Functional Foods and Lifestyle Approaches for Diabetes Prevention and Management

Functional foods contain biologically active ingredients associated with physiological health benefits for preventing and managing chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). A regular consumption of functional foods may be associated with enhanced anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, insulin sensitivity, and anti-cholesterol functions, which are considered integral to prevent and manage T2DM. Components of the Mediterranean diet (MD)—such as fruits, vegetables, oily fish, olive oil, and tree nuts—serve as a model for functional foods based on their natural contents of nutraceuticals, including polyphenols, terpenoids, flavonoids, alkaloids, sterols, pigments, and unsaturated fatty acids. Polyphenols within MD and polyphenol-rich herbs—such as coffee, green tea, black tea, and yerba maté—have shown clinically-meaningful benefits on metabolic and microvascular activities, cholesterol and fasting glucose lowering, and anti-inflammation and anti-oxidation in high-risk and T2DM patients. However, combining exercise with functional food consumption can trigger and augment several metabolic and cardiovascular protective benefits, but it is under-investigated in people with T2DM and bariatric surgery patients. Detecting functional food benefits can now rely on an “omics” biological profiling of individuals’ molecular, genetics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, but is under-investigated in multi-component interventions. A personalized approach for preventing and managing T2DM should consider biological and behavioral models, and embed nutrition education as part of lifestyle diabetes prevention studies. Functional foods may provide additional benefits in such an approach

ConvAttentionNet: a high-performance model for efficient and accurate PolSAR data classification

This paper presents ConvAttentionNet, a lightweight and high performing deep learning model developed for accurate and efficient classification of Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) imagery. The proposed architecture combines multiscale convolutional mixer blocks with a directional convolution based attention mechanism to effectively capture spatial features and suppress background noise. Designed to address the challenges of limited labeled data and computational constraints, ConvAttentionNet achieves superior performance while maintaining a compact model size. Experimental results on three benchmark datasets (Flevoland, San Francisco, and Oberpfaffenhofen) demonstrate that ConvAttentionNet consistently outperforms state of the art CNN based, transformer based, and wavelet based models. It achieves an overall accuracy (OA) of 97.24% and a Kappa coefficient of 96.98 on the Flevoland dataset using only 1% of the training data. These results confirm the model’s robustness, label efficiency, and generalization capabilities, making it a practical solution for operational remote sensing scenarios with limited computational resources. The source code for this work will be publicly available at: https://github.com/aj1365/ConvAttentionNet

The pharmaco-epigenetics of hypertension: a focus on microRNA

Hypertension is a major harbinger of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. It predisposes to higher rates of myocardial infarction, chronic kidney failure, stroke, and heart failure than most other risk factors. By 2025, the prevalence of hypertension is projected to reach 1.5 billion people. The pathophysiology of this disease is multifaceted, as it involves nitric oxide and endothelin dysregulation, reactive oxygen species, vascular smooth muscle proliferation, and vessel wall calcification, among others. With the advent of new biomolecular techniques, various studies have elucidated a gaping hole in the etiology and mechanisms of hypertension. Indeed, epigenetics, DNA methylation, histone modification, and microRNA-mediated translational silencing appear to play crucial roles in altering the molecular phenotype into a hypertensive profile. Here, we critically review the experimentally determined associations between microRNA (miRNA) molecules and hypertension pharmacotherapy. Particular attention is given to the epigenetic mechanisms underlying the physiological responses to antihypertensive drugs like candesartan, and other relevant drugs like clopidogrel, aspirin, and statins among others. Furthermore, how miRNA affects the pharmaco-epigenetics of hypertension is especially highlighted.Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library

Study The Overprescription Of Proton Pump Inhibitors And Their Relation With Recurrent Community Aquired Infections In Outpatient Refilled Prescriptions Of Chronic Diseases Patients

