Context: Oxycodone and morphine are recommended as first-choice opioids for moderate/severe cancer pain, but evidence about their relative tolerability has significant methodological limitations.
Objectives: This study was mainly aimed at comparing the risk of developing adverse events (AEs) with controlled-release oral morphine vs. oxycodone; secondary aims were comparing their analgesic efficacy and testing heterogeneity in tolerability across different age and renal function subgroups.
Apelin is a bioactive peptide involved in the control of energy metabolism. In the hypothalamus, chronic exposure to high levels of apelin is associated with an increase in hepatic glucose production, and then contributes to the onset of type 2 diabetes. However, the molecular mechanisms behind deleterious effects of chronic apelin in the brain and consequences on energy expenditure and thermogenesis are currently unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntegr Psychol Behav Sci
December 2016
Why have material world of daily life and material objects in their conventional features or to say it in other words, why have the mundane world and mundane objects, in which the human beings live and children come to, encounter, experience and develop through, received so little attention from psychologists thus remaining a blind spot in mainstream developmental psychology? Certainly the object has not been totally forgotten (e.g. Piaget's constructivist paradigm) but it has been considered as theoretically determined by the categories of understanding (cf.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The aim of this study was to compare clinical outcomes in relation to the duration of triple antithrombotic therapy (TAT) among patients with indications for oral anticoagulation undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
Background: TAT is recommended for patients undergoing PCI with a firm indication for oral anticoagulation. Duration of TAT may influence outcomes, but the optimal period of TAT remains uncertain.
Objective: Recent data suggest that adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) plays a key role in providing energy substrate from triglyceride pools and that alterations of its expression/activity relate to metabolic disturbances in skeletal muscle. Yet little is known about its regulation. We here investigated the role of the protein G0/G1 Switch Gene 2 (G0S2), recently described as an inhibitor of ATGL in white adipose tissue, in the regulation of lipolysis and oxidative metabolism in skeletal muscle.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe have reported previously that intracranial application of near-infrared light (NIr) - when delivered at the lower doses of 25J and 35J - reduces clinical signs and offers neuroprotection in a subacute MPTP (1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine) monkey model of Parkinson's disease. In this study, we explored whether a higher NIr dose (125J) generated beneficial effects in the same MPTP monkey model (n=15). We implanted an NIr (670nm) optical fibre device within a midline region of the midbrain in macaque monkeys, close to the substantia nigra of both sides.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChronic pancreatitis is the most common disease of the exocrine pancreas, characterized by progressive inflammation, acinar atrophy and fibrosis. Transforming growth factor-β signaling (TGFβ) is the most potent fibrogenic cytokine known, and its increased expression is a common denominator for fibrosis in chronic pancreatitis. Smad7 is induced by the TGFβ superfamily members as an intracellular inhibitory feedback antagonizing TGFβ signaling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cardiac troponin detected by new-generation, highly sensitive assays predicts clinical outcomes among patients with stable coronary artery disease (SCAD) treated medically. The prognostic value of baseline high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) elevation in SCAD patients undergoing elective percutaneous coronary interventions is not well established. This study assessed the association of preprocedural levels of hs-cTnT with 1-year clinical outcomes among SCAD patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUreases are metalloenzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of urea to ammonia and carbon dioxide. Jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis) produces three isoforms of urease (Canatoxin, JBU and JBURE-II). Canatoxin and JBU display several biological properties independent of their ureolytic activity, such as neurotoxicity, exocytosis-inducing and pro-inflammatory effects, blood platelets activation, insecticidal and antifungal activities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDissecting exercise-mimicking pathways that can replicate the benefits of exercise in obesity and diabetes may lead to promising treatments for metabolic disorders. Muscle estrogen-related receptor gamma (ERRγ) is induced by exercise, and when over-expressed in the skeletal muscle mimics exercise by stimulating glycolytic-to-oxidative myofiber switch, mitochondrial biogenesis and angiogenesis in lean mice. The objective of this study was to test whether muscle ERRγ in obese mice mitigates weight gain and insulin resistance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMalignant progression results from a dynamic cross-talk between stromal and cancer cells. Recent evidence suggests that this cross-talk is mediated to a significant extent by exosomes, nanovesicles secreted by most cell types and which allow the transfer of proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids between cells. Adipocytes are a major component of several tumor microenvironments, including that of invasive melanoma, where cells have migrated to the adipocyte-rich hypodermic layer of the skin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntegr Psychol Behav Sci
