Daily oral administration of low-dose methotrexate has greater antirheumatic effects in collagen-induced arthritis rats.

Objectives: Methotrexate (MTX) is administered once or thrice weekly to patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Even though RA continually progresses, MTX is not administered daily. Therefore, we investigated whether the daily administration of a low dose of MTX inhibits the progression of arthritis in collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) rats.

Legume lectins inhibit human parainfluenza virus type 2 infection by interfering with the entry.

Three lectins with different sugar binding specificities were investigated for anti-viral activity against human parainfluenza virus type 2 (hPIV-2). The lectins, concanavalin A (Con A), lens culinaris agglutinin (LCA) and peanut agglutinin (PNA), inhibited cell fusion and hemadsorption induced by hPIV-2. Virus nucleoprotein (NP) gene synthesis was largely inhibited, but fusion (F) and hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) gene syntheses were not.