Sex-Dependent Effects of Piromelatine Treatment on Sleep-Wake Cycle and Sleep Structure of Prenatally Stressed Rats.

Prenatal stress (PNS) impairs the circadian rhythm of the sleep/wake cycle. The melatonin (MT) analogue Piromelatine (Pir) was designed for the treatment of insomnia. The present study aimed to explore effects of Pir on circadian rhythmicity, motor activity, and sleep structure in male and female rats with a history of prenatal stress (PNS).

Dosage of Lipid Emulsions as an Antidote to Lipid-Soluble Substances.

Introduction: Lipid emulsions are increasingly used as an antidote to lipophilic drug intoxications. The dose recommended by the American Society of Regional Anesthesia is used primarily for the treatment of local anesthetic systemic toxicity. There is insufficient information about what the dose of lipid emulsions (LE) should be in other intoxications depending on their severity.

Changes in national rates of psychiatric beds and incarceration in Central Eastern Europe and Central Asia from 1990-2019: A retrospective database analysis.

Background: Numbers of psychiatric beds (general, forensic, and residential) and prison populations have been considered to be indicators of institutionalisation of people with mental illnesses. The present study aimed to assess changes of those indicators across Central Eastern Europe and Central Asia (CEECA) over the last three decades to capture how care has developed during that historical period.

Methods: We retrospectively obtained data on numbers of psychiatric beds and prison populations from 30 countries in CEECA between 1990 and 2019.

Effects of Lacosamide Treatment on Epileptogenesis, Neuronal Damage and Behavioral Comorbidities in a Rat Model of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.

Clinically, temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most prevalent type of partial epilepsy and often accompanied by various comorbidities. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of chronic treatment with the antiepileptic drug (AED) lacosamide (LCM) on spontaneous motor seizures (SMS), behavioral comorbidities, oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and neuronal damage in a model of TLE. Vehicle/LCM treatment (30 mg/kg, p.

Agomelatine treatment corrects impaired sleep-wake cycle and sleep architecture and increases MT receptor as well as BDNF expression in the hippocampus during the subjective light phase of rats exposed to chronic constant light.

Rationale: Exposure to chronic constant light (CCL) has a detrimental impact on circadian rhythms of motor activity and sleep/wake cycles. Agomelatine is an atypical antidepressant showing a chronotropic activity.

Objectives: In this study, we explored the role of melatonin (MT) receptors and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the brain in the mechanism underlying the effects of agomelatine on diurnal variations of motor activity, sleep/wake cycle, and sleep architecture in a rat model of CCL.

Agomelatine alleviates neuronal loss through BDNF signaling in the post-status epilepticus model induced by kainic acid in rat.

Recently, we have reported that while agomelatine (Ago) is unable to prevent development of epilepsy it exerts a strong neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory response in the KA post-status epilepticus (SE) rat model. In the present study, we aimed to explore whether the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus is involved in the neuroprotective effect of Ago against the KA-induced SE and epileptiform activity four months later in rats. Lacosamide (LCM) was used as a positive control.

Intercriteria analysis of calorimetric data of blood serum proteome.

Background: Biological microcalorimetry has entered into a phase where its potential for disease diagnostics is readily recognized. A wide variety of oncological and immunological disorders have been characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and characteristic thermodynamic profiles were reported. Now the challenge before DSC is not the experimental data collection but the development of analysis protocols for reliable data stratification/classification and discrimination of disease specific features (calorimetric markers).

Comparative power spectrum analysis of EEG activity in spontaneously hypertensive and Wistar rats in kainate model of temporal model of epilepsy.

Recently, we have reported that spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) exhibit higher susceptibility than Wistar rats in kainate (KA) model of epilepsy. The aim of the present study is to compare the baseline of EEG signals in SHRs and Wistar rats using Discrete Fourier transform (DFT) during the three phases of KA model (acute, latent and chronic). The SHRs showed higher baseline relative power of delta waves in the left frontal cortex and lower gamma-HF waves in the left frontal and left/right parietal cortex, respectively, compared to Wistar rats.

Different serum BDNF levels in depression: results from BDNF studies in FYR Macedonia and Bulgaria.

