Continuous, Automated Breathing Rate and Body Motion Monitoring of Rats With Paraquat-Induced Progressive Lung Injury.

Assessments of respiratory response and animal activity are useful endpoints in drug pharmacology and safety research. We investigated whether continuous, direct monitoring of breathing rate and body motion in animals in the home cage using the Vum Digital Smart House can complement standard measurements in enabling more granular detection of the onset and severity of physiologic events related to lung injury in a well-established rodent model of paraquat (PQ) toxicity. In rats administered PQ, breathing rate was significantly elevated while body motion was significantly reduced following dosing and extending throughout the 14-day study duration for breathing rate and at least 5 days for both nighttime and daytime body motion.

A prospective comparative field study to evaluate the efficacy of a traditional plant-based malaria prophylaxis.

Background: An unceasing threat of resistance of malarial parasites to available antimalarial drugs makes the development of new drugs imperative. Natural plant-based products are an alternative source for discovering new antimalarial drugs.

Aim: To determine the prophylactic efficacy of a traditionally used plant-based drug on prevention of malaria in endemic villages of Odisha, India.

Standards of reporting Ayurvedic clinical trials - Is there a need?

Reported lack of efficacy of Ayurvedic treatments in clinical trials is often not due to inefficacy of the treatment itself, but arises from inadequacies of trial design. This paper argues that trials of Ayurvedic interventions should exclusively use its multi-component, individualized and inherently holistic approach, and that general guidelines for rigorously reporting such clinical trials should be developed. Holistic Ayurvedic clinical trials, rigorously conducted and with high standards of reporting should translate into good clinical science, and may be expected to generate higher credibility for clinical studies of the Ayurvedic knowledge system.