Oxidative stress (OS) is considered as one of the etiologic factors involved in several signals and symptoms of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) that include diarrhea, toxic megacolon and abdominal pain. This systematic review discusses approaches, challenges and perspectives into the use of nontraditional antioxidant therapy on IBD, including natural and synthetic compounds in both human and animal models. One hundred and thirty four papers were identified, of which only four were evaluated in humans. Some of the challenges identified in this review can shed light on this fact: lack of standardization of OS biomarkers, absence of safety data and clinical trials for the chemicals and biological molecules, as well as the fact that most of the compounds were not repeatedly tested in several situations, including acute and chronic colitis. This review hopes to stimulate researchers to become more involved in this fruitful area, to warrant investigation of novel, alternative and efficacious antioxidant-based therapies.

Antioxidant therapy for treatment of inflammatory bowel disease: Does it work?

Probiotics and synbiotics are used to treat chronic diseases, principally due to their role in immune system modulation and the anti-inflammatory response. The present study reviewed the effects of probiotics and synbiotics on intestinal chronic diseases in in vitro, animal, and human studies, particularly in randomized clinical trials. The selected probiotics exhibit in vitro anti-inflammatory properties. Probiotic strains and cell-free supernatants reduced the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines via action that is principally mediated by toll-like receptors. Probiotic administration improved the clinical symptoms, histological alterations, and mucus production in most of the evaluated animal studies, but some results suggest that caution should be taken when administering these agents in the relapse stages of IBD. In addition, no effects on chronic enteropathies were reported. Probiotic supplementation appears to be potentially well tolerated, effective, and safe in patients with IBD, in both CD and UC. Indeed, probiotics such as Bifidobacterium longum 536 improved the clinical symptoms in patients with mild to moderate active UC. Although it has been proposed that probiotics can provide benefits in certain conditions, the risks and benefits should be carefully assessed before initiating any therapy in patients with IBD. For this reason, further studies are required to understand the precise mechanism by which probiotics and synbiotics affect these diseases.

Evidence of the Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Probiotics and Synbiotics in Intestinal Chronic Diseases

Objective(s): Garlic (Allium sativum L. family Liliaceae) is well known in Iran and its leaves, flowers, and cloves have been used in traditional medicine for a long time. Research in recent decades has shown widespread pharmacological effects of A. sativum and its organosulfur compounds especially Allicin. Studies carried out on the chemical composition of the plant show that the most important constituents of this plant are organosulfur compounds such as allicin, diallyl disulphide, S-allylcysteine, and diallyl trisulfide. Allicin represents one of the most studied among these naturally occurring compounds. In addition to A. sativum, these compounds are also present in A. hirtifolium (shallot) and have been used to treat various diseases. This article reviews the pharmacological effects and traditional uses of A. sativum, A. hirtifolium, and their active constituents to show whether or not they can be further used as potential natural sources for the development of novel drugs. 

Materials and Methods: For this purpose, the authors went through a vast number of sources and articles and all needed data was gathered. The findings were reviewed and classified on the basis of relevance to the topic and a summary of all effects were reported as tables. 

Conclusion: Garlic and shallots are safe and rich sources of biologically active compounds with low toxicity. Further studies are needed to confirm the safety and quality of the plants to be used by clinicians as therapeutic agents.

Therapeutic Uses and Pharmacological Properties of Garlic, Shallot, and Their Biologically Active Compounds

Structural characterization of water-soluble polysaccharide from Arctium lappa and its effects on colitis mice.

The incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is increasing globally. Altered gut bacteria and bacterial metabolic pathways are two important factors in the initiation and progression of IBD. Lactobacillus plantarum is distributed in a variety of ecological niches, has a proven ability to survive gastric transit, and can colonize the intestinal tract of human and other mammals. Several studies have described the effects of L. plantarum consumption on human physiology. This review summarizes the safety and the effects of L. plantarum in vitro and in animal models for the prevention and management of IBD. L. plantarum modulates the ratio of Th1 and Th2 cells by stimulating the production of different inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, and interferon-gamma. The blocking of cyclooxygenase-2 in Th1 also is an apoptotic inhibition mechanism. This overview of the molecular studies addresses the activity of L. plantarum in the human gut environment and its' potential for remission of IBD.

Efficacy of Lactobacillus plantarum in prevention of inflammatory bowel disease.

Protective effect of Lactobacillus plantarum 21, a probiotic on trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid-induced ulcerative colitis in rats

Objective: To assess pharmacokinetic interaction of garlic with atorvastatin in dyslipidemic rats. Materials and Methods: Sprague Dawley rats with induced dyslipidemia were divided into five groups of eight rats each. Group 1 was given atorvastatin (10 mg/kg body weight (b.wt) orally), group 2 was given atorvastatin (10 mg/kg b.wt orally)+garlic (1% w/w in feed), group 3 was maintained on atorvastatin (5 mg/kg b.wt orally)+garlic (0.5% w/w in feed), group 4 was maintained on atorvastatin (7.5 mg/kg b.wt orally)+garlic (0.25% w/w in feed), and group 5 was maintained on atorvastatin (2.5 mg/kg b.wt orally)+garlic (0.75% w/w in feed) for 12 weeks. Blood samples were collected at predetermined time intervals for kinetic analysis after the first and last oral dosing of atorvastatin for single and multiple dose studies, respectively. Plasma samples were assayed for atorvastatin concentration by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and then the concentration-time data were analyzed. Results: Maximum observed plasma concentration (C max ), half-life, Area Under Plasma Concentration Time Curve (AUC), and Mean Resident Time (MRT) were significantly ( P P max ) in all groups during both phases of the study. The highest values for kinetic parameters were observed in group 2 with correspondingly low activity of Cytochrome P 450 (CYP 450 ). Conclusion: The study revealed higher values [C max , AUC, Area Under The Moment Curve (AUMC), MRT, and half-life] of atorvastatin in garlic-treated groups.

