ABSTRACT
A 21-year-old woman was admitted to the emergency department (ED) with severe sepsis. Both the mechanism of infection and organisms discovered were unusual.
Subject(s)
Malingering/psychology , Opioid-Related Disorders/psychology , Sepsis/drug therapy , Staphylococcal Infections/drug therapy , Analgesics, Opioid/adverse effects , Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use , Antifungal Agents/administration & dosage , Ciprofloxacin/therapeutic use , Echinocandins/administration & dosage , Emergency Service, Hospital , Female , Fluconazole/therapeutic use , Humans , Lipopeptides/administration & dosage , Micafungin , Sepsis/etiology , Young AdultSubject(s)
Electrocardiography , Tachycardia/etiology , Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome/complications , Adult , Catheter Ablation/methods , Female , Heart Atria/diagnostic imaging , Heart Atria/pathology , Humans , Tachycardia/diagnostic imaging , Tachycardia/therapy , Treatment Outcome , Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome/diagnostic imaging , Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome/therapyABSTRACT
Rabdosia rubescens is a herbal root extract of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) used to treat inflammatory diseases and oral cancers. A key principle of TCM is that multiple ingredients in a plant extract are more effective and less toxic than a single purified active ingredient or a purified drug derived from a plant product. Rabdosia rubescens extract (RRE) contains terpenoids and flavonoids, but the most active ingredient within the extract attributed to the inhibition of cancer is the kaurene diterpene, oridonin. In order to research synergy with a complete plant extract, the effects of RRE on the inhibition of prostate cancer cell proliferation were compared to the effects of pure oridonin alone in vitro. Three groups of 8 SCID mice bearing human prostate cancer xenografts (LAPC-4) were administered either RRE containing 0.02 mg/g oridonin, pure oridonin at a dose of 0.02 mg/g, or pure oridonin at a dose of 0.1 mg/g, by gavage for 5 days/week for 4 weeks. RRE and pure oridonin at 0.1 mg/g inhibited tumor growth to a similar extent, while oridonin at a dose of 0.02 mg/g did not. Therefore, in comparison to RRE, five times more pure oridonin was required to obtain equivalent prostate xenograft growth inhibition. Since the nuclear factor-κB signaling pathway and inflammation are implicated in prostate carcinogenesis, gene microarray analysis was conducted and demonstrated activation of genes by RRE that was not evident with oridonin treatment alone. This study demonstrated that genomic methods and xenograft studies are capable of demonstrating the benefits of the synergy of whole plant extracts rather than active ingredients isolated and purified as drugs.