Search results for "encephalitis"

Traditional Chinese herbal medicine at the forefront battle against COVID-19: Clinical experience and scientific basis.

2020

Abstract Background Throughout the 5000-year history of China, more than 300 epidemics were recorded. Traditional Chinese herbal medicine (TCM) has been used effectively to combat each of these epidemics’ infections, and saved many lives. To date, there are hundreds of herbal TCM formulae developed for the purpose of prevention and treatment during epidemic infections. When COVID-19 ravaged the Wuhan district in China in early January 2020, without a deep understanding about the nature of COVID-19, patients admitted to the TCM Hospital in Wuhan were immediately treated with TCM and reported later with >90% efficacy. Approach We conducted conduct a systematic survey of various TCM herbal pre…

Severe meningo-/encephalitis after daclizumab therapy for multiple sclerosis.

2019

Background: Daclizumab is a monoclonal antibody that binds the high-affinity interleukin-2 receptor and was approved for the treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis. Due to severe inflammatory brain disorders, the approval was suspended in March 2018. Objective and Methods: This retrospective cohort study summarizes clinical, laboratory, radiological, and histological findings of seven patients who developed meningo-/encephalitis after daclizumab therapy. Results: Patients presented with encephalitis and/or meningitis and suffered from systemic symptoms such as fever (5/7), exanthema (5/7), or gastrointestinal symptoms (4/7). Secondary autoimmune diseases developed. Blood analysis reveale…

Predicting and mapping human risk of exposure to

2019

Background Tick-borne diseases have become increasingly common in recent decades and present a health problem in many parts of Europe. Control and prevention of these diseases require a better understanding of vector distribution. Aim Our aim was to create a model able to predict the distribution of Ixodes ricinus nymphs in southern Scandinavia and to assess how this relates to risk of human exposure. Methods We measured the presence of I. ricinus tick nymphs at 159 stratified random lowland forest and meadow sites in Denmark, Norway and Sweden by dragging 400 m transects from August to September 2016, representing a total distance of 63.6 km. Using climate and remote sensing environmental …

Monitoring of ticks and tick-borne pathogens through a nationwide research station network in Finland.

2020

In 2015 a long-term, nationwide tick and tick-borne pathogen (TBP) monitoring project was started by the Finnish Tick Project and the Finnish Research Station network (RESTAT), with the goal of producing temporally and geographically extensive data regarding exophilic ticks in Finland. In the current study, we present results from the first four years of this collaboration. Ticks were collected by cloth dragging from 11 research stations across Finland in May September 2015-2018 (2012-2018 in Seili). Collected ticks were screened for twelve different pathogens by qPCR: Borrelia afzelii, Borrelia garinii, Borrelia valaisiana, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Borrelia miyamotoi, Babesia sp…

GABA-containing compound gammapyrone protects against brain impairments in Alzheimer's disease model male rats and prevents mitochondrial dysfunction…

2018

Neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, decreased glucose/energy metabolism, and disrupted neurotransmission are changes that occur early in sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD), manifesting as mild cognitive impairment. Recently, the imbalanced function of the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) system was identified as a critical factor in AD progression. Thus, maintaining balance among neurotransmitter systems, particularly the GABA system, can be considered a beneficial strategy to slow AD progression. The present study investigated the effects of the compound gammapyrone, a molecule containing three GABA moieties: "free" moiety attached to the position 4 of the 1,4-dihydropyridine (DHP) ring, and…

2004

Immunotherapy in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) is rapidly becoming a hot topic of modern geriatric and clinical gerontology. Current views see immunization with Aβ peptide, the amyloidogenic protein found in senile plaque of AD patient's brains, or the infusion of preformed antibody specific for human Aβ, as possible therapeutic approaches to improve the cognitive status in the disease. Animal models of the disease have provided positive results from both approaches. Thus, an initial clinical trial using immunization with human Aβ in AD patients was started, but then shortly halted because of an unusually high incidence (6%) of meningoencephalitis. A long and currently ongoing deba…

Intermittent ethanol exposure induces inflammatory brain damage and causes long-term behavioural alterations in adolescent rats

2007

Adolescent brain development seems to be important for the maturation of brain structures and behaviour. Intermittent binge ethanol drinking is common among adolescents, and this type of drinking can induce brain damage. Because we have demonstrated that chronic ethanol treatment induces inflammatory processes in the brain, we investigate whether intermittent ethanol intoxication enhances cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in adolescent rats, and whether these mediators induce brain damage and cause permanent cognitive dysfunctions. Adolescent rats were exposed to ethanol (3.0 g/kg) for two consecutive days at 48-h intervals over 14 days. Levels of COX-2, iN…

Clinical, immunological, and molecular analysis in a large cohort of patients with X-linked agammaglobulinemia: an Italian multicenter study

2002

A questionnaire-based retrospective clinical and immunological survey was conducted in 73 males with a definite diagnosis of X-linked agammaglobulinemia based on BTK sequence analysis. Forty-four were sporadic and 29 familial cases. At December 2000, the patients' ages ranged from 2 to 33 years; mean age at diagnosis and mean duration of follow-up were 3.5 and 10 years respectively. After the mid-1980s all but 2 were on intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) substitution therapy, with residual IgG >500 mg/dl in 94% of the patients at the time of enrollment. Respiratory infections were the most frequent manifestation both prior to diagnosis and over follow-up. Chronic lung disease (CLD) was prese…

Features in tubercular meningoencephalitis diagnosis: 18 childhood cases

2008

The aim of this research is to illustrate clinical and instrumental features of central nervous system tuberculosis (CNS-TB) in childhood in order to allow prompt diagnosis and adequate patient management. TB remains one of the most important communicable diseases and represents a major global health problem. Although pulmonary TB tends to be the most common form of the disease, the highest mortality and morbidity occurs with TB of the central nervous system (CNS-TB), which develops in 4% of children with tuberculosis. It has a high fatality rate and causes serious sequelae, especially during childhood. CT and MR imaging studies of 18 patients (11 female, 7 male, mean age 45.72 months) were…

Severe complications of varicella in previously healthy children in Germany: a 1-year survey.

2001

Objective.Varicella is a common infectious disease, usually benign and self-limited, and complications are believed to be rare. The purpose of this study was to describe the epidemiology of severe varicella complications in immunologically healthy children in Germany.Methods.Information on any admission of children with a severe complication associated with chickenpox was solicited throughout 1997 from all 485 pediatric hospitals in Germany using an established surveillance system. The case definition included nonimmunocompromised individuals who were up to 16 years of age and hospitalized with neurologic complications, bacterial superinfections, or hematologic complications.Results.The res…