Diaphragmatic strengthening exercises for patients with post COVID-19 condition after mild-to-moderate acute COVID-19 infection: a randomized controlled study.

Objective: To assess the clinical effects of incentive spirometry (IS) and diaphragmatic breathing (DB) in patients with post COVID-19 condition and diaphragmatic dysfunction as compared with the standard care alone.

Methods: The present longitudinal randomized study included 60 patients with post COVID-19 condition and diaphragmatic dysfunction. Patients were equally randomized to receive standard care plus IS (G1), standard care plus DB (G2) or standard care alone (G3) for 8 weeks.

Auditory function assessment in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a multisystem disease with multiple comorbidities. Hearing is dependent on the cochlear functions that may be affected by oxygenation. Affection of hearing is problematic and represents a major concern that should be seriously investigated as an important comorbidity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients.

Assessment of C-reactive protein levels as an indicator for lung infiltrates in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.

Lung infiltrates are frequently observed in patients with COVID-19 infection and require specialized management. Identifying reliable laboratory parameters to reduce the need for chest CT scans in non-desaturation patients is of great interest. This study aimed to investigate the potential of C-reactive protein (CRP) as an indicator to identify the presence of lung infiltrates in early COVID-19 infection.

Impact of Toll-Like Receptor 2 and 9 Gene Polymorphisms on COVID-19: Susceptibility, Severity, and Thrombosis.

Background: Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play an important role in activation of innate and adaptive immune responses.

Aim: We aimed to detect the association between TLR2 rs5743708 G>A and TLR9 rs5743836 C>T variants and COVID-19 disease susceptibility, severity, and thrombosis by using neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs).

Subjects And Methods: We included 100 adult COVID-19 patients as well as 100 age- and gender-matched normal controls.

The Influence of Smoking on Renal Functions Among Apparently Healthy Smokers.

Background: Cigarette smoking is an important modifiable risk factor in kidney disease progression. Although long-term smoking has been associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD), its effect on kidney function in early stages has not been clarified.

Objective: To detect the early effects of smoking either active or passive on kidney functions.

A Multivariate Approach to Ethnopharmacology: Antidiabetic Plants of Eeyou Istchee.

An ethnopharmacological metanalysis was conducted with a large database available on antidiabetic activities of plant foods and medicines from the northern boreal forest, which are traditionally used by the indigenous Cree of James Bay, Quebec, Canada. The objective was to determine which bioassays are closely associated with the traditional knowledge of the Cree and which pharmacological metrics and phytochemical signals best define these plants and their groups. Data from 17 plant species, ethnobotanically ranked by syndromic importance value for treatment of 15 diabetic symptoms, was used along with 49 bioassay endpoints reported across numerous pharmacological studies and a metabolomics dataset.

Strabismus Repair in Children with Varying Severity of Cerebral Palsy.

Objective: To study the success rate of strabismus surgery in patients with varying levels of severity of cerebral palsy (CP).

Design: A retrospective study was conducted.

Participants: Sixty-four patients with varying severity of CP were included.

Evaluation of the antidiabetic potential of Psidium guajava L. (Myrtaceae) using assays for α-glucosidase, α-amylase, muscle glucose uptake, liver glucose production, and triglyceride accumulation in adipocytes.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Psidium guajava L. (Myrtaceae) leaves are used as an herbal antidiabetic remedy in several parts of the world. On Madagascar, both the bark and leaves are used for treatment of diabetes.

Further isolation and identification of anti-diabetic principles from root bark of Myrianthus arboreus P. Beauv.: The ethyl acetate fraction contains bioactive phenolic compounds that improve liver cell glucose homeostasis.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: We recently reported that ethanol extract of Myrianthus arboreus P. Beauv. root bark demonstrated antidiabetic activity by modulating hepatocyte glucose homeostasis.

Growth environment and organ specific variation in in-vitro cytoprotective activities of Picea mariana in PC12 cells exposed to glucose toxicity: a plant used for treatment of diabetes symptoms by the Cree of Eeyou Istchee (Quebec, Canada).

