scholarly journals Different Perspectives of Homeopathic Research Seal the Year 2021

Author(s):  
Leoni Bonamin

In this last 2021 issue, five articles are published concerning different aspects of homeopathic research, from a review of clinical studies on Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and the therapeutic potential of homeopathy to treat these cases (Dewan et al., 2021) to a detailed systematic analysis of nanoparticles suspended in homeopathic preparations (Van Wassenhoven et al., 2021). In between, some interesting reports can also be found, as a case report about the successful treatment of a rectum prolapse in a kitten in a period of a few days with no need of surgery (Makker and Arora, 2021); an opinion article (update article) reported the necessity to develop clinical studies on homeoprofilaxy of Covid-19 in which the key aspects of immunocompetence could be evaluated, such as the serum levels of cytokines, mainly those related to the systemic inflammatory syndrome such as IL-6, and of neutralizing IgG and IgM (Patil, 2021); and an original article about the physicochemical properties of a Covid-19 nosode, in which different patterns were described using spectrophotometric methods, resulting in an electronic signature of each potency (Kumar Singh et al., 2021).   Enjoy the reading and happy 2022 for us all!   IJHDR Editorial Team

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-15
Author(s):  
Christina N.  Katsagoni

The viral epidemic caused by the new Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for the new Coronavirus disease-2019 (Covid-19). Fifteen percent of the Covid-19 patients will require hospital stay, and 10% of them will need urgent respiratory and hemodynamic support in the intensive care unit (ICU). Covid-19 is an infectious disease characterized by inflammatory syndrome, itself leading to reduced food intake and increased muscle catabolism. Therefore Covid-19 patients are at high risk of being malnourished, making the prevention of malnutrition and the nutritional management key aspects of care. Urgent, brutal and massive arrivals of patients needing urgent respiratory care and artificial ventilation lead to the necessity to reorganize hospital care, wards and staff. In that context, nutritional screening and care may not be considered a priority. Moreover, at the start of the epidemic, due to mask and other protecting material shortage, the risk of healthcare givers contamination have led to not using enteral nutrition, although indicated, because nasogastric tube insertion is an aerosol-generating procedure. Clinical nutrition practice based on the international guidelines should therefore adapt and the use of degraded procedures could unfortunately be the only way. Based on the experience from the first weeks of the epidemic in France, we emphasize ten challenges for clinical nutrition practice. The objective is to bring objective answers to the most frequently met issues to help the clinical nutrition caregivers to promote nutritional care in the hospitalized Covid-19 patient. We propose a flow chart for optimizing the nutrition management of the Covid-19 patients in the non-ICU wards.


Biomedicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 615
Author(s):  
Shang-En Huang ◽  
Erna Sulistyowati ◽  
Yu-Ying Chao ◽  
Bin-Nan Wu ◽  
Zen-Kong Dai ◽  
...  

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative arthropathy that is mainly characterized by dysregulation of inflammatory responses. KMUP-1, a derived chemical synthetic of xanthine, has been shown to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Here, we aimed to investigate the in vitro anti-inflammatory and in vivo anti-osteoarthritis effects of KMUP-1. Protein and gene expressions of inflammation markers were determined by ELISA, Western blotting and microarray, respectively. RAW264.7 mouse macrophages were cultured and pretreated with KMUP-1 (1, 5, 10 μM). The productions of TNF-α, IL-6, MMP-2 and MMP- 9 were reduced by KMUP-1 pretreatment in LPS-induced inflammation of RAW264.7 cells. The expressions of iNOS, TNF-α, COX-2, MMP-2 and MMP-9 were also inhibited by KMUP-1 pretreatment. The gene expression levels of TNF and COX families were also downregulated. In addition, KMUP-1 suppressed the activations of ERK, JNK and p38 as well as phosphorylation of IκBα/NF-κB signaling pathways. Furthermore, SIRT1 inhibitor attenuated the inhibitory effect of KMUP-1 in LPS-induced NF-κB activation. In vivo study showed that KMUP-1 reduced mechanical hyperalgesia in monoiodoacetic acid (MIA)-induced rats OA. Additionally, KMUP-1 pretreatment reduced the serum levels of TNF-α and IL-6 in MIA-injected rats. Moreover, macroscopic and histological observation showed that KMUP-1 reduced articular cartilage erosion in rats. Our results demonstrated that KMUP-1 inhibited the inflammatory responses and restored SIRT1 in vitro, alleviated joint-related pain and cartilage destruction in vivo. Taken together, KMUP-1 has the potential to improve MIA-induced articular cartilage degradation by inhibiting the levels and expression of inflammatory mediators suggesting that KMUP-1 might be a potential therapeutic agent for OA.


