Curcumin Modifies the Activity of Plasmatic Antioxidant Enzymes and the Hippocampal Oxidative Profile in Rats upon Acute and Chronic Exposure to Ozone.

Ozone (O) is an oxidating tropospheric pollutant. When O interacts with biological substrates, reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) are formed. Severe oxidative damage exhausts the endogenous antioxidant system, which leads to the decreased activity of antioxidant enzymes such as catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and superoxide dismutase (SOD).

Dietary Curcumin Prevented Astrocytosis, Microgliosis, and Apoptosis Caused by Acute and Chronic Exposure to Ozone.

Ozone is the most oxidant tropospheric pollutant gas, causing damage through the formation of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. Reactive species induce the nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) activation leading to neuroinflammation characterized by astrocytosis, microgliosis, and apoptotic cell death. There is interest in evaluating the pharmacological activity of natural antioxidants to confer neuroprotection against the damage caused by ozone in highly polluted cities.

In silico analysis of missense mutations in exons 1-5 of the F9 gene that cause hemophilia B.

Background: Missense mutations in the first five exons of F9, which encodes factor FIX, represent 40% of all mutations that cause hemophilia B. To address the ongoing debate regarding in silico identification of disease-causing mutations at these exons, we analyzed 215 missense mutations from www.factorix.

Curcumin Exerted Neuroprotection against Ozone-Induced Oxidative Damage and Decreased NF-B Activation in Rat Hippocampus and Serum Levels of Inflammatory Cytokines.

Ozone is a harmful tropospheric pollutant, causing the formation of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species that lead to oxidative damage in living beings. NF-B can be activated in response to oxidative damage, inducing an inflammatory response. Nowadays, there are no reliable results that consolidate the use of antioxidants to protect from damage caused by ozone, particularly in highly polluted cities.

Dietary flavonoids added to pharmacological antihypertensive therapy are effective in improving blood pressure.

Epidemiological studies have suggested that the daily intake of flavonoids is associated with a decreased risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Our purpose was to evaluate the effect of the addition of dietary flavonoids (DF) to antihypertensive treatment (AHT), based on telmisartan (Tms) or captopril (Cpr), on blood pressure (BP), body mass index (BMI), waist/hip ratio, leptin, lipid profile and inflammation in hypertensive young patients. An open-label, randomized, controlled trial was performed among 79 patients aged 20-55 years with grade I or grade II systemic arterial hypertension.

Patented aptamers for C-reactive protein detection: a review about their use in clinical diagnostics.

C-reactive protein (CRP) is a homopentameric oligoprotein composed of monomeric subunits that are about 21 kD each. The form of detectable native CRP in validated assays was developed in 2007 and from that time has been considered as an excellent biomarker for peripheral artery disease and/or atherosclerosis, as well as a cardiovascular disease marker for risk prediction. The improvements in the detection of CRP levels could predict significantly the population that have increased risk of stroke being the modulation of CRP levels as a therapeutical outcome for prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

The diagnostic and therapeutic importance of human growth hormone isoforms.

The study of human growth hormone isoforms has conduced to the elaboration of patents related to very important items: codifying and regulatory sequences, production of the protein at large-scale, modifications to prolong half-life as monomer, dimer and fusion protein for treatments directed to growth-associated diseases. The designs to identification and quantification of hGH are besides the formers establishing very important basis of patented sources that can be used for a specific and opportune diagnosis and treatment of biological abnormalities or undesirable effects when these growth hormones are involved.

hGH-V gene expression and promoter activity under glucose and 5-azacytidine (5azaC) effects.

The metabolic conditions affecting placental development depend on nutritional state, genetic constitution and other external factors. The secretion of human placental growth hormone (hGH-V) had shown to be dependent of glucose, but the regulatory effects of this metabolite on hGH-V promoter activity and gene expression in presence of 5-azacytidine had not been studied. In this work we compared the hGH-V promoter activity and the endogenous mRNA expression in human placental choriocarcinoma cell line JAR in the presence of glucose and demethylating genome conditions.