Background: The Cree of Eeyou Istchee (James Bay area of northern Quebec) suffer from a high rate of diabetes and its complications partly due to the introduction of the western lifestyle within their culture. As part of a search for alternative medicine based on traditional practice, this project evaluates the biological activity of Picea mariana (Mill.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.

Bioactive Pentacyclic Triterpenes from the Root Bark Extract of Myrianthus arboreus, a Species Used Traditionally to Treat Type-2 Diabetes.

Four new Δ ursene-type pentacyclic triterpenes containing the trans-feruloyl moiety (1-4), along with ursolic acid (5), were isolated from a Myrianthus arboreus root bark ethanol extract, after bioassay-guided subfractionation of its hexane fraction. The structures of 1-4 were established on the basis of the results of standard spectroscopic analytical methods (IR, HRESIMS, GC-MS, 1D and 2D NMR). The compounds 3β- O- trans-feruloyl-2α,19α-dihydroxyurs-12-en-28-oic acid (1), 2α-acetoxy-3β- O- trans-feruloyl-19α-hydroxyurs-12-en-28-oic acid (3), and 5 were determined to decrease the activity of hepatocellular glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase) and to activate glycogen synthase (GS).

Anti-apoptotic potential of several antidiabetic medicinal plants of the eastern James Bay Cree pharmacopeia in cultured kidney cells.

Background: Our team has identified 17 Boreal forest species from the traditional pharmacopeia of the Eastern James Bay Cree that presented promising in vitro and in vivo biological activities in the context of type 2 diabetes (T2D). We now screened the 17 plants extracts for potential anti-apoptotic activity in cultured kidney cells and investigated the underlying mechanisms.

Methods: MDCK (Madin-Darnby Canine Kidney) cell damage was induced by hypertonic medium (700 mOsm/L) in the presence or absence of maximal nontoxic concentrations of each of the 17 plant extracts.

Root bark extracts of Myrianthus arboreus P. Beauv. (Cecropiaceae) exhibit anti-diabetic potential by modulating hepatocyte glucose homeostasis.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Myrianthus arboreus P. Beauv. is a tropical tree used in African folk medicine, including for diabetes.

Investigation of antidiabetic potential of Phyllanthus niruri L. using assays for α-glucosidase, muscle glucose transport, liver glucose production, and adipogenesis.

Phyllanthus niruri is used in herbal medicine for treatment of diabetes. The objective of this study was to investigate the antidiabetic potential of P. niruri, using assays for α-glucosidase, muscle glucose transport, liver glucose production and adipogenesis.

Caffeic acid methyl and ethyl esters exert potential antidiabetic effects on glucose and lipid metabolism in cultured murine insulin-sensitive cells through mechanisms implicating activation of AMPK.

Context: Caffeic acid methyl (CAME) and ethyl (CAEE) esters stimulate glucose uptake and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in C2C12 myocytes (ATCC CRL-1772).

Objective: Effects of CAME and CAEE were now assessed on myocyte glucose transporter GLUT4 activity and expression, on hepatic gluconeogenesis and on adipogenesis as well as major underlying signaling pathways.

Materials And Methods: GLUT4 protein translocation was studied in L6 GLUT4myc cells, glucose-6-phospatase (G6Pase) in H4IIE hepatocytes and adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.

Significance of Microbiota in Obesity and Metabolic Diseases and the Modulatory Potential by Medicinal Plant and Food Ingredients.

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of three or more metabolic disorders including insulin resistance, obesity, and hyperlipidemia. Obesity has become the epidemic of the twenty-first century with more than 1.6 billion overweight adults.

Phenolic compounds isolated from fermented blueberry juice decrease hepatocellular glucose output and enhance muscle glucose uptake in cultured murine and human cells.

Background: We recently reported that blueberry juice fermented (FJ) with Serratia vaccinii bacterium has antidiabetic activities both in vivo and in vitro. The purpose of this project was to elucidate the effect of FJ on glucose homeostasis in liver and skeletal muscle cells and to identify active fractions/compounds responsible for this effect.

Methods: FJ was fractionated using standard chromatography procedures.

The fatty acid-rich fraction of Eruca sativa (rocket salad) leaf extract exerts antidiabetic effects in cultured skeletal muscle, adipocytes and liver cells.

