Deferasirox for the treatment of chronic iron overload in transfusional hemosiderosis.

Purpose: This report describes the Food and Drug Administration's review of data and analyses leading to the approval of the oral iron chelator, deferasirox for the treatment of chronic iron overload due to transfusional hemosiderosis.

Experimental Design: The FDA reviewed findings of a controlled, open-label, randomized multicenter phase III study of deferasirox vs. deferoxamine in 586 patients with beta-thalessemia and transfusional hemosiderosis.

Exposure to lead elevates induction of zif268 and Arc mRNA in rats after electroconvulsive shock: the involvement of protein kinase C.

Exposure to lead is well known to impair cognitive function in young children. Because of the importance of gene regulation for neurodevelopment, we examined the effect of lead on the induction of the mRNA of the immediate early genes zif268 and Arc. The time course for the induction of zif268 mRNA and Arc mRNA by electroconvulsant shock (ECS) was altered in the area of the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus in rats exposed to lead from postnatal days (PND) 1 to 28.

In vitro effects of organophosphorus anticholinesterases on muscarinic receptor-mediated inhibition of acetylcholine release in rat striatum.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the in vitro modulation of muscarinic autoreceptor function by the organophosphorus (OP) anticholinesterases chlorpyrifos oxon, paraoxon, and methyl paraoxon. Acetylcholine (ACh) release was studied by preloading slices from rat striatum with [3H]choline and depolarizing with potassium (20 mM) in perfusion buffer containing hemicholinium-3 (to prevent reuptake of radiolabeled choline). Under these conditions, chlorpyrifos oxon, paraoxon, and methyl paraoxon (0.