocyanates and alkanediol monomers. The gold surface is functionalized by alkane diisocyanates in the first incubation step, and our theoretical calculations reveal that while the isocyanate group atoms (N, C, and O) at one end of the molecule exhibits strong interactions (∼900 meV) with surface atoms, the other end group remains unreacted. After the first incubation step, sequential alkanediol and alkane diisocyanate incubations provide formation of the PU interface. The extensive analysis of the PU interface has been conducted via X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and the chemical mapping verifies that the interface is made of PU moieties. The topographical analysis of the surface conducted by the atomic force microscopy shows that the PU interface consists of mostly a nanoporous texture with 150 nm total roughness. The adherence force mapping of the PU interface reveals that the nanoporous matrix exhibits an adhesion force of about 14 nN. The electrostatic force microscopy characterizing long-range electrostatic interactions (40 nm) shows that the PU interface has been attracted by positively charged species as compared to negative objects. Finally, it is demonstrated that the PU interface is readily postfunctionalizable by polyethylene glycol (PEG 1000), serving as a biorepellent interface and preserving electroactivity. We foresee that SurfAst polymerization will have potential for the facile fabrication of a postfunctionalizable and modular biointerface which might be utilized for biosensing and bioelectronic applications.

Octahedrally coordinated single layered CaF2: robust insulating behaviour.

Using first-principles calculations, the structural, vibrational, and electronic properties of single-layered calcium fluoride (CaF2) are investigated. The dynamical stability of 1T-CaF2 is confirmed by the phonon dispersions. Raman active vibrational modes of 1T-CaF2 enable its characterization via Raman spectroscopy. In addition, the calculated electronic properties of 1T-CaF2 confirmed insulating behavior with an indirect wide band gap which is larger than that of a well-known single-layered insulator, h-BN. Moreover, one-dimensional nanoribbons of CaF2 are investigated for two main edge orientations, namely zigzag and armchair, and it is revealed that both structures maintain the 1T nature of CaF2 without any structural edge reconstructions. Electronically, both types of CaF2 nanoribbons display robust insulating behavior with respect to the nanoribbon width. The results show that both the 2D and 1D forms of 1T-CaF2 show potential in nanoelectronics as an alternative to the widely-used insulator h-BN with its similar properties and wider electronic band gap.

Two new phenolic compounds and some biological activities of Scorzonera pygmaea Sibth. & Sm. subaerial parts.

Phytochemical composition of ethyl acetate fraction and total phenolic content, in vitro antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial activities of petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and n-butanol fractions of the ethanol extract obtained from the subaerial parts of Scorzonera pygmaea Sibth. & Sm. (Asteraceae) were investigated. Nine compounds; scorzopygmaecoside (1), scorzonerol (2), cudrabibenzyl A (3), thunberginol C (4), scorzocreticoside I (5) and II (6), chlorogenic acid (7), chlorogenic acid methyl ester (8), 3,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid (9) were isolated and identified using spectroscopic methods. All substances were isolated for the first time from this species. Compounds 1 and 2 are new. The fractions showed high antioxidant capacity correlated with their phenolic content and no significant antimicrobial activity against tested bacteria and fungi. COX inhibition test was used to evaluate the anti-inflammatory activity and all the fractions showed low inhibition in comparison with indomethacin.

Two-Dimensional Covalent Crystals by Chemical Conversion of Thin van der Waals Materials.

Most of the studied two-dimensional (2D) materials have been obtained by exfoliation of van der Waals crystals. Recently, there has been growing interest in fabricating synthetic 2D crystals which have no layered bulk analogues. These efforts have been focused mainly on the surface growth of molecules in high vacuum. Here, we report an approach to making 2D crystals of covalent solids by chemical conversion of van der Waals layers. As an example, we used 2D indium selenide (InSe) obtained by exfoliation and converted it by direct fluorination into indium fluoride (InF3), which has a nonlayered, rhombohedral structure and therefore cannot  possibly be obtained by exfoliation. The conversion of InSe into InF3 is found to be feasible for thicknesses down to three layers of InSe, and the obtained stable InF3 layers are doped with selenium. We study this new 2D material by optical, electron transport, and Raman measurements and show that it is a semiconductor with a direct bandgap of 2.2 eV, exhibiting high optical transparency across the visible and infrared spectral ranges. We also demonstrate the scalability of our approach by chemical conversion of large-area, thin InSe laminates obtained by liquid exfoliation, into InF3 films. The concept of chemical conversion of cleavable thin van der Waals crystals into covalently bonded noncleavable ones opens exciting prospects for synthesizing a wide variety of novel atomically thin covalent crystals.

Green fabrication of lanthanide-doped hydroxide-based phosphors: Y(OH)3:Eu3+ nanoparticles for white light generation.

Phosphors can serve as color conversion layers to generate white light with varying optical features, including color rendering index (CRI), high correlated color temperature (CCT), and luminous efficacy. However, they are typically produced under harsh synthesis conditions such as high temperature, high pressure, and/or by employing a large amount of solvent. In this work, a facile, water-based, rapid method has been proposed to fabricate lanthanide-doped hydroxide-based phosphors. In this sense, sub-micrometer-sized Y(OH)3:Eu3+ particles (as red phosphor) were synthesized in water at ambient conditions in ≤60 min reaction time. The doping ratio was controlled from 2.5-20 mol %. Additionally, first principle calculations were performed on Y(OH)3:Eu3+ to understand the preferable doping scenario and its optoelectronic properties. As an application, these fabricated red phosphors were integrated into a PDMS/YAG:Ce3+ composite and used to generate white light. The resulting white light showed a remarkable improvement (≈24%) in terms of luminous efficiency, a slight reduction of CCT (from 3900 to 3600 K), and an unchanged CRI (≈60) as the amount of Y(OH)3:Eu3+ was increased.