2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (06) ◽  
pp. 1111-1125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Jahangir Hossen ◽  
Mi-Yeon Kim ◽  
Jae Youl Cho

Xanthium strumarium L. (Asteraceae), a traditional Chinese medicine, is prescribed to treat arthritis, bronchitis, and rhinitis. Although the plant has been used for many years, the mechanism by which it ameliorates various inflammatory diseases is not yet fully understood. To explore the anti-inflammatory mechanism of methanol extracts of X. strumarium (Xs-ME) and its therapeutic potential, we used lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated murine macrophage-like RAW264.7 cells and human monocyte-like U937 cells as well as a LPS/D-galactosamine (GalN)-induced acute hepatitis mouse model. To find the target inflammatory pathway, we used holistic immunoblotting analysis, reporter gene assays, and mRNA analysis. Xs-ME significantly suppressed the up-regulation of both the activator protein (AP)-1-mediated luciferase activity and the production of LPS-induced proinflammatory cytokines, including interleukin (IL)-1[Formula: see text], IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-[Formula: see text]. Moreover, Xs-ME strongly inhibited the phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 and U937 cells. Additionally, these results highlighted the hepatoprotective and curative effects of Xs-ME in a mouse model of LPS/D-GalN-induced acute liver injury, as assessed by elevated serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and histological damage. Therefore, our results strongly suggest that the ethnopharmacological roles of Xs-ME in hepatitis and other inflammatory diseases might result from its inhibitory activities on the inflammatory signaling of MAPK and AP-1.


2018 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 205873841881863
Author(s):  
Ming-wei Liu ◽  
Yun-qiao Huang ◽  
Ya-ping Qu ◽  
Dong-mei Wang ◽  
Deng-yun Tang ◽  
...  

Panax notoginseng saponins are extracted from Chinese ginseng— Panax notoginseng Ledeb—and are known to have therapeutic anti-inflammatory effects. However, the precise mechanism behind their anti-inflammatory effects remains relatively unknown. To better understand how Panax notoginseng saponins exert their therapeutic benefit, we tested them in a rat model of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). Rats received a tail vein injection of Panax notoginseng saponins and were administered 5% sodium taurocholate 2 h later. Pancreatic tissue was then harvested and levels of miR-181b, FSTL1, TREM1, TLR4, TRAF6, IRAK1, p-Akt, p-p38MAPK, NF-κBp65, and p-IκB-α were determined using Western blot and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays were used to determine serum levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), TREM1, interleukin (IL)-6, ACAM-1, IL-8, and IL-12 and DNA-bound levels of NF-KB65 and TLR4 in pancreatic and ileum tissue. Serum levels of lipase and amylase, pancreatic myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, and pancreatic water content were also measured. Hematoxylin and eosin staining was used for all histological analyses. Results indicated upregulation of miR-181b, but negligible levels of FSTL1, p-p38MAPK, TLR4, TRAF6, p-Akt, IRAK1, TREM1, p-NF-κBp65, and p-IκB-α, as well as negligible DNA-bound levels of NF-KB65 and TLR4. We also observed lower levels of IL-8, IL-6, ACAM-1, TNF-α, MPO, and IL-12 in the Panax notoginseng saponin–treated group when compared with controls. In addition, Panax notoginseng saponin–treated rats had significantly reduced serum levels of lipase and amylase. Histological analyses confirmed that Panax notoginseng saponin treatment significantly reduced taurocholate-induced pancreatic inflammation. Collectively, our results suggest that Panax notoginseng saponin treatment attenuated acute pancreatitis and pancreatic inflammation by increasing miR-181b signaling. These findings suggest that Panax notoginseng saponins have therapeutic potential in the treatment of taurocholate-induced SAP.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louben Dorval ◽  
Brian I. Knapp ◽  
Olufolake A. Majekodunmi ◽  
Sophia Eliseeva ◽  
Jean M Bidlack

