Acetone extract from Streptoverticillium sp., a bacterium isolated from Brazilian Cerrado soil, induces anti-inflammatory activity in mice.

The Streptoverticillium sp. Z1 is an actinomycete isolated from the soil under Cerrado vegetation, the extract of this strain was investigated in nociceptive and inflammatory models. The Streptoverticillium extract (ExS) 50 and 100 mg/kg (s.c.) produced a significant inhibition of acetic acid-induced abdominal writhings thereby demonstrating an anti-nociceptive effect. In the tail flick test the ExS (s.c.) was inactive. This result implited that ExS does not contain opioid-like compounds with central analgesic properties. In the inflammatory models, ExS 100 and 200 mg/kg (s.c.) were able to inhibit the croton oil-induced ear edema and, ExS 200 and 500 mg/kg (s.c.) inhibited the leukocyte migration on the carrageenan-induced peritonitis. The phospholipase A2 enzymatic assay showed that the anti-inflammatory activity of ExS was not due to direct effect on phospholipase A2 activity. These data suggest that Streptoverticillium sp. produces metabolites with anti-inflammatory effect and that these metabolites are unable to directly inhibit phospholipase A2 enzyme.

Revisão crítica do uso de testes rápidos imunológicos para verificar o consumo de substâncias psicoativas / Critical review of immunological on-site drug-testing devices

In the last years, numerous on-site drug-testing devices have become avaiable world-wide. These tests are based on antigen-antibody reactions and their main feature is the fast results obtained by color visualization. With the increased popularity of on-site drug testing, matters of performance (sensitivity, specificity) and applicability of these tests have been raised by specialists. In the present paper, fundamentals and efficiency of on-site drug-testing devices are reviewed. The indications and limitations of these devices are also discussed...