Prevalence and assessment of biochemical parameters of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder children in Bangladesh.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate some new biochemical parameters that help ensuring the early and precise diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in blood plasma. DESIGN AND SETTINGS: A prospective study conducted with patients scheduled for some new biochemical parameters that help ensuring the early and precise diagnosis of ADHD in blood plasma in a Child Development Center of the Chittagong, Bangladesh. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was carried out at two levels. The first level was questionnaire on personal data and disease history while the second was on biochemical examination of the plasma ammonia and lactate status. A total of 100 children (age range 2 years 4 months to 12 years 6 months, mean age 7 years 5 months) were investigated in this study among 75 were male and 25 were female. This study was conducted in Chittagong Maa-O-Shishu General Hospital, Bangladesh. RESULTS: We observed that the level of plasma ammonia and lactate were higher in ADHD children (36-60 µmol/L; P < 0.05 and 22-30 µmol/L; P < 0.05, respectively) compare to a reference value. The prevalence of ADHD is higher in male (75%) than in female (25%) with a ratio of 3:1. Consanguinity increases the risk of having ADHD in the next generation. CONCLUSION: This study concludes that there might be a correlation between ADHD and increased level of plasma ammonia and lactate level, and those might be an important parameter in the diagnosis of ADHD patients.

Effects of organic extracts of six Bangladeshi plants on in vitro thrombolysis and cytotoxicity.

BACKGROUND: Thrombus formed in blood vessels lead to atherothrombotic diseases such as myocardial or cerebral infarction. Thrombolytic agents are used to dissolve the already formed clots in the blood vessels; however, these drugs sometimes cause serious and fatal consequences. Herbal preparations have been used since ancient times for the treatment of several diseases although they show little toxicity in some cases. Aqueous extracts of herbs used in thrombolysis have been reported before with cytotoxic data, however, the organic extracts of herbs have not been documented. This study aims to investigate whether organic extracts possess thrombolytic properties with minimal or no toxicity. METHODS: An in vitro thrombolytic model was used to check the clot lysis effect of six Bangladeshi herbal extracts viz., Ageratum conyzoides L., Clausena suffruticosa, Leea indica (Burm.f.) Merr., Leucas aspera Willd., Senna sophera L. Roxb., and Solanum torvum Swartz. using streptokinase as a positive control and water as a negative control. Briefly, venous blood drawn from twenty healthy volunteers was allowed to form clots which were weighed and treated with the test plant materials to disrupt the clots. Weight of clot after and before treatment provided a percentage of clot lysis. Cytotoxicity was screened by brine shrimp lethality bioassay using vincristine sulfate as positive control. RESULTS: Using an in vitro thrombolytic model, Ageratum conyzoides, Clausena suffruticosa, Leea indica, Leucas aspera, Senna sophera and Solanum torvum showed 18.12 ± 2.34%, 48.9 ± 2.44%, 39.30 ± 0.96%, 37.32 ± 2.00%, 31.61 ± 2.97% and 31.51 ± 0.57% and clot lysis respectively. Among the herbs studied Clausena suffruticosa, Leea indica and Leucas aspera showed very significant (p < 0.0001) percentage (%) of clot lysis compared to reference drug streptokinase (75.00 ± 3.04%). In brine shrimp cytotoxic assay, the extracts Ageratum conyzoides, Clausena suffruticosa, Leea indica, Leucas aspera, Senna sophera and Solanum torvum showed LC50 values 508.86 ± 6.62,41.16 ± 1.26, 2.65 ± 0.16, 181.67 ± 1.65, 233.37 ± 7.74 and 478.40 ± 3.23 µg/ml, respectively, with reference to vincristine sulfate (LC50 0.76 ± 0.04). CONCLUSION: Through our study it was found that Clausena suffruticosa, Leea indica and Leucas aspera possessed effective thrombolytic properties whereas Senna sophera and Solanum torvum showed moderate to mild thrombolytic effects while Ageratum conyzoides showed no significant effect. No extract was found cytoxic compared to positive control. Clausena suffruticosa, Leea indica and Leucas aspera could be incorporated as a thrombolytic agent with in vivo effects to improve the atherothrombotic patients. However, Clausena suffruticosa could be the best one to use in this purpose.

Effect of acidic condition on the metabolic regulation of Escherichia coli and its phoB mutant.

Effect of acidic condition on the fermentation characteristics was investigated by the continuous culture of Escherichia coli. In accordance with down-regulation of crp gene transcript level as well as up-regulation of arcA, the expressions of the TCA cycle genes were down-regulated, which caused more acetate formation at acidic condition under aerobic condition. It was also shown that yfiD was up-regulated in accordance with up-regulation of fnr, and the respiratory pathway genes were up-regulated under acidic condition. The effect of phoB gene knockout on fermentation characteristics was also investigated. Under micro-aerobic condition, the fermentation pattern changed in such a way that formate and lactate were more produced at lower pH due to up-regulations of pflA, yfiD and ldhA genes, whereas ethanol was less produced as compared to the case at neutral pH. The overall regulation mechanism under acidic condition was clarified based on fermentation characteristics and gene transcript levels.