Prevention of rocuronium induced mast cell activation with prophylactic oleuropein rich diet in anesthetized rabbits1.

PURPOSE: The effect of a prophylactic oleuropein-rich diet before anesthesia accompanied by the widely-used steroid-based neuromuscular drug rocuronium on mast cell activation was investigated in the study. METHODS: 14 rabbits used in the study. The rabbits in the oleuropein group were given oleuropein-rich extract added to the animals' water at doses of 20 mg/kg oleuropein for 15 days orally. After 15 days, all rabbits in the two groups were given general anesthesia with rocuronium of 1 mg/kg. After 1 day, animals were sacrificed and the liver tissue sections stained with H&E, toluidine blue and tryptase for immunohistochemical study. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference between ALT, AST and albumin averages of the oleuropein and control groups (p> 0.05). The tryptase average of the control group was higher than the tryptase average of the oleuropein group and this difference was statistically significant (p=0.003). The T. blue average in the oleuropein group was higher than the control group. However, there was no statistically significant difference between groups (p=0.482). CONCLUSIONS: Rocuronium adverse effects, like hypersensitivity and anaphylaxis, may limit routine use of this substance. The use of oleuropein reduced the number of inflammatory cells and prevented degranulation.

Prevention of rocuronium induced mast cell activation with prophylactic oleuropein rich diet in anesthetized rabbits

Abstract Purpose: The effect of a prophylactic oleuropein-rich diet before anesthesia accompanied by the widely-used steroid-based neuromuscular drug rocuronium on mast cell activation was investigated in the study. Methods: 14 rabbits used in the study. The rabbits in the oleuropein group were given oleuropein-rich extract added to the animals' water at doses of 20 mg/kg oleuropein for 15 days orally. After 15 days, all rabbits in the two groups were given general anesthesia with rocuronium of 1 mg/kg. After 1 day, animals were sacrificed and the liver tissue sections stained with H&E, toluidine blue and tryptase for immunohistochemical study. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between ALT, AST and albumin averages of the oleuropein and control groups (p> 0.05). The tryptase average of the control group was higher than the tryptase average of the oleuropein group and this difference was statistically significant (p=0.003). The T. blue average in the oleuropein group was higher than the control group. However, there was no statistically significant difference between groups (p=0.482). Conclusions: Rocuronium adverse effects, like hypersensitivity and anaphylaxis, may limit routine use of this substance. The use of oleuropein reduced the number of inflammatory cells and prevented degranulation.

Antioxidant, Anti-acetylcholinesterase, Anti-inflammatory and DNA Protection Activities of Glaucium grandiflorum var. grandiflorum.

In this study, antioxidant, antiacetylcholinesterase, anti-inflammatory, and DNA protecting activities of the aerial parts of Glaucium grandiflorum var. grandiflorum were evaluated. The lyophilized methanolic extract of the aerial parts of G. grandiflorum var. grandiflorum was investigated for potential in-vitro antioxidant properties in thiobarbituric acid test using the lipid peroxidation of liposomes, ferric ion reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl,2,2'-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonate) free-radicals and hypochlorous acid scavenging assays. The extract demonstrated antioxidant activity in all the assays. The (AChE) inhibition capacity of the lyophilized methanolic extract at 320 µg/mL (80.75 ± 1.59%) was found to be strong and almost equal to the inhibition capacity of the positive control, galantamine (82.23 ± 2.21%) at 25 µg/mL. The significant AChE inhibitory activity suggests that the extract may be beneficial in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The extract also showed inhibitory activity against plasmid DNA damage (94%), as well as COX-2 69.05%, which is a target for many anti-inflammatory and cancer-preventive drugs. These results indicate that G. grandiflorum var. grandiflorum methanolic extract is an excellent source of compounds with antioxidant, anti-acetylcholinesterase and anti-inflammatory properties that prevent DNA damage.

The effect of 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 on HCl/Ethanol-induced gastric injury in rats.

This study evaluated ulceroprotective and antioxidant effect of 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 against gastric damage in rats. Rats were treated intraperitoneally with either 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 (0.25 µg/kg) or saline for 14 days. On day-15, the non-selective cyclooxygenase inhibitor indomethacin (10 mg/kg; subcutaneously), the inhibitor of sulfhydryl groups N-ethylmaleimide (10 mg/kg; intraperitoneally) or ATP-sensitive K+ channel blocker glibenclamide (10 mg/kg; orally) was given prior to 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3. Animals were euthanized at 60 min post ulcerogenic challenge (0.3 M HCl and 60% ethanol (0.2 mL; orally). Stomach and blood were collected for biochemical and histological evaluations. HCl/Ethanol group revealed severely damaged mucous and glandular epithelium with diffuse hemorrhage and inflammatory cell infiltration (microscopic score: 10.67 ±â€¯0.67 and ulcer index: 33.13 ±â€¯5.09). 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 decreased the extent of damage (microscopic score: 6.80 ±â€¯0.02 and ulcer index: 19.00 ±â€¯4.34; p < 0.05), and the elevations in gastric malondialdehyde level (p < 0.001), myeloperoxidase activity (p < 0.001), nuclear factor-κB expression (p < 0.05), and apoptotic index (p < 0.05) following HCl/Ethanol challenge. Decreased gastric glutathione following HCl/Ethanol administration was restored by 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 (p < 0.01). These findings demonstrated protection of the gastric mucosa against HCl/Ethanol-induced injury by 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 via attenuation of inflammatory reaction, oxidative stress and apoptosis.