Trauma-hemorrhagic shock (THS) is a medical emergency that is encountered by physicians in the emergency department. Chuan Xiong is a traditional Chinese medicine and ligustrazine is a natural compound from it. Ligustrazine improves coronary blood flow and reduces cardiac ischemia in animals through Ca and ATP-dependent vascular relaxation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Paclitaxel is a microtubule-stabilizing drug used to treat several types of cancer, including ovarian and breast cancer. Because of its antiproliferative effect on vascular smooth muscle cells, balloons and stents are coated with paclitaxel for use in coronary revascularization and prevention of in-stent restenosis (ISR). However, mechanisms underlying ISR are complicated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Hypertension is a severe public health risk factor worldwide. Elevated angiotensin II (Ang II) produced by the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system can lead to hypertension and its complications.
Method: In this study, we addressed the cardiac-injury effects of Ang II and investigated the signaling mechanism induced by Ang II.
Platelets play a crucial role on hemostasis and are also involved in cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attack and stroke. Artesunate has been reported to possess multiple biological activities, including antitumor and anti-inflammatory activities. However, its effect on platelet activation remains unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLung cancer is the major cause of cancer associated mortality. Mutations in EGFR have been implicated in lung cancer pathogenesis. Gefitinib (GF) is a RTKI (receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor) first-choice drug for EGFR mutated advanced lung cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
June 2022
Exposure to air pollutants may elevate the injury severity scores (ISSs) for road traffic injuries (RTIs). This multicenter cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the associations between air pollution, weather conditions, and RTI severity. This retrospective study was performed in Taiwan in 2018.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHypertension is a common chronic cardiovascular disease reported among both men and women. Hypertension in males affects the testis and reproduction function; however, the pathogenesis is poorly understood. Rapamycin has been reported to have a variety of beneficial pharmacological effects; however, high-doses rapamycin does have side effects such as immunosuppression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUrothelial bladder cancer is rapidly spreading across Western countries, and therapy has shown little-to-moderate effects on bladder cancer. Thus, focusing on curbing cancer incidence has become crucial. The aim of the present study was to investigate the anticancer effects of Tannic acid (TA) in human bladder cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiabetic nephropathy is a serious chronic complication affecting at least 25% of diabetic patients. Hyperglycemia associated advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) increase tubular epithelial-myofibroblast transdifferentiation (TEMT) and extracellular matrix synthesis and thereby causes renal fibrosis. The chalcone isoliquiritigenin, found in many herbs of Glycyrrhiza family, is known for potential health-promoting effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEarly and accurate prediction of endotracheal tube (ETT) location is pivotal for critically ill patients. Automatic and timely detection of faulty ETT locations from chest X-ray images may avert patients' morbidity and mortality. Therefore, we designed convolutional neural network (CNN)-based algorithms to evaluate ETT position appropriateness relative to four detected key points, including tracheal tube end, carina, and left/right clavicular heads on chest radiographs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiabetic neuropathy is a common complication of diabetes mellitus, posing a challenge in treatment. Previous studies have indicated the protective role of mesenchymal stem cells against several disorders. Although they can repair nerve injury, their key limitation is that they reduce viability under stress conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSome clinical studies have indicated the patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) display an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Here, to examine the relationship between AD and CVDs, we investigated the changes in heart function in triple-transgenic late-stage AD model mice (3× Tg-AD; APPSwe, PS1M146V, and tauP301L). We fed the AD mice folic acid (FA) or folinic acid (FN) and analyzed the protective effects of the compounds on the heart; specifically, 20-month-old triple-transgenic AD mice, weighing 34-55 g, were randomly allocated into three groups-the AD, AD + FA, and AD + FN groups-and subject to gastric feeding with FA or FN once daily at 12 mg/kg body weight (BW) for 3 months.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHabitual chewing of the areca nut increases the risk of mortality owing to cardiovascular disease, but few reports have revealed the cardiotoxicity mechanism of the areca nut. Arecoline has been reported to be the primary toxic constituent in the areca nut. In order to study the acute cardiotoxicity of the areca nut in the development of pathologic heart hypertrophy, we induced heart injury in rats using arecoline.