Residues of ractopamine, a livestock feed additive, in meat might alleviate misuse of cocaine, nicotine, methamphetamine, and morphine.

Substance misuse brings tremendous harm to global health. Strategies for the treatment and prevention of drug addiction are in urgent need. Trace amine-associated receptor 1 (TAAR1) widely distributed in the central nervous system has been identified as a hopeful target in the management of certain substance abuse.

Ractopamine residues in meat might reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.

The overall prevalence of diabetes in the world has risen substantially in the past several decades, so have complications and mortalities associated with it. Prevention strategies for diabetes thus become an urgent public health need for reducing the burden of diabetes. Ractopamine, a β1/2-adrenergic receptor agonist, has been approved for use in finishing swine, cattle, and turkey in countries where meat exporting brings tremendous economic benefits.

Assessing the Possible Influence of Residues of Ractopamine, a Livestock Feed Additive, in Meat on Alzheimer Disease.

The feed additive ractopamine, a β-adrenergic agonist, has been approved for use in livestock for nearly 2 decades. Studies of its possible adverse effects in humans have concentrated exclusively on cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular functional disorders in the past. In this article, whether and how ractopamine may affect neurodegeneration, either to promote or to reduce the incidence of Alz-heimer disease, will be discussed based on the recent controversial findings that β-adrenoreceptor activation not only can stimulate Alzheimer-pathogenic amyloid-β accumulation but also are able to enhance hippocampal neurogenesis and ameliorate mouse memory deficits in independent laboratory studies.

Remarkable Response to Cisplatin Doublet Chemotherapy in Pulmonary Metastasis With Left Atrial Extension From a Nasopharyngeal Cancer.

A 60-year-old male patient whose nasopharyngeal carcinoma was brought to complete remission with induction chemotherapy composing of cisplatin plus fluorouracil and subsequent radiotherapy with intent of cure eight years ago presented with dyspnea due to left side massive pleural effusion with pleural seedings, left lower lobe huge space occupying lesion, and left atrial tumor extending from the intrapulmonary lesion through left inferior pulmonary veins. Pleural biopsy revealed a picture of nonkeratinizing squamous cell carcinoma positive for Epstein-Barr virus-encoded small RNAs in situ hybridization, leading to a diagnosis of late pulmonary metastases from the antecedent nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Systemic chemotherapy with initial cisplatin plus paclitaxel and subsequent cisplatin plus gemcitabine brought remarkable resolution to the malignant cardiac and intrathoracic lesions.

Consumption of meat containing ractopamine might enhance tumor growth through induction of asparagine synthetase.

There is currently no evidence of the carcinogenic effect of the β-adrenergic agonist ractopamine added in finishing swine and cattle feed for promoting leanness. Nonetheless, it has the capability of stimulating expression of asparagine synthetase (ASNS) through activating transcription factor 5, and many other genes involved in the stress reaction in the skeletal muscle of pigs according to published scientific articles. Because overexpression of ASNS has been detected as a key player in amino acid response and unfolded protein response during the development of not a few malignant diseases, especially those with KRAS mutations, and found to be closely related to tumor proliferation, invasion and metastasis, it seems reasonable to hypothesize that intake of ractopamine residue in meat might bring negative effects to cancer patients.

Ractopamine residue in meat might protect people from Parkinson disease.

There is still no curative treatment for the exasperating Parkinson disease, the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. Intracytoplasmic Lewy body composing of phosphorylated α-synuclein in dopaminergic neuronal cells has been recognized as the characteristic pathologic change and believed to be the cause of neuronal cell loss in Parkinson disease. Recently, β-adrenoreceptor antagonist was found to be correlated with an increasing incidence of Parkinson disease and β-adrenoreceptor agonist, capable of inhibiting gene expression of α-synuclein, was associated with a reduced incidence of it.

Haemoglobin A Levels Constantly Below Lower Reference Limit in a Diabetic Patient With Microcytic Anaemia.

Introduction: Haemoglobin A (A), as a parameter of long-term glycaemic control, has been adopted to guide diabetic therapy all over the world. However, falsely high or low A could be troublesome in daily practice.

Case Description: A 75-year-old male diabetic patient affected by a reasonably inferred life-long history of microcytic anaemia was found to have abnormally low A values in the previous 5 months.