Pharmacokinetic interaction of garlic and atorvastatin in dyslipidemic rats.

Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system that provides a three-dimensional user position (x,y,z), velocity and
time anywhere on or above the earth surface. The satellite-based position accuracy is affected by several factors such as satellite clock error, propagation path
delays and receiver noise due to which the GPS does not meet the requirements
of critical navigation applications such as missile navigation and category
I/II/III aircraft landings. This paper
emphasizes on modelling the satellite clock error and orbital solution (satellite position) error considering the
signal emission time. The transmission time sent by each satellite in broadcast
ephemerides is not accurate. This has to be corrected in order to obtain
correct satellite position and in turn a precise
receiver position. Signal transmission time or broadcast time from satellite
antenna phase center is
computed at the receiver using several parameters such as signal reception
time, propagation time, pseudorange
observed and satellite clock error correction parameters. This corrected time
of transmission and broadcast orbital parameters are used for estimation of the
orbital solution. The estimated orbital solution was validated with the precise ephemerides which are
estimated by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), USA. The errors are estimated for a typical day data
collected on 11th March 2011 from dual frequency GPS receiver
located at Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Andhra
University College of Engineering, Visakhapatnam (17.73°N/83.319°E).

/pdf/satellite-clock-error-and-orbital-solution-error-estimation-3z5jcgnap2.pdf

Satellite Clock Error and Orbital Solution Error Estimation for Precise Navigation Applications

A compact grounded asymmetric coplanar strip (GACS)-fed flexible multiband frequency reconfigurable antenna with two PIN diodes is proposed. The investigated antenna is backed by a flexible polyamide substrate with compact dimensions of 24 mm $\times19$ mm and a thickness of 1.53 mm. The investigated antenna structure contains a monopole patch that facilitates operation for wireless LAN applications, whereas inverted L-shaped and F-shaped monopoles facilitate operation for Bluetooth and 5G NR applications. The investigated antenna operates at 2.4, 3.8, and 5.6 GHz with measured impedance bandwidths of 5.8%, 6.3%, and 6.6%, respectively, over the three frequency bands, thus facilitating coverage for Bluetooth, 5G NR, and WLAN standards. The two PIN diodes are employed to tune the investigated antenna among four modes, including a single band mode (WLAN 5.5 GHz), two dual-band modes (5G NR 3.8/5.6 GHz, and Bluetooth 2.48/5.6 GHz), and one multiband mode with Bluetooth (2.4 GHz), 5G New Radio (NR) N77 band (3.8 GHz), and WLAN (5.6 GHz) modes. The investigated antenna radiates unidirectionally with a peak gain of 3.73 dBi at 5.6 GHz. Measurements are carried out on the human body to investigate the behaviour of the wearable antenna. The simulated SAR values are in a safe limit of 1.6 W/kg for 1 g of tissue, according to the FCC. Moreover, the investigated antenna shows extremely low vulnerability to degradation in performance as a result of bending effects concerning impedance matching with acceptable acquiescence between measurements and simulations.

/pdf/a-compact-grounded-asymmetric-coplanar-strip-fed-flexible-4ufnm0xwy4.pdf

A Compact Grounded Asymmetric Coplanar Strip-Fed Flexible Multiband Reconfigurable Antenna for Wireless Applications

In medical imaging, extraction of brain tumor region in the magnetic resonance image (MRI) is not sufficient, but finding the tumor extension is necessary to plan best treatment to improve the survival rate as it depends on tumor’s size, location, and patient’s age. Manually extracting the brain tumor sub-regions from MRI volume is tedious, time consuming and the inherently complex brain tumor images requires a proficient radiologist. Thus, a reliable multi-modal deep learning models are proposed for automatic segmentation to extract the sub-regions like enhancing tumor (ET), tumor core (TC), and whole tumor (WT). These models are constructed on the basis of U-net and VGG16 architectures. The whole tumor is obtained by segmenting T2-weighted images and cross-check the edema’s extension in T2 fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR). ET and TC are both extracted by evaluating the hyper-intensities in T1-weighted contrast enhanced images. The proposed method has produced better results in terms of dice similarity index, Jaccard similarity index, accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity for segmented sub regions. The experimental results on BraTS 2018 database shows the proposed DL model outperforms with average dice coefficients of 0.91521, 0.92811, 0.96702, and Jaccard coefficients of 0.84715, 0.88357, 0.93741 for ET, TC, and WT respectively.

Gottapu Sasibhushana Rao

Papers

Protective effect of Lactobacillus plantarum 21, a probiotic on trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid-induced ulcerative colitis in rats

Pharmacokinetic interaction of garlic and atorvastatin in dyslipidemic rats.

Satellite Clock Error and Orbital Solution Error Estimation for Precise Navigation Applications

A Compact Grounded Asymmetric Coplanar Strip-Fed Flexible Multiband Reconfigurable Antenna for Wireless Applications

Segmentation of Multi-Modal MRI Brain Tumor Sub-Regions Using Deep Learning