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOxidative stress-induced brain cell damage is a crucial factor in the pathogenesis of reactive oxygen species (ROS)-associated neurological diseases. Further, studies show that astrocytes are an important immunocompetent cell in the brain and play a potentially significant role in various neurological diseases. Therefore, elimination of ROS overproduction might be a potential strategy for preventing and treating neurological diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: During the COVID-19 pandemic, personal health records (PHRs) have enabled patients to monitor and manage their medical data without visiting hospitals and, consequently, minimize their infection risk. Taiwan's National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) launched the My Health Bank (MHB) service, a national PHR system through which insured individuals to access their cross-hospital medical data. Furthermore, in 2019, the NHIA released the MHB software development kit (SDK), which enables development of mobile apps with which insured individuals can retrieve their MHB data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe areca nut is one of the most commonly consumed psychoactive substances worldwide, with an estimated consumption by approximately 10% of the world's population, especially in some regions of South Asia, East Africa, and the tropical Pacific. Arecoline, the major areca nut alkaloid, has been classified as carcinogenic to humans as it adversely affects various organs, including the brain, heart, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, and reproductive organs. Earlier studies have established a link between areca nut chewing and cardiac arrhythmias, and yet research pertaining to the mechanisms underlying cardiotoxicity caused by arecoline is still preliminary.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEthnopharmacological Relevance: Solanum nigrum, commonly known as Makoi or black shade has been traditionally used in Asian countries and other regions of world to treat liver disorders, diarrhoea, inflammatory conditions, chronic skin ailments (psoriasis and ringworm), fever, hydrophobia, painful periods, eye diseases, etc. It has been observed that S. nigrum contains substances, like steroidal saponins, total alkaloid, steroid alkaloid, and glycoprotein, which show anti-tumor activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe heart is a very dynamic pumping organ working perpetually to maintain a constant blood supply to the whole body to transport oxygen and nutrients. Unfortunately, it is also subjected to various stresses based on physiological or pathological conditions, particularly more vulnerable to damages caused by oxidative stress. In this study, we investigate the molecular mechanism and contribution of IGF-IIRα in endoplasmic reticulum stress induction in the heart under doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVincristine is a clinically used antimicrotubule drug for treating patients with lymphoma. Due to its property of increasing platelet counts, vincristine is also used to treat patients with immune thrombocytopenia. Moreover, antiplatelet agents were reported to be beneficial in thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe insulin-like growth factor II receptor (IGF-IIR) induces myocardial hypertrophy under various pathological conditions like diabetes and hypertension via G protein receptors like Gαq or Gαs. Increased expression of the ligand IGF II and IGF-IIR induces pathological hypertrophy through downstream signaling mediators such as calcineurin, nuclear factor of activated T cells 3 and calcium-calmodulin (CaM)-dependent kinase II (CaMKII)-histone deacetylase 4 (HDAC4). The dried stigma of Crocus sativus L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNaphthalimide derivatives have multiple biological activities, including antitumour and anti-inflammatory activities. We previously synthesized several naphthalimide derivatives; of them, compound 5 was found to exert the strongest inhibitory effect on human DNA topoisomerase II activity. However, the effects of naphthalimide derivatives on platelet activation have not yet been investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAccumulating studies have demonstrated the protective roles of mesenchymal stem cells against several disorders. However, one of their crucial limitations is reduced viability under stress conditions, including the hyperglycemia induced by diabetes. The molecular mechanisms involved in diabetes-induced kidney injuries are not fully elucidated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAgeing is a complex biological process that increases the probability of disease and death, which affects the organs of all species. The accumulation of oxidative damage in the brain contributes to a progressive loss of cognitive functions or even declined the energy metabolism. In this study, we tested the effects of exercise training on the apoptosis, survival, and antioxidant signaling pathways in the cerebral cortex of three age groups of male rats; 3, 12, and 18 months.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEpimedium, is used traditionally in Chinese medicine to treat infertility problems. In this study, we establish the cell model to elucidate the protective effect of epimedium against ES by analyzing the molecular relationship between mitochondrial dynamics and steroidogenesis and to explore the molecular mechanism focusing on mitochondria function relating to fertility. ES induced ROS accumulation in mitochondria and the epimedium treatment significantly reduced the ROS accumulation.
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