[Cognitive and gait dysfunction in the elderly caused by age-related cerebral small vessel disease and idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus: a case series of three patients].

Three cases with age-related cerebral small vessel disease and normal pressure hydrocephalus in the Department of Neurology of Sun Yat-sen University were retrospectively reviewed. All the patients exhibited gait disturbance, cognitive impairment and urinary incontinence. Meanwhile, the Craniocerebral imaging demonstrated cerebral small vessel disease and communicating hydrocephalus. The cerebralspinal fluid (CSF) Aß42 levels decreased, and apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotypes were ε3/ε4,ε3/ε3,ε2/ε3, respectively. After treatment in an all-cause individualized manner, the symptoms of 3 patients were stable or improved.

Rising horizon in circumventing multidrug resistance in chemotherapy with nanotechnology.

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is one of the key barriers in chemotherapy, leading to the generation of insensitive cancer cells towards administered therapy. Genetic and epigenetic alterations of the cells are the consequences of MDR, resulted in drug resistivity, which reflects in impaired delivery of cytotoxic agents to the cancer site. Nanotechnology-based nanocarriers have shown immense shreds of evidence in overcoming these problems, where these promising tools handle desired dosage load of hydrophobic chemotherapeutics to facilitate designing of safe, controlled and effective delivery to specifically at tumor microenvironment. Therefore, encapsulating drugs within the nano-architecture have shown to enhance solubility, bioavailability, drug targeting, where co-administered P-gp inhibitors have additionally combat against developed MDR. Moreover, recent advancement in the stimuli-sensitive delivery of nanocarriers facilitates a tumor-targeted release of the chemotherapeutics to reduce the associated toxicities of chemotherapeutic agents in normal cells. The present article is focused on MDR development strategies in the cancer cell and different nanocarrier-based approaches in circumventing this hurdle to establish an effective therapy against deadliest cancer disease.

Influence of angiotensin-converting enzyme insertion/deletion polymorphism on nitric oxide production in hypertensives and hypercholesterolaemics.

UNLABELLED: WHAT IS NEW AND OBJECTIVE: Some evidence suggests that angiotensin-converting enzyme insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism may play a role in endothelium-dependent vasodilatation. However, the impact of I/D polymorphism on endogenous nitric oxide production, which may be of great therapeutic significance, has scarcely been studied. This study aimed to investigate this in hypertensives and hypercholesterolaemics. METHODS: Adult Han subjects were recruited by cluster sampling from two communities in Shunde, Guangdong province, China. Plasma nitrite and nitrate (NO(x)) levels were determined by colorimetry assay and angiotensin II and 6-keto-prostaglandin F1-alpha by radioimmunoassay. Angiotensin-converting enzyme gene I/D polymorphism were genotyped by polymer chain reaction-amplified fragment length polymorphism. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Of the 779 subjects who met our inclusion criteria, 502 were with normotensive and normocholesterolaemic, 76 had hypertension only, 146 hypercholesterolaemia only, and 55 had both hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia. Among subjects with hypertension only, the plasma levels of NO(x) for genotype DD were significantly lower than those for genotype II (P = 0·034). And the plasma levels of NO(x) for genotype DD was significantly higher than those for genotype II (P = 0·040) in subjects with hypercholesterolaemia only. WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that I/D polymorphism has an impact on in vivo NO production in hypertensives and hypercholesterolaemics at the population level. Hypertensives with allele D may be benefit from L-arginine supplementation and hypercholesterolaemics with allele D may respond better to statins or antioxidants.

[Relationship of serum lipids, apolipoproteins and sex hormones with coronary heart disease in postmenopausal women].

The study was carried out in 25 postmenopausal women with coronary heart disease (CHD) and 25 matched controls. Age, menopausal time, body mass index, hypertension, smoking and occupation in CHD were not different from those in the control group. Serum lipids, apolipoproteins (apo), sex hormones and gonadotropin hormones were measured. Serum TG and apo AI/apoB100 ratio increased more significantly in CHD than in the control group. Serum apo A II decreased more significantly in CHD than in the control group. Other serum factors in CHD were not significantly different from those in the control group. Matched logistic regression analysis showed that serum TG and apo A I were probable risk factor, serum apo A II was a protected factor of CHD, and all of them were important predictors for CHD in postmenopausal women. Our results suggest that sex hormones seem to have important effects on the occurrence of CHD by esterone (E1) and progesterone (P) interrupting serum lipid and apolipoprotein metabolism. Serum E1 is related with TG, P is positively related with apo B100.

Surgical thyroparathyroidectomy of the rabbit.

Previous studies in the rabbit suggest resistance to parathyroid hormone (PTH) despite the reported presence of PTH-sensitive adenylate cyclase activity in renal cortical slices and tubules. The lack of response may reflect difficulties with complete parathyroidectomy in this species, which has been reported to possess 32 accessory glands. Aided by systematic histology of tissues extirpated during exploration, we tested the hypothesis that the rabbit possesses only four functional parathyroid glands and that the rabbit kidney is sensitive to the expected physiological actions of endogenous PTH. In all rabbits studied, only four glands could be identified histologically, two within the thyroids and two located in the fascial plane between the sternohyoid and sternothyroid muscles and the carotid artery. Surgical thyroparathyroidectomy markedly reduced serum Ca (6.3 vs. 10.6 mg/dl in sham-operated controls), increased the clearance (C) (3.51 vs. 0.78 ml/min) and fractional excretion (FE) of Ca (44.5 vs. 8.3%) while decreasing CP (1.14 vs. 2.40 ml/min), FEP (14.8 vs. 29.9%) and adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) excretion (341 vs. 760 pmol/min). These findings demonstrate the feasibility of using the described techniques for complete parathyroidectomy in the rabbit. Furthermore, they document the presence of only four functioning parathyroid glands and the renal sensitivity to endogenous PTH in this species.