Sleep-inducing effect of Passiflora incarnata L. extract by single and repeated oral administration in rodent animals.

Social cost of insomnia in modern society is gradually increasing. Due to various social phenomena and lifestyles that take away the opportunity of good quality of sleep, problems of insomnia cannot be easily figured out. Prescription of sleeping pills for insomnia patients can cause other inconveniences due to their side effects beyond their intended purposes. On the other hand, Passiflora incarnata L. (PI) has been widely used in South America for several centuries, showing effectiveness for sleep, sedation, anxiety, and so on in the civilian population. However, reports on the treatment efficacy of this herbal medicinal plant for insomnia patients through standardization as a sleeping agent have been very rare. Therefore, we obtained leaves and fruits of PI (8:2 by weight) as powder to prepare an extract. It was then applied to C6 rat glioma cells to quantitate mRNA expression levels of GABA receptors. Its sleep-inducing effect was investigated using experimental animals. PI extract (6 µg/ml) significantly decreased GABA receptors at 6 hr after treatment. Immobility time and palpebral closing time were significantly increased after single (500 mg/kg) or repeated (250 mg/kg) oral administration. In addition, blood melatonin levels were significantly increased in PI extract-treated animals after both single and repeated administrations. These results were confirmed through several repeated experiments. Taken together, these results confirmed that PI extract had significant sleep-inducing effects in cells and animals, suggesting that PI extract might have potential for treating human insomnia.

Improvement in neurogenesis and memory function by administration of Passiflora incarnata L. extract applied to sleep disorder in rodent models.

Recently, there have been reports that chronic insomnia acts as an insult in the brain, causing memory loss through the production of ROS, inflammation, and, Alzheimer's disease if persistent. Insomnia remains the leading cause of sleep disturbance and as such has serious implications for public health. Patients with Alzheimer's disease are also known to suffer from severe sleep disturbance. Meanwhile, vitexin is a key ingredient in Passiflora incarnata L (passion flower, PF) extract, which is known to help with sleep. This medicinal plant has been used as a folk remedy for sedation, anxiety and sleep since centuries ago, but the standardization work has not been done and the extent of the effect has not been clearly demonstrated. For this reason, we tried to test the possibility that repeated administration of PF could improve the memory by promoting hippocampal neurogenesis at the DBA/2 mice known have inherited sleep disorders, as well as preventive effects of Alzheimer's disease. Here, we found that vitexin, which is the main bioactive component of ethanol extracts from leaves and fruits (ratio; 8:2) of PF, confirmed the improvement of neurogenesis (DCX) of DBA/2 mice repeated PF oral administration by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and western blot analysis. PF-treated group showed increased the neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus compared with that of vehicle-treated group, but the inflammation markers Iba-1 (microglial marker) and COX-2 were inconsistent between the groups. However, we found COX-2 signal is essential for hippocampal neurogenesis according to the additional IHC experiments using COX-2 inhibitor and pIkappaB have shown. In addition, although prescription sleeping pills have been reported to show significant changes in appetite and metabolic rate from time to time, no changes in the feeding behavior, body weight, metabolic rate and body composition of the animals were observed by administration of PF. Interestingly, we found that short-term oral administration of PF displayed improved memory according to the water maze test. Quantitative analysis of Tau protein, which is a marker of Alzheimer's disease, was performed in the SD rats and DBA/2 mice by repeated PF oral administration and pTau/Tau values were significantly decreased in PF-treated group than vehicle-treated group. In conclusion, our results suggest that PF lead high hippocampal neurogenesis in the animals even in inherited sleep-disturbed animals. The increased hippocampal neurogenesis functionally enhanced memory and learning functions by repeated PF oral administration. These results identify PF as a potential therapy for enhancing memory functions and prevention of Alzheimer's disease through actions on the hippocampus.

Chronic Oral Administration of Tenebrio molitor Extract Exhibits Inhibitory Effect on Glucocorticoid Receptor Overexpression in the Hippocampus of Ovariectomy-Induced Estrogen Deficient Mice.

It has been reported that estrogen deficiency in female disrupts systemic endocrinologic regulatory mechanisms, finally leading to osteoporotic condition. Estrogen deficiency also down-regulates brain functions due to its deficits of its original roles in a number of neurological events. Therefore, it is necessary to find alternative materials that can prevent osteoporotic condition and maintain normal brain functions to correct such hormone deficiency. In the present study, we found that novel compounds originated from larvae of Tenebrio molitor (TM) possessed anti-osteoporotic effect. They could also prevent abnormal progressive brain function by deaccelerating enhanced HPA-axis negative feedback while maintaining neurogenesis in hippocampus. We daily administered TM to ovariectomized (OVX) ddY mice for 4 weeks and then performed histological and hormonal evaluations for its anti-osteoporotic effects. In addition, we investigated glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expression and neuroblast expression (DCX) in the hippocampal dentate gyrus morphologically by immunohistochemistry analysis. According to our results, TM has anti-osteoporotic effects. It also tends to bring interfered brain environment back to normal condition. These results suggest that TM might have anti-osteoporosis effect and enhancing effects on enrichment of environment in brain by being antidestroyed hormonal deficiency simultaneously. This is the first study to report that TM can be used as source of bioactive substance to prevent decreased neurogenesis and impaired HPA axis driven by high GR expression in the hippocampus in hormonal deficient female animals. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Anti-osteoporosis effect and stress resistance due to improved brain function caused by the ingestion of Tenebrio molitor extract were observed in postmenopausal women. T. molitor is available as a nutritional supplement for bone and brain health, which menopausal women need most.

Chronic oral administration of Passiflora incarnata extract has no abnormal effects on metabolic and behavioral parameters in mice, except to induce sleep.