As a result of the opioid epidemic, there is a desire to identify new targets for treating opioid use disorder. Previous studies showed that fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) decreased alcohol and sweet preference in mice. In this study, FGF21-transgenic (FGF21-Tg) mice, expressing high FGF21 serum levels, and wildtype (WT) C57BL/6J littermates were treated with morphine and saline to determine if differences exist in their physiological and behavioral responses to opioids. FGF21-Tg mice displayed reduced preference for morphine in the conditioned place preference assay compared to WT littermates. Similarly, FGF21-Tg mice had an attenuation of the magnitude and rate of acute morphine antinociceptive tolerance development, and acute and chronic morphine physical dependence, but exhibited no change in chronic morphine antinociceptive tolerance. The ED50 values for morphine-induced antinociception in the 55-degree C hot plate and the 55-degree C warm-water tail withdrawal assays were similar in both strains of mice. Likewise, FGF21-Tg and WT littermates had comparable responses to morphine-induced respiratory depression. Overall, FGF21-Tg mice had an attenuated preference for morphine, a reduced development of morphine-induced dependence, and a reduction in the development of acute morphine antinociceptive tolerance. FGF21 and its receptor have therapeutic potential for reducing opioid withdrawal symptoms and craving, and augmenting opioid therapeutics for acute pain treatment.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele M Ciulla ◽  
Patrizia Vivona

Clinical studies/trials are experiments or observations on human subjects considered by the scientific community the most appropriate instrument to answer specific research questions on interventions on health outcomes. The time-line of the observations might be focused on a single time point or to follow time, backward or forward, in the so called, respectively, retrospective and prospective study design. Since the retrospective approach has been criticized for the possible sources of errors due to bias and confounding, we aimed this study to assess if there is a prevalence of retrospective vs prospective design in the clinical studies/trials by querying MEDLINE. Our results on a sample of 1,438,872 studies/trials, (yrs 1960-2017), support a prevalence of retrospective, respectively 55% vs 45%. To explain this result, arandom sub-sample of studies where the country of origin was reported (n=1576) was categorized in high and low-income based onthe nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and matched with the topic of the research. As expected, the absolute majority of studies/trials are carried on by high-income countries, respectively 86% vs 14%; even if a slight prevalence of retrospective was recorded in both income groups, nonetheless the most part of prospective studies are carried out by high-GDP countries, 85% vs 15%. Finally the differences in the design of the study are understandable when considering the topic of the research.


2022 ◽  
pp. 156-170
Author(s):  
Yanamandra Ramakrishna

There has been an increasing awareness about implementation of quality management systems (QMS) in higher educational institutions worldwide in the recent past. Improved awareness levels among aspiring students, competitive environment, students' preference to seek admission in quality-oriented institutions, compelling norms of regulatory authorities, and the urge of institutions to be among the top are the major reasons for this increased awareness. Existence and continuance of some of the institutes, especially the management institutes, has become a challenging task without focusing on QMS through a strategic approach. Implementation of QMS provides a direction for accreditations by top-rated agencies. This chapter develops a framework to enable the implementation of QMS by the management institutes by conducting a systematic analysis of accreditation standards of various agencies worldwide. The outcomes of this research would enable the management and other stakeholders of business management institutes to focus on key aspects towards implementing the QMS.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 48-61
Author(s):  
Dilay Çelebi

Due to the rapid and increasing integration of national markets, more and more countries are adopting some form of a logistics development policy. Even though a key aspect of success in logistics systems improvement is an efficient performance management system, a systematic analysis of national logistics performance management systems has attracted limited attention in academic literature. In this article, the author constructs a conceptual framework model which focuses on a holistic and integrated model of national logistics performance management. The intention is to provide a tool which enables the correct deployment of national strategies to logistics policies and to present a template to help describing the key aspects of design and operation of national logistics performance management systems.


2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 153-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valdemar Grill ◽  
Anneli Björklund

Insulin secretion declines progressively before and during the course of type 2 diabetes. Evidence indicates that this process is, in part, secondary to increased requirement for insulin secretion that is brought about by insulin resistance and by hyperglycemia. The effects of over-secretion extend far beyond a mere reduction of available insulin stores and may cause not only functional but also structural damage. The time is ripe for clinical studies, which explore the therapeutic potential of reducing over-secretion.


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