Vanadium complexes with polypyridyl ligands: Speciation, structure and potential medicinal activity.

This review focuses on the interaction between the essential element­vanadium with 1,10-phenanthroline and polypyridyl ligands. It starts with a summary of the prior work on speciation studies for the binary systems vanadium-phenanthroline alongside several hydrolytic studies of the metal ion. It also includes a complete overview on the different X-ray structures known to date with discussions on the potential cytotoxic activity of several vanadium-polypyridyl complexes.

In Silico-Based Design and In Vivo Evaluation of an Anthranilic Acid Derivative as a Multitarget Drug in a Diet-Induced Metabolic Syndrome Model.

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a complex disease that affects almost a quarter of the world's adult population. In MetS, diabetes, obesity, hyperglycemia, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure are the most common disorders. Polypharmacy is the most used strategy for managing conditions related to MetS, but it has drawbacks such as low medication adherence. Multitarget ligands have been proposed as an interesting approach to developing drugs to treat complex diseases. However, suitable preclinical models that allow their evaluation in a context closer to a clinical situation of a complex disease are needed. From molecular docking studies, compound 1b, a 5-aminoanthranilic acid derivative substituted with 4'-trifluoromethylbenzylamino and 3',4'-dimethoxybenzamide moieties, was identified as a potential multitarget drug, as it showed high in silico affinity against targets related to MetS, including PPAR-α, PPAR-γ, and HMG-CoA reductase. It was evaluated in a diet-induced MetS rat model and simultaneously lowered blood pressure, glucose, total cholesterol, and triglyceride levels after a 14-day treatment. No toxicity events were observed during an acute lethal dose evaluation test at 1500 mg/kg. Hence, the diet-induced MetS model is suitable for evaluating treatments for MetS, and compound 1b is an attractive starting point for developing multitarget drugs.

Vanadium: History, chemistry, interactions with α-amino acids and potential therapeutic applications.

In the last 30 years, since the discovery that vanadium is a cofactor found in certain enzymes of tunicates and possibly in mammals, different vanadium-based drugs have been developed targeting to treat different pathologies. So far, the in vitro studies of the insulin mimetic, antitumor and antiparasitic activity of certain compounds of vanadium have resulted in a great boom of its inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry. Chemical speciation studies of vanadium with amino acids under controlled conditions or, even in blood plasma, are essential for the understanding of the biotransformation of e.g. vanadium antidiabetic complexes at the physiological level, providing clues of their mechanism of action. The present article carries out a bibliographical research emphaticizing the chemical speciation of the vanadium with different amino acids and reviewing also some other important aspects such as its chemistry and therapeutical applications of several vanadium complexes.

Natural disaster and risk of psychiatric disorders in Puerto Rican children.

We examined the persistence of psychiatric disorders at approximately 18 and 30 months after a hurricane among a random sample of the child and adolescent population (4-17 years) of Puerto Rico. Data were obtained from caretaker-child dyads (N = 1,886) through in person interviews with primary caretakers (all children) and youth (11-17 years) using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children IV in Spanish. Logistic regressions, controlling for sociodemographic variables, were used to study the relation between disaster exposure and internalizing, externalizing, or any disorder. Children's disaster-related distress manifested as internalizing disorders, rather than as externalizing disorders at 18 months post-disaster. At 30 months, there was no longer a significant difference in rates of disorder between hurricane-exposed and non-exposed youth. Results were similar across age ranges. Rates of specific internalizing disorders between exposed and unexposed children are provided. Research and clinical implications are discussed.