Combined treatment with valproic acid and estrogen has neuroprotective effects in ovariectomized mice with Alzheimer’s disease

Postmenopausal women with Alzheimer’s disease exhibit dramatically reduced sensitivity to estrogen replacement therapy,which is though to be related to an estrogen receptor(ER)α/ERβratio imbalance arising from a significantly decreased level of ERs of the brain.The aim of our study was to investigate whether valproic acid(VPA)can enhance the beneficial effects of estrogen on cognitive function through restoration of ERαand ERβexpression in the brain.We removed the ovaries of female APP/PS1 mice to simulate the low estrogen levels present in postmenopausal women and then administered VPA(30 mg/kg,intraperitoneal injection,once daily),17β-estradiol(E2)(2.4μg,intraperitoneal injection,once daily),liquiritigenin(LG)(50μg/kg,intragastric infusion,once daily),VPA+E2,or VPA+LG for 4 successive weeks.Compared with treatment with a single drug,treatment with VPA+E2 or VPA+LG significantly increased the level of glycogen synthase kinase 3β,increased the expression of estrogen receptorα,reduced the expression of small ubiquitin-like modifiers,and increased the level of estrogen receptorβ.This resulted in enhanced sensitivity to estrogen therapy,reduced amyloidβaggregation,reduced abnormal phosphorylation of the tau protein,reduced neuronal loss,increased dendritic spine and postsynaptic density,and significantly alleviated memory loss and learning impairment in Alzheimer’s disease.This study was approved by the Chongqing Medical University Animal Protection and Ethics Committee,China on March 6,2013.

Monocular posterior scleritis presenting as acute conjunctivitis:A case report

BACKGROUND Posterior scleritis is a rare inflammatory ocular disease,characterized by severe and painful inflammation of the sclera.It is often misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed,due to its general and varying clinical presentation profile,which primarily involves pain and visual impairment but which can include eyelid edema,choroidal folds,serous retinal detachment,disc edema,hard exudates in fovea and subretinal mass.We report here a case of posterior scleritis,with symptoms of eye pain and red eye,initially misdiagnosed as acute conjunctivitis.CASE SUMMARY A 56-year-old man presented to a local hospital with complaint of pain and redness in the right eye.The initial diagnosis was acute conjunctivitis and he was given antibiotic eyedrops.Upon week-long continuance of the symptoms despite treatment,he presented to our hospital.Initial examination revealed a shallow anterior chamber in the right eye and vision reduction to 0.6.Further testing by optical coherence tomography,ultrasound biomicroscopy,and fundus photography indicated diagnosis of posterior scleritis.The patient was given methylprednisolone(oral)on a tapered reduction schedule(starting with 70 mg/d).According to the peaks and troughs of symptoms,compound betamethasone injection was administered into the bulb,culminating in discontinuation of the oral corticosteroid.Subsequent optical coherence tomography showed the subretinal fluid near the optic disc to be completely absorbed after treatment.CONCLUSION Posterior scleritis should be among the differential diagnosis of eye pain and redness,and diagnosis requires further ophthalmic accessory examination,such as by optical coherence tomography.

A Lindqvist-type [W_(6)O_(19)]^(2-) organic–inorganic compound: synthesis, characterization, antibacterial activity and preliminary studies on the mechanism of action

In this paper,a new organic–inorganic hybrid compound[Co(L)_(2)]2[W_(6)O_(19)](1)(HL=2-acetylpyridine thiosemicarbazone)was prepared and characterized.The compound 1 exhibits remarkable antibacterial activity by determination of minimum inhibitory concentration(MIC)against Staphylococcus aureus(S.aureus,0.06μg·mL^(−1))and Escherichia coli(E.coli,0.24μg·mL^(−1)),respectively.Furthermore,the potential mechanism of compound 1 was studied in detail.The potential causes of bacteria death were cell wall/membrane disruption,inhibition of intracellular respiratory chain dehydrogenases(RCD)activity,destruction of reactive oxygen species(ROS)and depletion of glutathione(GSH).