Saracatinib, a Src kinase inhibitor, enhances the renoprotective effect of metformin and losartan in diabetic nephropathy.

Objective: This research assesses renoprotective effects of saracatinib (Src) in diabetic nephropathy (DN) and the potential underlying processes.

Materials And Methods: Rats were divided into: control, DN, DN + Met + Los, DN + Met + Src, and DN + Met + Los + Src. Rats' ABP, urinary albumin, urinary nephrin, and creatinine clearance were assessed.

Comparing the efficacy of concomitant treatment of resistance exercise and creatine monohydrate versus multiple individual therapies in age related sarcopenia.

Aging-related sarcopenia is a degenerative loss of strength and skeletal muscle mass that impairs quality of life. Evaluating NUDT3 gene and myogenin expression as new diagnostic tools in sarcopenia. Also, comparing the concomitant treatment of resistance exercise (EX) and creatine monohydrate (CrM) versus single therapy by EX, coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), and CrM using aged rats.

Hybrid off-grid energy systems optimal sizing with integrated hydrogen storage based on deterministic balance approach.

The transition to sustainable power infrastructure necessitates integrating various renewable energy sources efficiently. Our study introduces the deterministic balanced method (DBM) for optimizing hybrid energy systems, with a particular focus on using hydrogen for energy balance. The DBM translates the sizing optimization problem into a deterministic one, significantly reducing the number of iterations compared to state-of-the-art methods.

Physio-molecular responses of tomato cultivars to biotic stress: Exploring the interplay between Alternaria alternata OP881811 infection and plant defence mechanisms.

Plant fungal diseases impose a formidable challenge for global agricultural productivity, a meticulous examination of host-pathogen interactions. In this intricate study, an exhaustive investigation was conducted on infected tomatoes obtained from Egyptian fields, leading to the precise molecular identification of the fungal isolate as Alternaria alternata (OP881811), and the isolate showed high identity with Chinese isolates (ON973896 and ON790502). Subsequently, fourteen diverse tomato cultivars; Cv Ferment, Cv 103, Cv Damber, Cv 186, Cv 4094, Cv Angham, Cv N 17, Cv Gesma, Cv 010, Cv branch, cv 2020, Cv 023, Cv Gana and Cv 380 were meticulously assessed to discern their susceptibility levels upon inoculation with Alternaria alternata.

Phytochemical analysis and insight into insecticidal and antifungal activities of Indian hawthorn leaf extract.

Fungicides or insecticides are popular means of controlling a variety of pathogens and insect pests; however, they can cause harmful effects on both human health and the environment. Different researchers have suggested using plant extracts, which have shown promise in managing fungi and insects. The purpose of this investigation was to explore the antifungal activities of an acetone extract made from the leaves of Indian Hawthorn (HAL) against phytopathogens that are known to harm maize crops, Fusarium verticillioides (OQ820154) and Rhizoctonia solani (OQ820155), and to evaluate the insecticidal property against Aphis gossypii Glover aphid.

Comparison of different volumes spread of erector spinae block in postmastectomy pain syndrome management: a prospective randomized comparative study.

Background: Postmastectomy pain is chronic pain that occurs in females after breast surgeries. In this study, we estimated the vertebral levels reached by two different volumes (20 ml and 30 ml solutions) in the erector spinae block (ESB), as well as assess pain improvement and patient satisfaction in females with postmastectomy pain syndrome.

Methods: Fifty patients were assigned to two groups.

Elucidating the alkene hydrogenation reaction based on cotton textile reduced graphene oxide under the influence of external electric field: Illustration of new noble method.

The hydrogenation reaction of alkene is one of the most used industrial chemical process for various materials of daily life and energy consumption. This is a heterogeneous reaction and traditionally carried out by metallic catalysis. However, these conventional catalytic hydrogenations of alkene suffer from various setbacks such as catalyst poisoning, less recyclability and are environmentally unfriendly.

Impact of combined ischemic preconditioning and melatonin on renal ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats.

Objectives: Studying the effect of melatonin pretreatment and ischemic preconditioning on renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI).

Materials And Methods: Forty-eight Wistar rats were randomized into six groups: control, sham operation, IRI (IRI in left kidney + right nephrectomy), IRI+ischemic preconditioning, IRI+Melatonin, and IRI+ischemic preconditioning+Melatonin groups. Melatonin (10 mg/kg) was intraperitoneally injected for 4 weeks before renal IRI.

