Some current challenges in research on air pollution and health / Desafíos actuales de la investigación sobre contaminación del aire y salud

This commentary addresses some of the diverse questions of current interest with regard to the health effects of air pollution, including exposure-response relationships, toxicity of inhaled particles and risks to health, multipollutant mixtures, traffic-related pollution, accountability research, and issues with susceptibility and vulnerability. It considers the challenges posed to researchers as they attempt to provide useful evidence for policy-makers relevant to these issues. This commentary accompanies papers giving the results from the ESCALA project, a multi-city study in Latin America that has an overall goal of providing policy-relevant results. While progress has been made in improving air quality, driven by epidemiological evidence that air pollution is adversely affecting public health, the research questions have become more subtle and challenging as levels of air pollution dropped. More research is still needed, but also novel methods and approaches to address these new questions.

Este comentario aborda algunos de los temas de interés actual en relación con los efectos de la contaminación del aire sobre la salud, tales como las relaciones exposición-respuesta, la toxicidad y riesgos para la salud de las partículas inhaladas, las mezclas de contaminantes múltiples, la contaminación relacionada con el tráfico, la investigación sobre responsabilidad, y los problemas de susceptibilidad y vulnerabilidad. Considera los retos que se presentan a los investigadores que intentan proporcionar evidencia para los responsables políticos en estas cuestiones. Este texto acompaña otros trabajos con resultados del proyecto ESCALA, un estudio en varias ciudades de América Latina que tiene como objetivo general proporcionar resultados relevantes para la política pública. Aunque ha habido avances para mejorar la calidad del aire, gracias a la evidencia epidemiológica de que la contaminación aérea está afectando negativamente a la salud pública, las preguntas de investigación se han vuelto más sutiles y difíciles a medida que los niveles de contaminación se reducen. Se necesita más investigación, pero también nuevos métodos y enfoques capaces de enfrentar estas preguntas.

Evidence-Based, Pharmacological Treatment Guideline for Depression in Korea, Revised Edition

This paper aims to introduce, summarize, and emphasize the importance of the 'Evidence-Based, Pharmacological Treatment Guideline for Depression in Korea, Revised Edition'. The guideline broadly covers most aspects of the pharmacological treatment of patients in Korea diagnosed with moderate to severe major depression according to the DSM-IV TR. The guideline establishment process involved determining and answering a number of key questions, searching and selecting publications, evaluating recommendations, preparing guideline drafts, undergoing external expert reviews, and obtaining approval. A guideline adaptation process was conducted for the revised edition. The guideline strongly recommends pharmacological treatment considered appropriate to the current clinical situation in Korea, and should be considered helpful when selecting the appropriate pharmacological treatment of patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Therefore, the wide distribution of this guideline is recommended.

Synthesis and antidepressant activities of aryl alkanol piperidine derivatives / 药学学报

To explore novel monoamine reuptake inhibitor with antidepressant activity, a series of substituted aryl alkanol piperidine derivatives were designed and synthesized. All of them were new compounds, and their structures were confirmed with 1H NMR and HR-MS. The results showed that compounds 4, 5 and 8 displayed strong 5-HT, NA and DA reuptake inhibiting activities in vitro. Among the tested compounds, 4, 5 and 13 exhibited potent antidepressant activities in the mice forced swimming test. Compounds 4 and 5 have potent antidepressant activities and are worth further development.

Design, synthesis and 5-HT/NE dual reuptake inhibitory activity of aromatic heterocyclic arylamidine derivatives / 药学学报

Based on the pharmacophore information and the analysis of structure-activity relationship of SSRIs and SNRIs, a series of substituted aromatic heterocyclic arylamidine derivatives were designed and synthesized in order to search for lead compounds with dual activity. All of them were new compounds, and their structures were confirmed by 1H NMR and HRMS. Preliminary in vitro pharmacological tests showed that all target compounds exhibited 5-HT reuptake inhibitory activity and some compounds exhibited NE reuptake inhibitory activity. These aromatic heterocyclic arylamidine designed can be further optimized for finding more potent 5-HT/NE dual reuptake inhibitors and antidepressant candidates as well.

