Search

Alzheimer's disease is a prevalent cause of dementia in the elderly population. The existing treatments in this issue are limited in efficacy besides having several adverse effects. Therefore, developing new therapeutic strategies is a major concern of scientists. This disease is closely linked to gut microflora through the brain–gut–microbiota axis. Targeting gut microbiota by pre-, pro-, and synbiotics supplementation can be effective for its treatment. Herein, we discuss the protecting effects of pre-, pro-, and synbiotics products against Alzheimer's disease based on comprehensive assessment of animal studies and performed clinical trials. Primarily, we briefly introduced involved pathogenesis, probable drug targets, and its correlation with gut microbiota. Subsequently, we debated preclinical and clinical research studies on the effect of pre-, pro-, and synbiotics agents on brain functionality, metabolic features, and biomarkers that are proven to have therapeutic effects. Searching the online databases revealed therapeutic capabilities of pre-, pro-, and synbiotics in Alzheimer's disease treatment by some mechanisms such as anti-oxidative stress, anti-inflammatory, prohibiting of apoptosis and DNA damage, insulin regulation, suppressing the aggregation of beta-amyloid (Aβ) and tau proteins, which can be considered as important outcomes of this application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: The extent and variety of chemicals in the compounds employed in nail salons can cause irreparable damages to the health of nail technicians. Because of the lack of attention to health risks in this industry compared to other industries, the present study was conducted to design a tool for a preliminary investigation of occupational symptoms caused by exposure to chemical compounds in nail salons in Tehran, Iran. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire was designed and validated by reviewing the literature and the opinions of experts in developing questions. The questionnaire was then distributed among the nail technicians, and finally, the data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 20). Results: In this study, the total values of content validity index and content validity ratio were calculated at 0.79 and 0.86, respectively. Regarding the reliability of the instrument, intraclass correlation coefficients in test-retest were estimated at 1.00, 0.98, 0.99, 1.00, 0.80, and (1.00, 1.00, 0.94), respectively for the dimensions of workplace information, personal characteristics and habits, information and knowledge of the used materials, and skin, eye, and respiratory symptoms (e.g., cough, bronchitis, breath shortness, and wheezing). Cronbach's alpha coefficient was higher than 0.70 for all dimensions, which was acceptable. The most common symptoms among the subjects were reported to be sneezing and itching skin lesions. Conclusion: The results indicated that the questionnaire had good validity and reliability for assessing occupational symptoms due to exposure to chemical compounds in nail salons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the effects of garlic on anxiety- and depression-related behaviors and brain oxidative markers in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes in rats. Fifty-six male Wistar rats were randomly divided into seven experimental groups (n = 8/group): control, diabetic + saline, diabetic + garlic, diabetic + imipramine, and diabetic + diazepam groups. Animals received garlic homogenate (0.1, 0.25, and 0.5 g/kg) for 10 days. At the end of the treatments, anxiety- and depressive-related behaviors were evaluated by elevated plus maze (EPM) and forced swimming test (FST), respectively. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were measured in the brain. Diabetic + garlic (0.5 g/kg) group showed lower anxiety- and- depressive-like behaviors as compared to the diabetic rats. Furthermore, garlic treatment (0.5 g/kg) attenuated MDA levels and enhanced SOD and GPx activities in the brain. Our findings indicate that garlic alleviates anxiety- and depression-related behaviors in the diabetic rats possibly by attenuation of brain oxidative stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Zingiber Officinale, commonly known as ginger, has been widely used traditionally in the daily diet and a variety of medicinal purposes. There are some animal studies on the hypotensive mechanism of ginger. The aim of this systematic review was to extract the evidence from all human participant randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials that have assessed the effects of ginger on the blood pressure (BP) of any population. Methods: Databases including Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, ISI Web of Science and also local databases including Sid, magiran, iranmedex were searched up to June, 2016 without language limitation. Relevant bibliographies were also searched. Titles and abstracts were assessed independently by two reviewers and full papers of relevant articles were obtained and assessed. Randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials on humans were enrolled in the review. Data extraction and risk of bias assessment were done by two reviewers independently and in a case of discrepancy final decision was made by the third reviewer. Meta-analysis was not possible because of heterogeneity of data and incomplete reporting of findings, thus results were synthesized narratively. Results: Initial searches yielded 60 articles. After analyzing full-text papers, 2 Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) met the inclusion criteria. A double blind RCT (n=70) compared the effect of ginger with placebo on cardiovascular risk factors in diabetic patients. There was no significant (p>0.05) effect on systolic nor diastolic pressure (Mean arterial blood pressure (MABP) changes was 0.1±1.1). A randomized three armed safety trial (n=60) studied the effects of 50 and 100mg/kg ginger and placebo in healthy subjects. 100 mg/kg dose significantly (p<0.05) lowered systolic BP from 114.3±3.22 mm Hg to 105.5±3.13 and diastolic BP from 73.3±3.35 mm Hg to 70.5±3.39 mm Hg within two hours. Conclusion: According to animal studies ginger has the potential to offer a natural alternative dietary supplementation to conventional anti-hypertensive agents, but still there is not enough evidence supporting this claim and current limited evidence is controversial. More human trials studying the effect of ginger on hypertensive patients using different dosage of a standardized extract are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]