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Background: Thrombus formed in blood vessels lead to atherothrombotic diseases such as myocardial or cerebral infarction. Thrombolytic agents are used to dissolve the already formed clots in the blood vessels; however, these drugs sometimes cause serious and fatal consequences. Herbal preparations have been used since ancient times for the treatment of several diseases although they show little toxicity in some cases. Aqueous extracts of herbs used in thrombolysis have been reported before with cytotoxic data, however, the organic extracts of herbs have not been documented. This study aims to investigate whether organic extracts possess thrombolytic properties with minimal or no toxicity. Methods: An in vitro thrombolytic model was used to check the clot lysis effect of six Bangladeshi herbal extracts viz., Ageratum conyzoides L., Clausena suffruticosa, Leea indica (Burm.f.) Merr., Leucas aspera Willd., Senna sophera L. Roxb., and Solanum torvum Swartz. using streptokinase as a positive control and water as a negative control. Briefly, venous blood drawn from twenty healthy volunteers was allowed to form clots which were weighed and treated with the test plant materials to disrupt the clots. Weight of clot after and before treatment provided a percentage of clot lysis. Cytotoxicity was screened by brine shrimp lethality bioassay using vincristine sulfate as positive control. Results: Using an in vitro thrombolytic model, Ageratum conyzoides, Clausena suffruticosa, Leea indica, Leucas aspera, Senna sophera and Solanum torvum showed 18.12 ± 2.34%, 48.9 ± 2.44%, 39.30 ± 0.96%, 37.32 ± 2.00%, 31.61 ± 2.97% and 31.51 ± 0.57% and clot lysis respectively. Among the herbs studied Clausena suffruticosa, Leea indica and Leucas aspera showed very significant (p < 0.0001) percentage (%) of clot lysis compared to reference drug streptokinase (75.00 ± 3.04%). In brine shrimp cytotoxic assay, the extracts Ageratum conyzoides, Clausena suffruticosa, Leea indica, Leucas aspera, Senna sophera and Solanum torvum showed LC 50 values 508. 86 ± 6.62,41.16 ± 1.26, 2.65 ± 0.16, 181.67 ± 1.65, 233.37 ± 7.74 and 478.40 ± 3.23 μg/ml, respectively, with reference to vincristine sulfate (LC 50 0.76 ± 0.04). Conclusion: Through our study it was found that Clausena suffruticosa, Leea indica and Leucas aspera possessed effective thrombolytic properties whereas Senna sophera and Solanum torvum showed moderate to mild thrombolytic effects while Ageratum conyzoides showed no significant effect. No extract was found cytoxic compared to positive control. Clausena suffruticosa, Leea indica and Leucas aspera could be incorporated as a thrombolytic agent with in vivo effects to improve the atherothrombotic patients. However, Clausena suffruticosa could be the best one to use in this purpose.

BackgroundMajor depressive disorder (MDD) is a disabling health problem with a very high global prevalence and burden. Alteration of inflammatory markers in depression is of growing interest to many psychiatry researchers. This study aimed to examine the serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in MDD patients to find out their association with depression.Materials and methodsThe present study recruited 88 MDD patients and 86 control subjects matched by age, gender, and body mass index (BMI). The Hamilton depression rating scale (Ham-D) was used on all patients to measure their severity of depression. Serum levels of IL-6 and CRP were analyzed by commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits (Abcam, Cambridge, MA, USA).ResultsThe mean values of serum levels of IL-6 and CRP were 2.94 ± 0.12 pg/mL and 0.99 ± 0.02 mg/L for the patient group and 2.42 ± 0.21 pg/mL and 1.09 ± 0.06 mg/L for the control group, respectively. We found significantly elevated concentrations of serum IL-6 in MDD patients compared with control subjects (p < 0.001). However, the alteration of serum CRP levels was not significant between the groups (p = 0.126). Ham-D scores of patients were positively correlated with serum IL-6 (r = 0.552; p = 0.004) and CRP (r = 0.621; p < 0.001) levels. Moreover, serum IL-6 and CRP levels were observed to be positively correlated (r = 0.452; p = 0.043) with each other in depression.ConclusionsThe present study suggests that increased serum IL-6 level might be a contributing factor to the pathogenesis of depression.

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Background: The alterations of biological markers are thought to be effective tools to understand the pathophysiology and management of major depressive disorder (MDD). A lot of researches has implied many markers for depression, but any of them fully discovered the association between the markers and depression. The present study investigated the serum levels of amino acids and non-enzymatic antioxidants in major depression, and also explained their association with depression. Methods: This study examined 247 MDD patients and 248 healthy controls (HCs) matched by age and sex. The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (Ham-D) was used to all the participants to measure the severity of depression. Quantification of serum amino acids, vitamin A and E were carried out using the HPLC system whereas vitamin C levels were measured by UV-spectrophotometer. All the statistical analysis was performed by SPSS statistical software (version 23.0). The independent sample t-test, the Mann-Whitney U test, and the Fisher's exact test were applied to detect the group differences where a Bonferroni correction applied to the p value. Results: It was observed that serum levels of four amino acids (methionine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, and tyrosine) along with three non-enzymatic antioxidants (vitamin A, E, and C) were significantly dropped in MDD patients compared to HCs (Cohen's d (d): − 0.45, − 0.50, − 0.68, − 0.21, − 0.27, − 0.65, and − 0.24, respectively). Furthermore, Ham-D scores of cases were negatively correlated with serum levels of methionine (r = − 0.155, p = 0.015) and tyrosine (r = − 0.172, p = 0.007). Conclusion: The present study suggests that lowered serum methionine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, tyrosine, and nonenzymatic antioxidants are associated with depression. The reduction of these parameters in MDD patients may be the consequence, and not the cause, of major depression.

We investigated the effects of two commercial diatomaceous earth based insecticides (DE), Protect-It Ò and SilicoSec Ò , the nano-structured silica product AL06, developed by the section for Urban Plant Ecophysiology at Humboldt University Berlin, and the monoterpenoids, eugenol, and cinnamaldehyde on two stored product pests, Callosobruchus maculatus and Sitophilus oryzae. ProtectIt Ò was more effective than SilicoSec Ò against C. maculatus while the reverse was true for S. oryzae. Generally C. maculatus was more sensitive towards DE and silica treatment than S. oryzae. Mortality rate of both pest species increased when DE's were applied to food commodities previously treated with a monoterpenoid. In admixture experiments, the toxicity of SilicoSec Ò ? cinnamaldehyde (LD 50 = 42.73 ppm), SilicoSec Ò ? eugenol (LD 50 = 24.30 ppm), and Protect-It Ò ? eugenol (LD 50 = 2.60 ppm) was increased over DE alone against S. oryzae. Both substances showed a synergistic effect considering their co-toxicity coefficient relative to the LD 50 -value. In contrast, we could not find any synergistic effects in experiments with C. maculatus. Here only Protect-It Ò ? cinnamaldehyde (LD 50 = 20.84 ppm) showed an additive effect while all other combinations of monoterpenoid and DE indicated antagonistic effects. In addition to contact insecticidal effects both monoterpenoids showed a strong fumigant action. The presented results indicate that the natural product DE has great potential to replace synthetic pesticides commonly used in stored product pest management. Efficacy of DE can be improved by adding certain monoterpenoids against certain insect pests.

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