Background: proton pump inhibitors are widely used worldwide and studies have demonstrated that the use of PPIs to be associated with various diseases such as several types of infection. Study objectives: to explore the effect of using PPIs on patients through studying some inflammatory biomarkers including WBC, neutrophil count, ESR, CRP, and IL-6. Methods and subjects: a retrospective study design was followed to collect data from study participants. The study included 62 patients receiving PPIs and 60 persons without being prescribed for PPIs. A working sheet was created for each patient and included the following information: age, WBC, neutrophil count, ESR, CRP, and IL-6. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS version 20. The relationship between variables was tested using independent T test. Significance was considered at alpha level < 0.05. Study findings: age was not varied significantly between study group and control group. All inflammatory biomarkers under study were significantly elevated in study group compared with control group. Conclusions: the findings of the present study showed that the use of PPIs was associated significantly with increased inflammatory biomarkers. We think that health settings should pay much attention to the role of pharmacists and pharmacy doctors to increase the awareness about the use of PPIs

PI3Kδ and primary immunodeficiencies.

Primary immunodeficiencies are inherited disorders of the immune system, often caused by the mutation of genes required for lymphocyte development and activation. Recently, several studies have identified gain-of-function mutations in the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) genes PIK3CD (which encodes p110δ) and PIK3R1 (which encodes p85α) that cause a combined immunodeficiency syndrome, referred to as activated PI3Kδ syndrome (APDS; also known as p110δ-activating mutation causing senescent T cells, lymphadenopathy and immunodeficiency (PASLI)). Paradoxically, both loss-of-function and gain-of-function mutations that affect these genes lead to immunosuppression, albeit via different mechanisms. Here, we review the roles of PI3Kδ in adaptive immunity, describe the clinical manifestations and mechanisms of disease in APDS and highlight new insights into PI3Kδ gleaned from these patients, as well as implications of these findings for clinical therapy

Implementation Of Intervention Program For Controlling Glucose Level Among ICU Patients

Introduction: Hyperglycemia and insulin resistance are common in critically ill patients, even if they have not previously had diabetes, and the risk of mortality or significant morbidity is high among those who are treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) for more than 5 days. Study objectives: To assess the effect of glucose management protocol on mortality and morbidity in a heterogeneous population of critically ill adult patients. Methods and materials: Study design: A randomized controlled trial. Study setting: Intensive care unit (ICU) for adult patients at King Hussein Medical Center, the Royal Medical Services. Study sample: A total of 50 patients were included in this study and assigned randomly into two groups, control group (N=25), and intervention group (N=25). Study protocol: The intervention group subjects were to undergo a glucose control protocol with insulin infusion titrated to maintain blood glucose level in a target range of 120-160 mg/dL; except septic patients, in whom the target was higher, 160- 180 mg/dL. Patients in the second group (control group) were treated by a conventional approach with reduction of blood glucose level only if the level was markedly elevated (>200 mg/dL) to maintain blood glucose level in a target range of 180-200 mg/dL Study findings: Although the difference in mortality between the two treatment groups was not significant at 28 days (p=0.370) and at 60 days (p=0.555), but it was to be considered for further improvements. No significant increase in hypoglycemia episodes was reported in our blood glucose level target. There was no significant difference in the development of new organ failure, new renal insufficiency, number of patients undergoing transfusion of packed red blood cells, use of antibiotics for more than 10 days, length of stay in the ICU and length of stay in the hospital. It was noticed that the rates of positive blood cultures were lower in the interventional group (8%) than in the control group (32), (p=0.068). Conclusion: The glucose management protocol resulted in significantly improved glycemic control and was not associated with increased rate of death or hypoglycemia

IN VITRO ANTI-LEISHMANIAL ACTIVITY AGAINST CUTANEOUS LEISHMANIA PARASITES AND PRELIMINARY PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF FOUR YEMENI MEDICINAL PLANTS