December 2016
One of Vygotsky's main insights was to highlight the role of linguistic signs in psychological development. In this paper, following the works carried out through the Object Pragmatics paradigm, which is grounded in Vygotsky's cultural-historical and semiotic framework, we will explore non verbal signs addressed toward herself by the infant in the process of communication toward oneself, in relation to the appropriation of the objects' canonical uses by infants at 8-, 12- and 16 months in triadic infant-object-adult interaction. More specifically, our focus will concern the development of self-directed ostensions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCatecholamines and atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) are major regulators of adipocyte lipolysis. Although obesity is characterized by catecholamine resistance in subcutaneous adipose tissue (SCAT), data on ANP lipolytic response and sensitivity in different adipose tissue (AT) depots of metabolically distinct humans are scarce. Ex vivo catecholamine- and ANP-induced lipolysis was investigated in adipocytes derived from SCAT and visceral AT (VAT) depot of lean (n=13) and obese men, with (n=11) or without (n=18) type 2 diabetes (HbA1c < or ≥ 6.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Fat depots with thermogenic activity have been identified in humans. In mice, the appearance of thermogenic adipocytes within white adipose depots (so-called brown-in-white i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGroundbreaking results concerning ischemic stroke (IS) hyperacute treatment worldwide were published in 2014 and 2015. We aimed to compare functional status after 3 months in patients treated with intra-arterial thrombectomy (IAT) and those treated with intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) alone in Joinville, Brazil. From the Joinville Stroke Registry, we extracted and compared all consecutive IVT patients treated with r-tPA within 4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Temporal trends on the incidence of stroke and its subtypes could help assess on-going public health policies and point to further targets for action among middle- and low-income countries, where the stroke burden is very high. This study aimed at evaluating longitudinal trends of stroke incidence in Joinville, Brazil.
Methods: We ascertained the incidence of all first-ever strokes occurred in 1995, 2005-2006 and 2012-2013, which were extracted from Joinville Stroke Registry, a prospective epidemiological data bank, launched in 1995.
The collecting duct (CD) is the final segment of the kidney involved in the fine regulation of osmotic and ionic balance. During dehydration, arginine vasopressin (AVP) stimulates the expression and trafficking of aquaporin 2 (AQP2) to the apical membrane of CD principal cells, thereby allowing water reabsorption from the primary urine. Conversely, when the secretion of AVP is lowered, as for instance upon water ingestion or as a consequence of diabetes insipidus, the CD remains water impermeable leading to enhanced diuresis and urine dilution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring acute administration of native glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), we previously demonstrated central hemodynamic effects in healthy males, whereas renal hemodynamics, despite renal uptake of GLP-1 in excess of glomerular filtration, was unaffected. In the present study, we studied hemodynamic effects of GLP-1 in patients with type 2 diabetes under fixed sodium intake. During a 3-h infusion of GLP-1 (1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe have shown previously that near-infrared light (NIr), when applied at the same time as a parkinsonian insult (e.g. 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine; MPTP), reduces behavioural deficits and offers neuroprotection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimer's and Parkinson's disease are the two most common neurodegenerative disorders. They develop after a progressive death of many neurons in the brain. Although therapies are available to treat the signs and symptoms of both diseases, the progression of neuronal death remains relentless, and it has proved difficult to slow or stop.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOver the past decades, obesity and its metabolic co-morbidities such as type 2 diabetes (T2D) developed to reach an endemic scale. However, the mechanisms leading to the development of T2D are still poorly understood. One main predictor for T2D seems to be lipid accumulation in "non-adipose" tissues, best known as ectopic lipid storage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOBJECT The authors of this study used a newly developed intracranial optical fiber device to deliver near-infrared light (NIr) to the midbrain of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-lesioned rats, a model of Parkinson's disease. The authors explored whether NIr had any impact on apomorphine-induced turning behavior and whether it was neuroprotective. METHODS Two NIr powers (333 nW and 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is characterized by cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and fibrosis. Although is an autosomal dominant trait, a group of nonsarcomeric genes have been postulated as modifiers of the phenotypic heterogeneity.
Material And Methods: We prospectively recruited 168 HCM patients and 136 healthy controls from three referral centres.