06 May 2011
Limits of the Placebo Effect
05 May 2011
Study Break
04 May 2011
More about resveratrol!
After reading the article about resveratrol and learning about its possible roles in the prevention of numerous pathologic processes from its cardio protective, anti-cancer, anti-oxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties, I was interested in looking more into the background of resveratrol and its content in foods.
In addition to the potential benefits mentioned above, recent studies on administration of resveratrol have also found it to extended lifespan in a number of species by altering gene expression in the heart, brain, and skeletal muscle, comparable to that induced by caloric restriction.
As for the resveratrol content in foods, below is a list of some foods with resveratrol:
Relating back to the article in class, for the daily resveratrol intake of the mice in the study to be equivalent to that to that of a human, which was 1,944mg/60kg person, one would have to consume approximately between 273-1,013L of red wine (global) or 7,477-19,4400cups of raw peanuts or 1,556-8,100cups of red grapes! This of course seems like a ridiculous amount because if anything, you’ll probably get alcohol poisoning from drinking too much wine before reaping any of the potential benefits of resveratrol. But as the paper mentioned there are commercial daily supplements that range from 50-2000mg of trans-resveratrol.
However, since resveratrol has only been mainly studied in animals, presently little is known about the effects of resveratrol in humans or the effective dose of resveratrol for chronic disease prevention in humans.
So I’m still not entirely convinced, and I definitely think the translatable effectiveness of resveratrol as potential therapeutic approach in humans is still questionable, how about you?
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/phytochemicals/resveratrol/#sources
http://www.createbalance.net/support/science/resveratrol_cancer_prevention.pdf
Potential personalized treatment to target inflammation?
This article talks about a new potential form of personalized therapy to target inflammation by mimicking the body’s natural mechanism of fighting inflammation. Microparticles are very small particles released by cells during inflammation. However, researchers at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry and Harvard Medical School have discovered certain microparticles that contain anti-inflammatory lipids that are beneficial to our health. These microparticles are precursors for compounds that stimulate the termination of inflammation and return the body to its normal balance.
Researchers are mimicking this natural communication process to produce new personalized delivery system for anti-inflammatory therapeutics based on natural human microparticles. Since these microparticles do not rely on synthetic biomaterials, they reduce potential toxicity. In this study, researchers used human neutrophil-derived MPs to construct novel nanoparticles containing anti-inflammatories asprin-triggered resolvin D1 and lipoxin A4 analog, and found dramatically reduced polymorphonuclear cell influx, enhanced wound healing, and protection against inflammation. These humanized nanoparticles termed nano-proresolving medicines may offer a new therapeutic approach that could have implications in a number of inflammatory diseases including cardiovascular diseases, arthritis and temporomandibular disorders.
L. V. Norling, M. Spite, R. Yang, R. J. Flower, M. Perretti, C. N. Serhan. Cutting Edge: Humanized Nano-Proresolving Medicines Mimic Inflammation-Resolution and Enhance Wound Healing. The Journal of Immunology, 2011
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110404111048.htm
02 May 2011
Prevention... after the insult?
A general PPAR-gamma diagram...
Roflumilast for treating COPD?
The paper titled “Roflumilast in symptomatic chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: two randomised clinical trials” was studying the effects of Roflumilast on a particular subset of COPD patients. Though the authors state this is a double blind study are honest about their conflict of interest, I feel that the selection criteria for patients may have been chosen based on who they thought would have the best outcome from treatment with this drug. The paper seemed to be a follow-up to their original study to try and prove significant results from the use of Roflumilast, which did not lend to its credibility. Overall, the authors had a large sample size showing that lung function tests were generally improved with the use of Roflumilast.
As they state in the paper, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a lung disease. It is characterized by a shortness of breath, fatigue, chronic cough, and increased respiratory infections. There are two main forms: chronic bronchitis or emphysema. One of the leading risk factors is smoking, but there are other causes such as air pollution. There is not a cure, but people can treat the symptoms using an inhaler with either bronchodilators or steroids.
Roflumilast itself is a Phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4) inhibitor. When PDE4 is inhibited, cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) is not broken down as readily in cells. Increased levels of intracellular cAMP help to suppress TNF-alpha, IL-2, and INF-gamma production. PDE4 inhibitors also lower cytokine production along with degranulation by neutrophils and inflammatory cell adhesion.
In this paper, they were studying the use of oral Roflumilast to treat COPD. However, most drugs currently in use to treat COPD are from inhalers, so as to directly contact the most affected area. Therefore, I think that in the future it would be really interesting to look at PDE4 inhibitors such as Roflumilast in an inhaler to treat COPD. In fact, some researchers are looking into non-steroidal anti-inflammatories that can be inhaled. A paper I found called “Inhaled non-steroidal anti-inflammatories for children and adults with bronchiectasis” looked at NSAIDs that can be inhaled. The results of this recent paper show a great deal of promise for using these inhaled NSAIDs in the treatment of different lung diseases such as bronchiectasis or COPD.