Objective: Cutaneous leishmaniasis is one form of leishmaniasis that chiefly infected the poor sections of the society. The prototypical therapeutic interventions in vogue are handicapped due to toxicity and an alarming increase in drug resistance. Furthermore, the absence of vaccines has raised the quest for alternative therapies. So, the aim of our study was to assess the anti-leishmanial activity of Euphorbia cactus Ehrenb, Euphorbia ammak Forssk, Euphorbia inarticulate Schweinf, and Pergularia tomentosa L. Methods: The extracts of plants were prepared by maceration method and by Soxhlet extractor. The extracts were dried and re-dissolved in 2% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) 1% solvent.  Leishmania spp. cells were then tested with serial concentrations (15.6 μgml-1 to 500 μg ml-1 ) of the extracts, using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthazolk-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. All experiments were performed in triplicate and analyzed by ANOVA test. The optical density values as measured by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) were used to calculate the IC50 values.  Results: The results indicated that the methanolic latex extract of Euphorbia cactus Ehrenb, Euphorbia ammak Forssk had potent anti-leishmanial activity against the promastigotes of Leishmania spp. based on a dose-dependent response analysis. The IC50 values for Euphorbia cactus Ehrenb and Euphorbia ammak Forssk after 24h incubation against Leishmania spp. promastigotes were less than <15.6 μgml-1. Furthermore, the phytochemical analysis of methanolic extracts showed the presence of alkaloids, phytosterols, phenols, saponins, and flavonoids in which these components have been proven previously to be the active compounds against Leishmania parasite. Conclusion: In conclusion, the present study reveals that latex extract of Euphorbia cactus Ehrenb and Euphorbia ammak Forssk contain active compounds that have anti-leishmanial activity, which could serve as an alternative agent in the treatment of Cutaneous leishmaniasis, but further studies would, therefore, be needed to assess the activity of these materials of this plants in vivo clinical response and study their toxicity on cell lines. Peer Review History: Received 26 July 2018;   Revised 19 August; Accepted 5 September, Available online 15 September 2018 Received file:        Reviewer's Comments: Average Peer review marks at initial stage: 5/10 Average Peer review marks at publication stage: 8.5/10 Reviewer(s) detail: Dr. Lucky Llegbosi Nwidu, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, [email protected] Dr. George Zhu, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, [email protected] Similar Articles: COUMARIN ANALOGUES AS A POTENTIAL INHIBITOR OF LEISHMANIASIS: A MULTI-TARGETING PROTEIN INHIBITION APPROACH BY MOLECULAR DOCKIN

Do People Live at Sea Level and the Dead Sea Level Have Different Patterns of Anti-Hypertensive Drugs

Background: people live at various areas of sea level may have different patterns of anti-hypertensive drugs. Such a relation has never been reported in Jordan. Study objectives: the current study investigated how the sea level will impact the prevalence of hypertension in these areas, and how will affect the pharmacological properties of such a population. Methodology: a cross-sectional study design was involved to collect data from study participants. A total of 1000 participants were randomly selected from the two study areas. 500 participants from each. Participants were matched for age and gender. Blood pressure were measured for all participants. Blood samples were withdrawn to investigate the level of angiotensin II. Data was collected through organizing a working excel sheet and was further analyzed through using SPSS version 20. Data was presented as means, standard deviations, frequencies and percentages. The relationships between variables were examined using independent T-test. Significance was measured at an alpha < 0.05. Study findings: the main findings of the present study were that the mean of SBP is significantly higher in the Dead Sea (122.42±10.53 mmHg) than the Sea level area (118.07±11.64 mmHg), (p=0.001). Another significant variable was MBP which its mean was 91.64 ± 8.90 mmHg in the Dead Sea and 89.84 ± 8.72 mm Hg. The difference in the mean was statistically significant (p=0.001). The level of angiotensin II was 8.84 ± 4.65pg/ml in the Dead Sea area and 11.21± 6.05pg/ml in the area of the Sea level. The difference in the mean of the two study areas was not statistically significant (p>0.05). Conclusions: although the level of angiotensin II was not significantly varied between the study areas, but its trend was to be higher in the Sea level area. It was surprised to have higher levels of SBP and MBP in the Dead Sea rather than the Seal level area. It can be implied that the therapeutic options of hypertensive drugs follow different patterns independent of angiotensin II pathways