Sex-Driven Differences in the Effectiveness of Individualized Clinical Management of Alzheimer's Disease Risk.

BACKGROUND: The Comparative Effectiveness Dementia and Alzheimer's Registry (CEDAR) trial demonstrated that individualized, multi-domain interventions improved cognition and reduced the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). As biological sex is a significant risk factor for AD, it is essential to explore the differential effectiveness of targeted clinical interventions in women vs. men. METHODS: Patients were recruited from an Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic. Subjects with normal cognition, subjective cognitive decline, or asymptomatic preclinical AD were classified as "Prevention". Subjects with mild cognitive impairment due to AD or mild AD were classified as "Early Treatment." The primary outcome was the change from baseline to 18-months on the modified-Alzheimer's Prevention Cognitive Composite. Secondary outcomes included a cognitive aging composite, AD and cardiovascular (CV) risk scales, and serum biomarkers. Subjects who adhered to > 60% of recommendations in the CEDAR trial were included in this a priori sub-group analysis to examine whether individualized intervention effects were modified by sex (n=80). RESULTS: In the Prevention group, both women (p=0.0205) and men (p=0.0044) demonstrated improvements in cognition with no sex differences (p=0.5244). In the Early Treatment group, there were also no significant sex differences in cognition (p=0.3299). In the Prevention group, women demonstrated greater improvements in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis risk score (MESA-RS) than men (difference=1.5, p=0.0013). Women in the Early Treatment group demonstrated greater improvements in CV Risk Factors, Aging and Incidence of Dementia (CAIDE) risk score (difference=2.3, p=0.0067), and the MESA-RS (difference=4.1, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Individualized multi-domain interventions are equally effective at improving cognition in women and men. However, personally-tailored interventions led to greater improvements in calculated AD and CV risk, and CV blood biomarkers, in women compared to men. Future study in larger cohorts is necessary to further define sex differences in AD risk reduction in clinical practice.

A review of the potential of medicinal plants in the management and treatment of male sexual dysfunction.

Male sexual dysfunction is a common disorder that appears to be a consequence of a wide range of physical and psychological conditions. Due to mental stress, insufficient physical exercise and various aetiological factors, human being's life is becoming less pleasant, which leads to incapability to have sexual pleasure. The allopathic drugs used for sexual dysfunction are believed to produce a variety of side effects and affect other physiological processes and, ultimately, general health. Therefore, the search for natural supplement from medicinal plants is being intensified probably because of less side effects availability and affordability. Ethnobotanical surveys have indicated a large number of plants traditionally used as aphrodisiacs but only few of them are scientifically validated for the management and treatment of male sexual dysfunction. This article has summarised the medicinal plants traditionally recommended and scientifically validated for the management and treatment of male sexual dysfunction.

Insights into structural and functional diversity of Dof (DNA binding with one finger) transcription factor.

MAIN CONCLUSION: The structural, functional and in-silico studies of Dof transcription factor attempted so far reveals immense opportunity to analyze the plant genomes in terms of number of Dof genes and discuss in light of the evolution. The multiple functions of Dof genes needs to explored for crop improvement. Transcription factors play a very vital role in gene regulation at transcriptional level and are being extensively studied across phylas. In recent years, sequencing of plant genomes has led to genome-wide identification and characterizations of diverse types of plant-specific transcription factor gene family providing key insights into their structural and functional diversity. The DNA binding with one finger (Dof), a class belonging to C2H2-type zinc finger family proteins, is a plant-specific transcription factor having multiple roles such as seed maturation and germination, phytohormone and light-mediated regulation and plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. Dof proteins are present across plant lineage, from green algae to higher angiosperm, and represent a unique class of transcription factor having bifunctional binding activities, with both DNA and proteins, to regulate the complex transcriptional machinery in plant cells. The structural and functional diversity of the Dof transcription factor family along with the bioinformatics analysis highlighting the phylogeny of Dof families is reviewed in light of its importance in plant biotechnology for crop improvement.

Genome wide in silico characterization of Dof gene families of pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L) Millsp.).

The DNA binding with One Finger (Dof) protein is a plant specific transcription factor involved in the regulation of wide range of processes. The analysis of whole genome sequence of pigeonpea has identified 38 putative Dof genes (CcDof) distributed on 8 chromosomes. A total of 17 out of 38 CcDof genes were found to be intronless. A comprehensive in silico characterization of CcDof gene family including the gene structure, chromosome location, protein motif, phylogeny, gene duplication and functional divergence has been attempted. The phylogenetic analysis resulted in 3 major clusters with closely related members in phylogenetic tree revealed common motif distribution. The in silico cis-regulatory element analysis revealed functional diversity with predominance of light responsive and stress responsive elements indicating the possibility of these CcDof genes to be associated with photoperiodic control and biotic and abiotic stress. The duplication pattern showed that tandem duplication is predominant over segmental duplication events. The comparative phylogenetic analysis of these Dof proteins along with 78 soybean, 36 Arabidopsis and 30 rice Dof proteins revealed 7 major clusters. Several groups of orthologs and paralogs were identified based on phylogenetic tree constructed. Our study provides useful information for functional characterization of CcDof genes.

Synthesis and in vitro anti-bacterial evaluation of tetracyclic-ortho-fused 4H-naphtho[1',2'-5,6]pyrano[3,4-d](1,2,3)selenadiazole and its derivatives.

Synthesis of new heterocyclic compounds 3a-e containing naphthopyran and selenadiazole as the heterocyclic sub-units in the molecule is achieved using high yielding synthetic protocol. These molecules 3a-e have shown moderate anti-bacterial activity against some gram-positive and gram-negative bacterias.

Synthesis and in vitro antibacterial activity of novel heterocyclic derivatives of 18-nor-equilenin.

Syntheses of novel heterocyclic derivatives of 18-nor-equilenin, namely, (12H-11-oxa-17-thia-15-aza-cyclopenta[a]phenanthrene-16-yl)-hydrazine (4a/b) and its fused [1,2,4]triazolo derivatives6H-5-oxa-7-thia-8,9,10a-triaza-pentaleno[4,5-a]phenanthrene (5a/b), 10-methyl-6H-5-oxa-7-thia-8,9,10a-triaza-pentaleno[4,5-a]phenanthrene (6a/b) and tetrazolo derivatives 1-substituted-6H-5-oxa-7-thia-8,9,10,10a-tetraaza-pentaleno[4,5-a]phenanthrene (7a/b) along with their antibacterial activities are reported.