Impact of Conjugated Linoleic Acid on Obesity and Its Association with Macrophage Recruitment: Experimental and Immunohistochemical Study.

Background: Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) has been shown in humans and animals to have anti-adipose effects. The current study aims to assess the prophylactic and therapeutic impact of CLA and its effect on recruited macrophage type using immunohistochemistry against CD68 and CD 163.

Materials And Methods: Forty adult male albino rats of local strain were included in the study and divided into control, CLA-supplemented, obese, CLA-prophylactic obese, and CLA-treated obese groups.

Quinolone-resistant uropathogenic : is there a relation between genes, gene target site mutation and biofilm formation?

The resistance to quinolone reported in uropathogenic (UPEC) is commonly caused by mutations in the target site encoding genes such as the gene. Bacterial plasmids carrying resistance genes such as genes can also transfer resistance. Biofilms produced by UPEC can further aid the development of resistant urinary tract infections (UTIs).

Effect of Adding Hydrocortisone to Intraperitoneal Bupivacaine in Laparoscopic Bariatric Surgery.

Background: Bariatric surgery is the effective management of obesity; however, postoperative pain is associated with a great morbidity. The management of pain is important for the enhancement of patient recovery. Local anesthetics can be injected during laparoscopic surgery into the peritoneum throughout the ports produced either before the beginning of laparoscopy or before the closure of the wound to reduce postoperative pain.

Normothermia versus Hypothermia during Cardiopulmonary Bypass in Cases of Repair of Atrioventricular Septal Defect.

Background: Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) used for cardiac surgery is now uniformly carried out under normothermic conditions in adult patients; however, the temperature applied in pediatric CPB vary significantly, ranging from deep hypothermia to normothermia due to the lack of a consistent approach to CPB temperature in pediatric cardiac surgery, which is related to a lack of supportive evidence. Organs protection aim to decrease metabolic requirement and provide energy and oxygen, hypothermia has reached these goals by arresting and cooling the heart, delivering oxygen, and modifying reperfusion. Recently, a large number of studies investigated effect of hypothermia to decrease the negative impact of hypothermia.

Postoperative Analgesic Efficacy of Sub-Tenon's Block with Levobupivacaine in Retinal Surgery under General Anesthesia.

Background: Vitreoretinal surgery is associated with undesirable intraoperative and postoperative complications including pain, postoperative nausea and vomiting, and oculocardiac reflex (OCR). Systemic analgesics have side effects and are contraindicated in some cases. We hypothesized that the preoperative sub-Tenon's injection of levobupivacaine with general anesthesia would decrease postoperative pain and intraocular pressure as well as the incidence of complication.

Effect of Local Anesthesia and General Anesthesia Using I-gel Laryngeal Mask Airway in Diabetic Patients Undergoing Cataract Surgery: Comparative Study.

Background: Cataract surgery is one of the most commonly performed ophthalmic procedures. On choosing the appropriate method of anesthesia for diabetic patients with cataract whether regional or general, one should consider a technique that is associated with less stress response, minimal effect on hemodynamic and essentially associated with a good intraoperative glycemic control. This is yet to be determined.

Continuation versus discontinuation of treatment for severe dementia: randomized, pragmatic, open-label, clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of continuing drug treatment in patients with severe dementia (STOP-DEM).

Background: Previous observational studies and clinical trials have shown that cholinesterase inhibitors (with or without memantine) provide benefit for patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease. However, the impact of treatment continuation after progression to severe disease is unknown. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the effect and safety of continuing treatment with ChEIs (with or without memantine) for patients with severe dementia.

Concordance between brain F-FDG PET and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease.

Objectives: Cortical posterior hypometabolism on PET imaging with F-FDG (FDG-PET), and altered levels of Aß peptide, total Tau (tTau) and phosphorylated Tau (pTau) proteins in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are established diagnostic biomarkers in Alzheimer's disease (AD). An evaluation has been made of the concordance and relationship between the results of FDG-PET and CSF biomarkers in symptomatic patients with suspected AD.

Material And Methods: A retrospective review was carried out on 120 patients with cognitive impairment referred to our Cognitive Neurology Unit, and who were evaluated by brain FDG-PET and a lumbar puncture for CSF biomarkers.

