Novel β-Lactam/β-Lactamase Combination Versus Meropenem for Treating Nosocomial Pneumonia.

This study reports the integrated analysis of two phase III studies of novel β-lactam/β-lactamase combination versus meropenem for treating nosocomial pneumonia (NP) including ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). The ASPECT-NP trial compared the efficacy and safety of ceftolozane-tazobactam versus meropenem for treating NP/VAP. The REPROVE trial compared ceftazidime-avibactam and meropenem in the treatment of NP/VAP.

Protective Effects of Costunolide against Hydrogen Peroxide-Induced Injury in PC12 Cells.

Oxidative stress-mediated cellular injury has been considered as a major cause of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. The scavenging of reactive oxygen species (ROS) mediated by antioxidants may be a potential strategy for retarding the diseases' progression. Costunolide (CS) is a well-known sesquiterpene lactone, used as a popular herbal remedy, which possesses anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity.

Etanercept attenuates traumatic brain injury in rats by reducing brain TNF- α contents and by stimulating newly formed neurogenesis.

It remains unclear whether etanercept penetrates directly into the contused brain and improves the outcomes of TBI by attenuating brain contents of TNF- α and/or stimulating newly formed neurogenesis. Rats that sustained TBI are immediately treated with etanercept. Acute neurological and motor injury is assessed in all rats the day prior to and 7 days after surgery.

Etanercept attenuates traumatic brain injury in rats by reducing early microglial expression of tumor necrosis factor-α.

Background: Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) is elevated early in injured brain after traumatic brain injury (TBI), in humans and in animals. Etanercept (a TNF-α antagonist with anti-inflammatory effects) attenuates TBI in rats by reducing both microglial and astrocytic activation and increased serum levels of TNF-α. However, it is not known whether etanercept improves outcomes of TBI by attenuating microglia-associated, astrocytes-associated, and/or neurons-associated TNF-α expression in ischemic brain.

Hypoxic preconditioning enhances the therapeutic potential of the secretome from cultured human mesenchymal stem cells in experimental traumatic brain injury.

Bone-marrow-derived human MSCs (mesenchymal stem cells) support repair when administered to animals with TBI (traumatic brain injury) in large part through secreted trophic factors. We directly tested the ability of the culture medium (or secretome) collected from human MSCs under normoxic or hypoxic conditions to protect neurons in a rat model of TBI. Concentrated conditioned medium from cultured human MSCs or control medium was infused through the tail vein of rats subjected to TBI.