Re: articles of interest, bacterial meningitis,BBB, nerve damage

[Guest guest]

humm, was looking into Kudzu, interesting, has anyone tried this?

Nuisance Or Nutrient? Kudzu Shows Promise As A Dietary Supplement

ScienceDaily

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090826110122.htm

Controlling Kudzu With Naturally Occurring Fungus

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090719185107.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu#cite_note-scidai-1

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> Acute Bacterial Meningitis in Adults -- A Review of 493 Episodes

> http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/328/1/21

>

> Axonal injury, a neglected cause of CNS damage in bacterial meningitis

> http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/62/3/509

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> Inflammatory pain alters blood-brain barrier permeability and tight junctional

protein expression

> http://ajpheart.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/280/3/H1241

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> Effects of chronic ethanol drinking on the blood–brain barrier and ensuing

neuronal toxicity in alcohol-preferring rats subjected to intraperitoneal LPS

injection

>

> abstract

> http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/42/5/385

>

> full text/also see references/SEVERAL INTERESTING

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> A decrease in expression of the BBB proteins and/or an increase in their

phosphorylation have been shown to disrupt the protein–protein interaction

resulting in disruption of the barrier (Susomboon et al., 2006). Many conditions

such as hypoxia or calcium chelating agents damage the barrier's architecture

and increase its leaking (Chio et al., 1992

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> http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/42/5/385

>

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> WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS

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> 2004 Summer;7(2):180-6.

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> Effects of purified puerarin on voluntary alcohol intake and alcohol

withdrawal symptoms in P rats receiving free access to water and alcohol.

> Benlhabib E, Baker JI, Keyler DE, Singh AK.

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> Department of Veterinary Diagnostic Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine,

University of Minnesota, 1333 Gortner Avenue, St. , MN 55108, USA.

>

> Alcohol preferring (P) rats, given " free choice " of water, exhibited daily

intake of 60-75 g of water/kg of body weight. When given " free choice " of water

and 15% ethanol, P rats consumed 7-13 g of alcohol/kg. Their water intake

decreased proportionally to the alcohol intake, but total fluid intake did not

differ significantly. Alcohol withdrawal after 50 days of alcohol drinking

caused withdrawal symptoms such as hypersensitivity, poor coordination, and

tremors. A daily 50 mg/kg dose of puerarin (PU) caused approximately 50%

suppression in alcohol intake, but did not affect body weight and food and total

fluid intake in P rats receiving " free choice " of water and 15% ethanol. Alcohol

ingestion gradually returned to the control level despite consistent PU intake.

However, alcohol intake following alcohol withdrawal was suppressed in PU-fed P

rats. PU suppressed the severity of alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Thus,

withdrawal symptoms do not occur in PU-fed rats even though their alcohol

ingestion is comparable to that in control P rats. Brain, plasma, and liver

samples were analyzed for the presence of kudzu root isoflavones, which are

mostly PU (>90% of total isoflavones) and a trace amount of daidzin. Liver

samples obtained from PU-fed P rats contained 20-30 microg/g of PU. An important

observation was that plasma or brain samples obtained from PU-fed or alcohol +

PU-fed rats did not contain PU. This study indicated that PU feeding transiently

suppressed alcohol intake and abolished withdrawal symptoms at a time when

alcohol intake had returned to the control level. The absence of PU in plasma

and brain indicates the possibility that some nonspecific mechanism may be

involved in the anti-alcoholism effects of PU in P rats.

>

> PMID: 15298765 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

>

> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15298765?dopt=Abstract

>

>

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> PUERARIN

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> 2006 Jun 20;79(4):324-30. Epub 2006 Feb 10.

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> Puerarin decreases serum total cholesterol and enhances thoracic aorta

endothelial nitric oxide synthase expression in diet-induced

hypercholesterolemic rats.

> Yan LP, Chan SW, Chan AS, Chen SL, Ma XJ, Xu HX.

>

> Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Peking Union Medical College and

Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.

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> Hypercholesterolemia is a dominant risk factor for the development and

progression of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases. Natural compounds

have been proved to be useful in lowering serum cholesterol to slow down the

progression of cardiovascular diseases. Pueraria lobata is employed clinically

to treat cardiovascular diseases in China. In the present study, the

atheroscleroprotective potential of the herb's major active compound, puerarin,

was investigated by monitoring serum lipid profile and major enzyme expressions

on cholesterol homeostasis in Sprague-Dawley rats fed with control diet,

hypercholesterolmic diet or hypercholesterolmic diet plus administration of

puerarin (300 mg/kg/day, p.o.) for 4 weeks. Puerarin markedly attenuated the

increased total cholesterol induced by hypercholesterolmic diet in both serum

and liver. It caused a significant reduction in the atherogenic index.

Expression of mRNA for hepatic 7alpha-hydroxylase (CYP7A1) was significantly

enhanced but not for those of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGR)

and lanosterol 14alpha-demethylase (CYP51). To further explore the

atheroscleroprotective potential of puerarin, acetylcholine induced

endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation and endothelial nitric oxide synthase

(eNOS) expression on isolated thoracic aortas were analyzed. Animals

administered with puerarin suppressed the hypercholesterolemic diet induced

impairment of eNOS expression, whereas there was no significant difference in

the endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation among various groups of animals. These

data indicated that puerarin reduced the atherogenic properties of dietary

cholesterol in rats. Its hypocholesterolemic function may be due to the

promotion of cholesterol and bile acids excretion in liver. Whether puerarin

targets directly on cholesterol homeostasis or both cholesterol homeostasis and

endothelial function remains to be determined.

>

> PMID: 16472823 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

>

> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16472823

>

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> Corticospinal Tract Abnormalities Are Associated with Weakness in Multiple

Sclerosis/CITED>OPTIC,SENSORMOTOR

> http://www.ajnr.org/cgi/content/abstract/29/2/333

>