Vitamin D is necessary for maintaining and regulating calcium levels; thus, insufficiency of vitamin D increases the risk of many chronic diseases. This study aimed to examine vitamin D levels among Jordanian and Iraqi volunteers and find the relation between vitamin D level and lipid profile patients. Vitamin D levels were evaluated using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. For young healthy group subjects, vitamin D levels were 20.60 ± 5.94 ng/mL for Jordanian and 27.59 ± 7.74 ng/mL for Iraqi. Vitamin D concentrations for young males and females were 25.82 ± 8.33 ng/mL and 21.95 ± 6.39 ng/mL, respectively. Females wearing hijab were 20.87 ± 6.45 ng/mL, while uncovered females were 23.55 ± 6.04 ng/mL. For >40 years Iraqi subjects, vitamin D level for healthy was 29.78 ± 9.49 ng/mL and 23.88 ± 7.93 ng/mL for hyperlipidemic subjects. Vitamin D levels for overweight and obese healthy groups were significantly higher (P < 0.050) than those for the hyperlipidemic patients groups. Vitamin D levels for males were significantly higher than females and were significantly higher for healthy than those hyperlipidemic Iraqi patients. These findings showed that vitamin D levels are affected by age, nationality, gender, and health statues and highlight the importance of vitamin D supplementation for groups with low levels particularly old, hijab wearing females, and hyperlipidemic groups.

The kinetics of decomposition of N-chloro derivatives of the following amino acids have been studied in phosphate buffer solution in the pH range 6-1 3: glycine, alanine, 2-aminoisobutyric acid, N-methylglycine, N-methylalanine, 2-(methylamino)isobutyric acid, proline, N-methylvaline, valine, isoleucine, and L-tert-leucine. The rates of decomposition of N-chloro-a-amino acids were found to be independent of the initial concentrations, ionic strengths, buffer concentrations and pH in the studied range. The first-order rate constants were found to increase as the relative permittivity decreased. The decomposition of N-chloroamino acids was followed by either a spectrophotometric method or an iodometric method, and in some cases the reaction was monitored by determining the rate of CO, evolution. The three methods gave results that were in good agreement. The effects of both a-carbon substitution and N-substitution on the rate of decomposition were investigated. All the kinetic data obtained appear to be consistent with a concerted mechanism in which dechlorination and decarboxylation take place concomitantly, resulting in the formation of an imine intermediate via an imine-like transition state. The imine may then be hydrolysed to the corresponding aldehyde or ketone, and amine. The kinetic data suggest that factors which influence the stability of the imine-like transition state affect the rate of decomposition of the N-chloro amino acid. The data from the decomposition of N-chloro amino acids may be useful in designing chemically stable, biodegradable germicidal agents.N-Chloro-a-amino acids are not generally stable in solution but readily decompose to ammonia, carbon dioxide, chloride ion, and carboxyl products. Several studies have focused on the mechanism of decomposition of N-chloro-a-amino acids.'-6 Fox and Bullock' have put forward a mechanism which involves initial loss of the a-proton followed by dechlorination of the intermediate carbanion, while Becker and Grob suggest that decomposition occurs with concomitant decarboxylation and N-dechlorination via an E,-like mechanism. Recent studies by Hand and Margerum4 appear to support this latter mechanism. We now describe some detailed structure-activity studies carried out on N-and C-a-substituted N-chloro-a-amino acids which were designed to determine in more detail the nature of mechanism of decomposition of N-chloro-a-amino acids.

Cmax values for enalapril are about 10 times those published in the literature and the rate and extent of absorption of the two brands of enalapril and their deesterification to enalaprilat following the administration of either brand were bioequivalent. Secondly, enalaprilat concentrations at 12-24 h following a single oral dose of enalapril in healthy volunteers were lower than those reported in the literature. The values reported here correlated with the return of blood pressure to predose level. Thirdly, enzyme immunoassays for enalapril and enalaprilat are better than ACE inhibition assays and can be used in bioequivalence assessment of enalapril and enalaprilat and for therapeutic drug monitoring in a clinical laboratory setting.

Two new proanthocyanidin trimers have been isolated from Cistus incanus herb; gallocatechin-(4α→6)-gallocatechin-(4α→8)-gallocatechin (compound 1) and epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate-(4ß→8)-epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate-(4ß→8)-gallocatechin (compound 2). The structures were determined on the basis of 1D- and 2D-NMR (HSQC, HMBC) of their peracetylated derivatives, MALDI-TOF-MS and by acid-catalysed degradation with phloroglucinol. A more abundant proanthocyanidin oligomer was also isolated, purified and its chemical constitution studied by (13)C-NMR and phloroglucinol degradation. The mean molecular weight of the polymer was estimated to be about 7 to 8 flavan-3-ol-units with a ratio of procyanidin : prodelphinidin units at 1:5, some of which are derivatised by gallic acid. Water extract and higher oligomeric proanthocyanidin fractions of C. incanus significantly inhibited TPA-induced oedema when applied topically at doses of 0.5 and 1 mg/ear in mice. Furthermore, the extracts and the pure compounds inhibited COX-1 and COX-2 activities. In addition, compound 2 exhibited an IC50 of 4.5 μM against COX-2 indicating its high selectivity towards COX-2.

The combination of cytotoxic drugs with immunotherapy should be more effective than monotherapy alone since both therapeutic modalities may target different mechanisms. In addition, combination therapy may reduce adverse events associated with cytotoxic drugs. Eriobotrya japonica hydrophilic butanol-treated extract (EJWR) was found to modulate cytokines by enhancing IL-12, IFN-γ and TNF-α in vitro and in vivo and within tumor microenvironment. This was associated with enhancing survival time of mice bearing intra-peritoneal MCA fibrosarcoma (MCA FS).In the present work, we evaluated the combination of EJWR with doxorubicin (Dox) on MCA FS cytotoxicity using 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide reduction assay in the absence and presence of spleen cells or Natural Killer (NK) lymphocytes from tumor bearing mice. The results showed that Dox exhibited mild cytotoxicity to healthy spleen cells and EJWR reversed such cytotoxicity. In addition, increasing concentrations of Dox induced 40% (p<0.01) MCA FS cytotoxicity. This percent increased significantly to 60% at Dox 5 µM when co-cultured with NK cells from tumor bearing mice and increased further to 80% (p<0.01) when Dox was combined with EJWR. The latter increase in cytotoxicity was significantly (p<0.01) higher than each agent alone. This enhancement was associated with significant production of TNF-α and retaining IFN-γ levels from NK cells lysates. This concluded that the immunomodulator, EJWR, mediates NK activation and enhances Dox-induced MCA FS cytotoxicity.