Search results for "Drug synergism"
showing 10 items of 144 documents
Relaxation and cyclic GMP levels in response to sildenafil in human pulmonary arteries from donors.
2005
We measured cyclic GMP formation and relaxation response to sildenafil given either alone or in combination with sodium nitroprusside (SNP) in pulmonary arteries obtained from 13 multi-organ donors. Sildenafil (10(-9)-10(-4) M) caused concentration-dependent relaxations and amplified the relaxation induced by SNP. Relaxation was unaffected by endothelium removal or by pre-treatment with the inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase L-NMMA (10(-4) M). SNP (10(-7) M) caused elevation of cyclic GMP levels that was potentiated by sildenafil (10(-6) M). Thus, the enhancement of SNP-induced relaxation by sildenafil is mainly due to an increase in cyclic GMP accumulation.
Irinotecan (CPT-11) and Mitomycin-C (MMC) as Second-Line Therapy in Advanced Gastric Cancer
2005
Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the activity and toxicity of a combination regimen of CPT-11 and mitomycin-c as second-line chemotherapy for pretreated patients with advanced, metastatic, or both, gastric adenocarcinoma. Materials and methods Patients with pretreated metastatic disease or early relapsed after adjuvant chemotherapy were enrolled. Entry criteria included histologic/cytologic diagnosis of gastric adenocarcinoma, age 18 to 75 years, performance status > or =70 (Karnofsky scale), bi-dimensionally measurable disease. Patients received CPT-11 and mitomycin-c at the dosage of 150 mg/m2 on days 1 and 15, and 8 mg/m2 on day 1, respectively, every 4 weeks. The disease …
Add-on Antidepressants in the Naturalistic Treatment of Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder – When, Who, and How?
2017
Abstract The aim of this study was to evaluate antidepressant add-on treatment within the acute treatment of schizophrenia spectrum disorder patients. Antidepressant add-on was evaluated in 365 patients within a naturalistic multicenter study. Patients with/without antidepressant add-on were compared regarding clinical and treatment-related variables, response and remission, and remission of depressive and negative symptoms. The efficacy of antidepressant add-on treatment was furthermore analyzed applying marginal structure models. Twenty-three percent of the patients received antidepressant add-on for a mean duration of 50.28 (33.42) days. Patients with the diagnosis of a schizoaffective d…
Therapeutic synergism between hyaluronic acid and dexamethasone in the intra-articular treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee: a preliminary open st…
1992
In vitro studies on the effects of dexamethasone on human synovial cells have shown that with high concentrations of the steroid in the culture medium cellular activity was completely blocked whereas with low concentrations (10(-6)M), cellular density decreased but there was an increase in the synthesis of RNA, DNA, protein and hyaluronic acid. These data, coupled with clinical experience of using intra-articular hyaluronic acid to treat patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, prompted the investigators to carry out an open, randomized study of the use of very small doses of dexamethasone in association with hyaluronic acid in 40 osteoarthritic patients. Twenty patients received a weekly …
Aggressive Pharmacological Treatment for Reversing Malignant Bowel Obstruction
2004
Early and intensive pharmacological treatment not only may reduce gastrointestinal symptoms but also reverse malignant bowel obstruction. Fifteen consecutive advanced cancer patients with inoperable bowel obstruction received a combination of drugs including metoclopramide, octreotide, dexamethasone and an initial bolus of amidotrizoato. Recovery of intestinal transit was reported within 1-5 days in fourteen patients, who continued this treatment without presenting symptoms of bowel obstruction until death. This case series establishes that the combination of propulsive and antisecretive agents can act synergistically to allow a fast recovery of bowel transit without inducing unpleasant col…
Peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) mobilization with chemotherapy followed by sequential IL-3 and G-CSF administration in extensively pretreated patie…
1998
Extensive pretreatment has been identified as a significant risk factor for failure of sufficient PBSC mobilization. From published data and our own experience we defined pretreatment variables which render patients at risk for not collecting at least 2.5 x 10(6) CD34-positive cells per kg bodyweight (BW). These variables were previous unsuccessful PBSC mobilization trial, previous large field radiotherapy, four or more cycles of myelosuppressive chemotherapy regimens, and combinations of extended field radiotherapy plus chemotherapy. Based on these inclusion criteria we treated 19 patients with disease-specific conventional-dose chemotherapy followed by sequential subcutaneous administrati…
In vitro Analysis of Synergistic Effects of Fibrinolytic Agents and Prostacyclin Analogues
1997
We investigated the in vitro thrombolytic effects of streptoki-nase, urokinase, alteplase and saruplase, alone or in combination, with the prostacyclin analogues, iloprost and taprostene. Human platelet-rich plasma was stimulated with collagen (1 μg/ml) to generate thrombi containing platelets and fibrin. Following treatment with fibrinolytic agents, lysis was allowed to proceed for 30 min and was then terminated with aprotinin (2,000 ClU/ml). To evaluate the combinatory effects of fibrinolytic agents and prostacyclin analogues, we used concentrations of fibrinolytic agents which reduced thrombi weight by less than 50%. Neither iloprost nor taprostene alone demonstrated any thrombolytic eff…
Perinatal exposure to 5-methoxytryptamine, behavioural-stress reactivity and functional response of 5-HT1A receptors in the adolescent rat.
2008
Abstract Serotonin is involved in a wide range of physiological and patho-physiological mechanisms. In particular, 5-HT1A receptors are proposed to mediate stress-adaptation. The aim of this research was to investigate in adolescent rats: first, the consequences of perinatal exposure to 5-metoxytryptamine (5MT), a 5-HT1/5-HT2 serotonergic agonist, on behavioural-stress reactivity in elevated plus maze, open field and forced swim tests; secondly, whether the behavioural effects induced by perinatal exposure to 5MT on open field and forced swim tests were affected by the selective 5-HT1A receptor agonist LY 228729, a compound able to elicit a characteristic set of motor behaviours on these ex…
Anxiolytic-like effects of acute and chronic GABA transporter inhibition in rats.
2002
Acute GABA transporter inhibition can induce anxiolytic-like behaviors. The present analysis addressed whether chronic treatment (23 days via drinking water) with a GABA transporter inhibitor affects rat behavior similar to acute treatment and interferes with additional benzodiazepine-receptor agonistic treatment. Seventy-one rats divided into seven groups were acutely treated with either vehicle, diazepam (2 mg/kg), zolpidem (0.05 mg/kg), tiagabine (19 mg/kg) or chronically with tiagabine with or without acute diazepam or zolpidem. Animals were behaviorally characterized in an elevated plus-maze. None of the treatments induced changes in the activity of the animals. Acute and chronic treat…
The DNA methylation inhibitor 5-azacytidine modulates 6-thioguanine toxicity in mammalian cells
2003
In order to assess the effects of combining two antimetabolites used separately to treat human leukemias, we carried out an experimental study by exposing V79 Chinese hamster cells, a 6-thioguanine (6-tG)-sensitive cell line, to sequential and concurrent treatments with 5-azacytidine (5-azaC) and 6-tG. In this paper, we demonstrate that there is a clear dependency for the way in which this combination was tested. Pre-treatment with 5-azaC made V79 cells more resistant to 6-tG by a substantial reduction in 6-tG incorporation into DNA; this effect could still be detected for several cell divisions after the removal of 5-azaC, and was achieved neither by reduced cell growth nor by the inductio…