Although the number of prescriptions and dependence on sleeping pills are increasing, the associations with unexpected abnormal behaviors and metabolic diseases caused by the overuse of sleeping pills are not well understood. In particular, such as abnormal eating-behavior and the occurrence of metabolic disorders caused by psychological unstable states are reported. For this reason, herbal medicine, which has not had such side effects in recent years, is attracting attention as an alternative medicine/food for sleeping inducer. We have used ethanol extracts from Passiflora incarnata (PI) to steadily obtain positive effects on sleep and brain microenvironment. However, as mentioned earlier, sleep-inducing efficacy can only be used safely if the behavioral and metabolic abnormalities do not appear. Thus, in this study, we used Phenomaster equipment to continuously monitor the movement, feeding, water consumption, gas changes, etc. in C57BL/6 mice at a dose of 500 mg/kg/day for 5 consecutive days with PI extract group compared with the control group. Before sacrifice, differences in body composition of mice were also compared. Monitoring of 24 h/5 days through the equipment showed no change in PI-treated group in anything except for significant decrease in blood melatonin levels and activity after PI administration. Taken together, the statistically insignificance of any behavioral and metabolic phenomenon produced by repeated treatment of PI are not only expected to have an accurate sleep effect, but are also free of side effects of the prescribed sleeping pills. This study has given us greater confidence in the safety of the PI extracts we use for sleep-inducer.

Verification with the utility of an established rapid assessment of brain safety for newly developed vaccines.

In the twenty-first century, high contagious infectious diseases such as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), FMD (Foot-and-Mouth Disease) and AI (Avian Influenza) have become very prevalent, causing treat harm to humans and animals in aspect of public health, and economical issues. The critical problem is that newly-reported infectious diseases that humans firstly experience are expected to continue to emerge, and these diseases will be spreading out rapidly. Therefore, rapid and safe supplies of effective vaccines are most pivotal to prevent the rapid prevalent of new infection, but international standards or assessing protocol the safety of urgent vaccines are not established well. In our previous study, since we established a module to assess the brain safety of urgent vaccines, therefore, it is necessary to verify that this established module for assessing brain safety could work effectively in commercially available two vaccines (one killed- and on live-vaccines). We compared the results of Evans blue (EB) assay and qPCR analysis by injection of two kinds of vaccines, PBS and Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) under the condition of the module previously reported. We confirmed that the brain safety test module for urgent vaccine we established is very reproducible. Therefore, it is believed that this vaccine safety testing method can be used to validate brain safety when prompt supply of a newly developed vaccines is needed.

X-ray as Irradiation Alternative for K562 Feeder Cell Inactivation in Human Natural Killer Cell Expansion.

BACKGROUND/AIM: γ-Irradiation has been proven to be the most effective method to inactivate K562 cells, but γ-irradiators are not available in some institutes. This study was designed to compare the effects of X-ray and γ-irradiation on K562 cells in natural killer (NK) cell expansion. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To expand NK cells, isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were co-cultured with γ-irradiated or X-ray-treated K562 cells plus IL-2 and IL-15. Characteristics of expanded NK cells were identified by flow cytometry. RESULTS: NK cell expansion rate tended be to lower in the X-ray-treated group (68.9±32.6) than the γ-irradiated group (78±28.7), but the difference was not significant (p=0.39). Furthermore, NK cell functions or receptor expression were similar in the two groups. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that X-ray treatment can be used as an alternative to γ-irradiation for K562 cells inactivation in human NK cell expansion.

Association analysis of the amino acid contents in rice.

The main objective of the present study was to identify simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers associated with the amino acid content of rice (Oryza sativa L.). SSR markers were selected by prescreening for the relationship to amino acid content. Eighty-four rice landrace accessions from Korea were evaluated for 16 kinds of amino acids in brown rice and genotyped with 25 SSR markers. Analysis of population structure revealed four subgroups in the population. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) patterns and distributions are of fundamental importance for genome-wide mapping associations. The mean r(2) value for all intrachromosomal loci pairs was 0.033. LD between linked markers decreased with distance. Marker-trait associations were investigated using the unified mixed-model approach, considering both population structure (Q) and kinship (K). A total of 42 marker-trait associations with amino acids (P < 0.05) were identified using 15 different SSR markers covering three chromosomes and explaining more than 40% of the total variation. These results suggest that association analysis in rice is a viable alternative to quantitative trait loci mapping and should help rice breeders develop strategies for improving rice quality.

Piezoelectric properties of poly(vinylidene fluoride) and carbon nanotube blends: beta-phase development.

In order to get poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) films containing high beta-phase content, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were blended with PVDF. For drawn samples, the content of piezoelectric beta-form crystal was increased with MWCNT addition due to the rapid crystallization rate offered by the nucleating action of MWCNT, but soon reached a plateau. Poling on the drawn samples helps additional beta-phase formation when the added MWCNT content was less than 0.2 wt%; at this MWCNT amount, almost pure beta-phase crystal was obtained. More MWCNT addition induced depolarization to reduce the beta-phase content. Undrawn samples show monotonous increase of beta-phase content with MWCNT amount when subjected to poling.

Surface functionalization of a poly(vinylidene fluoride): effect on the adhesive and piezoelectric properties.

We studied the effect of the surface functionalization and crystalline phase change of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) films on their adhesion and piezoelectric properties. The surface modification of PVDF was carried out with ion beam and/or plasma treatment. These surface modifications were found to alter the interfacial strength between PVDF and metal electrodes and the crystal structure of the piezoelectric PVDF film. A remarkable improvement was found in the interfacial adhesion of the films with thermally deposited metal electrodes, but some piezoelectricity of PVDF film was lost due to the changes in the crystal phase. The proper treatment condition for enhancing the adhesion and retaining piezoelectric structure was suggested.