Context: Eruca sativa Mill. (Brassicaceae), commonly known as rocket salad, is a popular leafy-green vegetable with many health benefits.

Objective: To evaluate the antidiabetic activities of this plant in major insulin-responsive tissues.

The Antidiabetic Potential of Quercetin: Underlying Mechanisms.

The dramatic increase in modern lifestyle diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes has renewed researchers' interest to explore nature as a source of novel therapeutic agents. Flavonoids are a large group of polyphenols that are widely present in the human diet. They have shown promising therapeutic activities against a wide variety of ailments.

A combination of (+)-catechin and (-)-epicatechin underlies the in vitro adipogenic action of Labrador tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum), an antidiabetic medicinal plant of the Eastern James Bay Cree pharmacopeia.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Rhododendron groenlandicum (Oeder) Kron & Judd (Labrador tea) was identified as an antidiabetic plant through an ethnobotanical study carried out with the close collaboration of Cree nations of northern Quebec in Canada.

Objectives: In a previous study the plant showed glitazone-like activity in a 3T3-L1 adipogenesis bioassay. The current study sought to identify the active compounds responsible for this potential antidiabetic activity using bioassay guided fractionation based upon an in vitro assay that measures the increase of triglycerides content in 3T3-L1 adipocyte.

Labrador tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum) attenuates insulin resistance in a diet-induced obesity mouse model.

Purpose: Using a diet-induced obesity (DIO) mouse model, we investigated the antidiabetic effect of Labrador tea [Rhododendron groenlandicum (Oeder) Kron and Judd], a beverage and medicinal tea used by the Cree Nations of northern Quebec.

Methods: C57BL6 mice were divided into five groups and given standard chow (~4 % of lipids) or high-fat diet (~35 % of lipids) for 8 weeks until they became obese and insulin resistant. Treatment began by adding the plant extract at three doses (125, 250 and 500 mg/kg) to the high-fat diet for another 8 weeks.

The molecular basis of the antidiabetic action of quercetin in cultured skeletal muscle cells and hepatocytes.

Background: Quercetin is universally distributed in the plant kingdom and is the most abundant flavonoid in the human diet. In a previous study, we have reported that quercetin stimulated glucose uptake in cultured C2C12 skeletal muscle through an insulin-independent mechanism involving adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK). AMPK is a key regulator of the whole body-energy homeostasis.

Lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea L.) Exhibits Antidiabetic Activities in a Mouse Model of Diet-Induced Obesity.

Vaccinium vitis-idaea, commonly known as lingonberry, has been identified among species used by the Cree of Eeyou Istchee of northern Quebec to treat symptoms of diabetes. In a previous study, the ethanol extract of berries of V. vitis-idaea enhanced glucose uptake in C2C12 muscle cells via stimulation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) pathway.

Stimulation of AMP-activated protein kinase and enhancement of basal glucose uptake in muscle cells by quercetin and quercetin glycosides, active principles of the antidiabetic medicinal plant Vaccinium vitis-idaea.

Several medicinal plants that stimulate glucose uptake in skeletal muscle cells were identified from among species used by the Cree of Eeyou Istchee of northern Quebec to treat symptoms of diabetes. This study aimed to elucidate the mechanism of action of one of these products, the berries of Vaccinium vitis idaea, as well as to isolate and identify its active constituents using a classical bioassay-guided fractionation approach. Western immunoblot analysis in C2C12 muscle cells revealed that the ethanol extract of the berries stimulated the insulin-independent AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) pathway.

Structural constraints and the importance of lipophilicity for the mitochondrial uncoupling activity of naturally occurring caffeic acid esters with potential for the treatment of insulin resistance.

Caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) has recently been shown to potently stimulate glucose uptake in cultured skeletal muscle cells through the AMPK pathway and therefore to have anti-diabetic potential. We report here that CAPE increases glucose uptake in C2C12 muscle cells by 225+/-21% at 50 microM, and that activation of AMPK is a consequence of the metabolic stress resulting from an uncoupling-type disruption of mitochondrial function (complete uncoupling at 50 microM). We also observe that the therapeutic potential of CAPE is offset by its high potential for toxicity.