Search results for "acids"
showing 10 items of 3520 documents
Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia in Spain Prevalence and Phenotype-Genotype Relationship
2016
Background— Homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH) is a rare disease characterized by elevated plasma levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and extremely high risk of premature atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. HoFH is caused by mutations in several genes, including LDL receptor ( LDLR ), apolipoprotein B ( APOB ), proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 ( PCSK9 ), and LDL protein receptor adaptor 1 ( LDLRAP1 ). No epidemiological studies have assessed HoFH prevalence or the clinical and molecular characteristics of this condition. Here, we aimed to characterize HoFH in Spain. Methods and Results— Data were collected from the Spanish Dyslipidemia Regist…
Daptomycin for children in clinical practice experience
2016
Data on daptomycin use in the pediatric setting are scanty. We conducted a multicenter, retrospective study on 46 children treated with intravenous daptomycin at a mean dosage of 7.0 mg/kg/d, for a median of 14 days. Three children had adverse events possibly related to daptomycin. The drug was overall well tolerated, even with prolonged treatment.
Comparative Study of the Effects Exerted by N-Valproyl-L-Phenylalanine and N-valproyl-L-tryptophan on CA1 Hippocampal Epileptiform Activity in Rat
2018
Background: The research on the improvement of epilepsy therapy is constantly growing. Valproyl-LPhenylalanine (VPA-Phen) and N-valproyl-L-tryptophan (VPA-Tryp) were synthesized to increase the antiepileptic efficacy of valproic acid. Methods: VPA-Phen and VPA-Tryp were comparatively tested on CA1 hippocampal epileptiform bursting activity obtained by increasing potassium and lowering calcium and magnesium concentrations in the fluid perfusing rat brain slices. Each slice was treated with a single concentration (0.2, 0.5, 1 mM) of VPA-Phen or VPA-Tryp. Both burst duration and interburst frequency, during and after treatment, were off-line compared with baseline values. For both parameters,…
Stable Oxidative Cytosine Modifications Accumulate in Cardiac Mesenchymal Cells From Type2 Diabetes Patients
2018
Rationale: Human cardiac mesenchymal cells (CMSCs) are a therapeutically relevant primary cell population. Diabetes mellitus compromises CMSC function as consequence of metabolic alterations and incorporation of stable epigenetic changes. Objective: To investigate the role of α-ketoglutarate (αKG) in the epimetabolic control of DNA demethylation in CMSCs. Methods and Results: Quantitative global analysis, methylated and hydroxymethylated DNA sequencing, and gene-specific GC methylation detection revealed an accumulation of 5-methylcytosine, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, and 5-formylcytosine in the genomic DNA of human CMSCs isolated from diabetic donors. Whole heart genomic DNA analysis reveale…
Polyphenol intake and cardiovascular risk factors in a population with type 2 diabetes: The TOSCA.IT study
2017
Background: The role of polyphenol intake on cardiovascular risk factors is little explored, particularly in people with diabetes. Aim: To evaluate the association between the intake of total polyphenols and polyphenol classes with the major cardiovascular risk factors in a population with type 2 diabetes. Methods: Dietary habits were investigated in 2573 males and females participants of the TOSCA.IT study. The European Prospective Investigation on Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) questionnaire was used to assess dietary habits. In all participants, among others, we assessed anthropometry, plasma lipids, blood pressure, C-reactive protein and HbA1c following a standard protocol. The USDA and Ph…
The desert gerbil Psammomys obesus as a model for metformin-sensitive nutritional type 2 diabetes to protect hepatocellular metabolic damage: Impact …
2017
Introduction While metformin (MET) is the most widely prescribed antidiabetic drug worldwide, its beneficial effects in Psammomys obesus (P. obesus), a rodent model that mimics most of the metabolic features of human diabetes, have not been explored thoroughly. Here, we sought to investigate whether MET might improve insulin sensitivity, glucose homeostasis, lipid profile as well as cellular redox and energy balance in P. obesus maintained on a high energy diet (HED). Materials and methods P. obesus gerbils were randomly assigned to receive either a natural diet (ND) consisting of halophytic plants (control group) or a HED (diabetic group) for a period of 24 weeks. MET (50 mg/kg per os) was…
Lean NAFLD: A Distinct Entity Shaped by Differential Metabolic Adaptation
2020
Background and Aims: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) affects a quarter of the adult population. A significant subset of patients are lean, but their underlying pathophysiology is not well understood. Approach and Results: We investigated the role of bile acids (BAs) and the gut microbiome in the pathogenesis of lean NAFLD. BA and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) 19 levels (a surrogate for intestinal farnesoid X receptor [FXR] activity), patatin-like phospholipase domain containing 3 (PNPLA3), and transmembrane 6 superfamily member 2 (TM6SF2) variants, and gut microbiota profiles in lean and nonlean NAFLD were investigated in a cohort of Caucasian patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD (n …
Normalization with Corresponding Naïve Tissue Minimizes Bias Caused by Commercial Reverse Transcription Kits on Quantitative Real-Time PCR Results
2016
Real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the gold standard for expression analysis. Designed to improve reproducibility and sensitivity, commercial kits are commonly used for the critical step of cDNA synthesis. The present study was designed to determine the impact of these kits. mRNA from mouse brains were pooled to create serial dilutions ranging from 0.0625 μg to 2 μg, which were transcribed into cDNA using four different commercial reverse-transcription kits. Next, we transcribed mRNA from brain tissue after acute brain injury and naïve mice into cDNA for qPCR. Depending on tested genes, some kits failed to show linear results in dilution series and revealed s…
Myristic acid is associated to low plasma HDL cholesterol levels in a Mediterranean population and increases HDL catabolism by enhancing HDL particle…
2016
Background: HDL-C plasma levels are modulated by dietary fatty acid (FA), but studies investigating dietary supplementation in FA gave contrasting results. Saturated FA increased HDL-C levels only in some studies. Mono-unsaturated FA exerted a slight effect while poly-unsaturated FA mostly increased plasma HDL-C. Aims: This study presents two aims: i) to investigate the relationship between HDL-C levels and plasma FA composition in a Sicilian population following a "Mediterranean diet", ii) to investigate if FA that resulted correlated with plasma HDL-C levels in the population study and/or very abundant in the plasma were able to affect HDL catabolism in an "in vitro" model of cultured hep…
Proprotein Convertase Subtilisin Kexin Type 9 Inhibition for Autosomal Recessive Hypercholesterolemia—Brief Report
2016
Objective— Proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in the vast majority of patients with autosomal dominant familial hypercholesterolemia. Will PCSK9 inhibition with monoclonal antibodies, in particular alirocumab, be of therapeutic value for patients with autosomal recessive hypercholesterolemia (ARH)? Approach and Results— Primary lymphocytes were obtained from 28 genetically characterized ARH patients and 11 controls. ARH lymphocytes treated with mevastatin were incubated with increasing doses of recombinant PCSK9 with or without saturating concentrations of alirocumab. Cell surface LDL receptor expression measured…