SPECT imaging of the brain: regional cerebral blood flow before and after treatment of patients with primary fibromyalgia

Whether regional cerebral blood flow [rCBF] is affected by Duloxitine Hcl in Egyptian women with primary fibromyalgia [FM] and if it correlates with clinical findings. Thirty untreated women with FM [group I] and ten apparently healthy controls [group II] were studied with single photon emission computed tomography of the brain [brain SPECT] after IVI of Tc-99[m] HMPAO as a cerebral perfusion agent. The resting state [rCBF] was measured for the deep structures [thalamus and caudate] and cerebral cortices [anterior, lateral, posterior] of both sides. Fifteen patients[group Ia] received the conventional therapy of fibromyalgia and the other fifteen [group Ib] received a Duloxitine Hcl 60 mg daily for 3 months followed by measuring rCBF. There was a statistically highly significant lower [rCBF] in the thalamus and caudate nucleus in patients as compared to controls [p<0.01] but no such difference in the anterior, lateral and posterior cerebral cortices [p>0.05]. No significant difference clinically or radiologically was found comparing group Ia results before and after 12 weeks. There was a highly significant difference with fatigue and a significant difference as regard neck pain, headache, generalized body ache and morning stiffness when comparing group lb results before and after 12 weeks. The rCBF to thalamus and caudate nucleus showed a highly significant increase in group lb after 3 months. There was a significant difference in number of tender points, the duration of morning stiffness as well as thalamic and caudate blood flow comparing the change in Ia and lb. The decrease of regional cerebral blood flow to the thalamus and caudate nucleus in patients with primary FM may be the cause of their symptoms. Improvement of the symptoms by administration of duloxitine Hcl may be due to improvement of the cerebral blood flow

Inhibition of thermal hyperalgesia and tactile allodynia by intrathecal administration of gamma-aminobutyric acid transporter-1 inhibitor NO-711 in rats with chronic constriction injury / 生理学报

The present study was undertaken to explore the role of gamma-aminobutyric acid transporters in the neuropathic pain. On the chronic constriction injury (CCI) rats 4 doses (5, 10, 20, 40 microg in group N5, N10, N20, N40, respectively) of specific gamma-aminobutyric acid transporter-1 inhibitor NO-711 or normal saline (in group NS) were intrathecally administered before sciatic nerve ligation (pre-treatment) or at the third day after ligation (post-treatment). The paw withdrawl latency (PWL) from a noxious thermal stimulus and paw withdrawl mechanical threshold (PWMT) of von Frey filament was used as measure of thermal hyperalgesia and tactile allodynia respectively. The results demonstrated that post-treatment of NO-711 significantly suppressed thermal hyperalgesia and allodynia in CCI rats (P<0.05, P<0.01), the inhibitory effect lasted for 2 h (N40 group) and 4 h (N20 group) respectively. NO-711 inhibited thermal hyperalgesia induced by CCI in a dose-dependent manner. Intrathecal pretreatment with different doses of NO-711 delayed the occurrence of thermal hyperalgesia, but could not delay the emergence of allodynia induced by CCI. This study indicates that gamma-aminobutyric acid transporter inhibitor has anti-thermal hyperalgesia and anti-tactile allodynia effects in neuropathic rats.

Distúrbio obsessivo-compulsivo: características sócio-demográficas e clínicas de 50 pacientes através de sues prontuários - quarta parte: etiologia e tratamento / Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): the social-demographic and clinical characteristics of 50 patients

O distúrbio obsessivo-compulsivo (DOC) é um dos quadros psiquiátricos de mais difícil compreensao. Os estudos que caracterizam os pacientes adultos com DOC sao poucos e esse número é ainda mais limitado quando nos referimos a pacientes com diagnóstico de DOC pelo DSM-III-R. Diante disso, o presente estudo foi realizado com o objetivo de descrever as características sócio-demográficas e clínicas de 50 pacientes. Apesar das limitaçoes do nosso estudo, os resultados foram, em geral, consistentes com os achados prévios da literatura, mostrando uma consistência entre as culturas

Aplicaciones anestesiológicas del óxido nítrico y sus inhibidores / Anesthesiological applications of nitric oxid and its inhibitors

El Oxido Nítrico, un gas inestable con características de radical libre, es sintetizado por bacterias como también lo es por los macrófagos humanos. Inicialmente, fue conocido como Factor de Relajación Endotelial, ahora clasificado como neurotransmisor No-típico no sólo debido a sus características estructurales, sino a su peculiar mecanismo de acción. En esta breve revisión, nosotros pondremos énfasis a las aplicaciones anestesiológicas del Oxido Nítrico y sus inhibidores