Background: A growing body of evidence shows that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays a role in depressive disorder. Serum BDNF levels are lower in depressed patients and they increase after a long course of antidepressant treatment. Our study aims to test the effect of antidepressant treatment on serum BDNF levels in patients with a depressive episode, after they have achieved remission in two studies in Macedonia and Bulgaria.

Forensic psychiatry in some Balkan countries.

Purpose Of Review: In Balkan countries, as in all Europe, forensic psychiatry as a subspecialty between psychiatry and legal medicine, an interface between mental health and the law, is focused on assessment and treatment of people with mental disorder who show antisocial or violent behavior. Thus, the authors thought that to show the actual situation of forensic psychiatry in their countries would be more interesting than only to review some articles published in these last 2 years in this part of the world.

Recent Findings: The article also includes some review about forensic psychiatry in prison in Bulgaria, Serbia and Russia and about a recent book published in Bulgaria.

Impaired decision-making in psychopathic heroin addicts.

Substance-dependent individuals (SDIs) often show neurocognitive deficits in decision-making, such that their choices are biased toward the greatest immediate reward rather than the optimal future outcome. However, studies of SDIs are often hampered by two significant methodological challenges: polysubstance dependence and comorbid conditions, which are independently associated with neurocognitive impairments. We addressed these methodological challenges by testing heroin addicts in Bulgaria, where heroin addiction is highly prevalent but polysubstance dependence is rare.

Current applications of plasmapheresis in clinical toxicology.

The clinical applications of plasmapheresis are rapidly increasing in number and scope. This trend is also observed in the application of plasmapheresis as a method of detoxification in clinical toxicology. Because of a lack of large controlled series, the rationale for using plasmapheresis must be confirmed in each type of intoxication by evidence of effective clearance, as well as by high plasma protein binding and a low volume of distribution of the toxic substance.

Copper accumulation by Aspergillus awamori.

Aspergillus awamori accumulated Cu2+ from aqueous solutions. The level of copper uptake was dependent on the ambient metal concentration. The process consisted of two phases: a fast initial phase and a slower secondary phase.

[Cryobiological characteristics of bull sperm].

Investigations were carried out on the concentration of live spermatozoa and their viability in various layers of the pellets of frozen bull semen. Studied were also the 'nests' of dry snow for the presence of organisms and spermatozoa and the likeliness of their transmitting into the pellets of frozen semen. It was found that the concentration of live spermatozoa and their viability were highest in the central part (core) of the pellets, and lowest--in the peripheral layers.

[Morphological changes in the genitalia of culled sheep].

Morphologic studies were carried out on the genital organs of a total of 102 culled ewes in a postestrous season. In some 44.12 per cent there were clearly manifested gross lesions.

[Effect of perocin (zineb) on the quality of ovine seminal fluid].

The fungicide perocin , an analogue of the preparation Zineb ( ditiocarbamate ) was applied orally with the feed to 11 rams divided into two test groups of three animals each and one control group of five rams. The preparation was administered at the rate of 1/50 and 1/100 of DL50 per kg body mass to the first and second test group, respectively, in the course of 4 months. During both the preparatory and the experimental period semen was sampled twice a week with the use of an artificial vagina, and investigations were carried out to evaluate the qualitative properties of the semen, the level of Na ions, the redoxi -potential and the activity of the alkaline phosphatase (APh).

[Case of a leiomyoma in the uterus and cervix of a sheep].

Morphologic studies were carried out on the genital organs (uterus, cervix, oviducts, and ovaries) of a 3-year-old sterile sheep. A gross lesion was found in the region of the uterine bifurcation, consisting of a tumor-like formation of a 3 cm dia, pale gray cross-section surface, and elastic to hard consistence. Histologically, proliferation was seen of the smooth-muscle cells in various directions within the uterus and cervix.

[Concurrent vulvovaginitis, respiratory syndrome and keratoconjunctivitis in calves].

Studied was a disease course in calves caused by the IBR/IPV virus with symptoms characteristic of vulvovaginitis, respiratory distrubances and keratoconjunctivitis. Concurrent infections of such type were observed primarily in several-month-old calves (aged from 6--7 weeks to 6 months). In older calves (aged 1--2 years) vulvovaginitis predominated, it being more rarely associated with changes typical of pneumonia, and, as an exception accompanied by keratoconjunctivitis.