Plasma phosphorylated TDP-43 levels are elevated in patients with frontotemporal dementia carrying a C9orf72 repeat expansion or a GRN mutation.

Objectives: About a half of patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) has deposition of phosphorylated TDP-43 protein (pTDP-43) in the brain. We studied pTDP-43 and total TDP-43 levels in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in healthy controls and patients with FTD, including those carrying a repeat expansion in the C9orf72 gene or a mutation in GRN.

Methods: We included 88 plasma samples of 10 C9orf72 expansion carriers, 5 GRN mutation carriers, 51 patients with FTD without a known mutation and 22 healthy controls.

Characterization of the repeat expansion size in C9orf72 in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia.

Hexanucleotide repeat expansions within the C9orf72 gene are the most important genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The difficulty of developing a precise method to determine the expansion size has hampered the study of possible correlations between the hexanucleotide repeat number and clinical phenotype. Here we characterize, through a new non-radioactive Southern blot protocol, the expansion size range in a series of 38 ALS and 22 FTD heterozygous carriers of >30 copies of the repeat.

Expansion mutation in C9ORF72 does not influence plasma progranulin levels in frontotemporal dementia.

A hexanucleotide repeat expansion in chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9ORF72) gene has recently been described as a cause of familial and sporadic frontotemporal lobar degeneration. The aim of this study was to assess whether plasma progranulin (GRN) levels could be modulated by the presence of this repeat expansion. Sixty-five patients diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and 10 family members with familial aggregation of disease were screened for the presence of the hexanucleotide repeat expansion in C9ORF72 gene, using a repeat-primed polymerase chain reaction method.

Identifying at-risk states beyond positive symptoms: a brief task assessing how neurocognitive impairments impact on misrepresentation of the social world through blunted emotional appraisal.

Objective: Neurocognitive impairments observed in psychotic disorder may impact on emotion recognition and theory of mind, resulting in altered understanding of the social world. Early intervention efforts would be served by further elucidation of this mechanism.

Method: Patients with a psychotic disorder (n=30) and a reference control group (n=310) were asked to offer emotional appraisals of images of social situations (EASS task).

Affectively salient meaning in random noise: a task sensitive to psychosis liability.

Stable differences in the tendency to attribute meaning and emotional value to experience may represent an indicator of liability to psychosis. A brief task was developed assessing variation in detecting affectively meaningful speech (speech illusion) in neutral random signals (white noise) and the degree to which this was associated with psychometric and familial vulnerability for psychosis. Thirty patients, 28 of their siblings, and 307 controls participated.

[Observational study on safety, tolerability and effectiveness of galantamine in patients with mild to moderately severe Alzheimer's disease].

Introduction: Several controlled clinical trials have demonstrated safety, tolerability, and efficacy of galantamine in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). We present an observational and multicenter study carried out in Spain. Its main objective was the assessment of the safety and tolerability of galantamine in the treatment of mild to moderately severe dementia of the Alzheimer type under real clinical conditions.

Stiff man-like syndrome and generalized myokymia in spinocerebellar ataxia type 3.

We describe the novel association of spinocerebellar ataxia type 3/Machado-Joseph disease (SCA3/MJD) phenotype combining classical clinical presentation and semeiology mimicking stiff man syndrome (SMS). The studied pedigree comprises seven affected members in three generations. Their clinical picture consisted of cerebellar ataxia, pyramidal signs, facial myokymia, and ophthalmoplegia.

Neuromuscular toxicity in nephrotic patients treated with fluvastatin.

Nephrotic dyslipidemia is a risk factor for the development of systemic atherosclerosis, and may aggravate glomerulosclerosis and enhance progression of glomerular disease. The greatest and most consistent reductions in LDL-cholesterol are achieved with HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors but their efficacy and safety in long-term therapy need to be evaluated. In this study, we gave fluvastatin to 21 nephrotic patients and followed then up clinically, neurophysiologically and by laboratory tests.

Impact of treatment of dyslipidemia on renal function, fat deposits and scarring in patients with persistent nephrotic syndrome.

In this study 43 patients with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome were randomly distributed into 2 age- and sex-matched groups. The first group was given fluvastatin while the second was used as control. The cases in the 2 groups were evaluated clinically, biochemically (creatinine clearance, albumin, 24-hour proteinuria, and lipogram), neurologically, and histopathologically (examination of renal biopsies obtained basally and after 1 year of treatment with fluvastatin).