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Biomedical subjects

D Marby

Publications and source records attributed to D Marby.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Anti-interleukin-6 antibodies attenuate inflammation in a rat meningitis model.

OBJECTIVES: Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is elevated in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of humans and animals with bacterial meningitis. This study's hypothesis was that anti-IL-6 antibodies will attenuate meningeal inflammation in a rat model of bacterial meningitis. METHODS: 14 male Sprague-Dawley rats were inoculated intracisternally (IC) with 0.1 mL of heat-killed pneumococci. At one hour post-inoculation, the rats received intraperitoneal doses of either 1.0 mL phosphate-buffered saline (PBS treatment group, n = 7) or 70 microg anti-IL-6 antibodies in 1.0 mL PBS (anti-IL-6 antibody treatment group, n = 7). Nine rats (normal group, n = 9) had no inoculation, and four rats (surgical sham group, n = 4) had IC inoculations of saline. At six hours post-inoculation, all the animals had CSF removed via IC tap. The CSF protein and white blood cell (WBC) count measures were compared using a t-test. RESULTS: Mean CSF WBC for the anti-IL-6 treatment group was 2,458/microL, versus the PBS controls' mean of 9,697/microL (p = 0.007). Mean CSF protein for the anti-IL-6 group was 180 mg/dL, versus 296 mg/dL for the controls (p = 0.032). The surgical sham and normal animals had normal CSF WBC and protein values. CONCLUSIONS: In this rat meningitis model, systemic treatment with anti-IL-6 antibodies after the induction of meningitis suppressed both CSF WBC count and CSF protein level, two important indices of meningeal inflammation.

Animals↗

Polysymptomatic syndromes and autonomic reactivity to nonfood stressors in individuals with self-reported adverse food reactions.

This study compared symptom reports and cardiovascular reactivity of a group of 24 individuals recruited from the community who reported a cognitive or emotional symptom caused by at least one food (food-sensitivity reporters, FSR) vs those of 15 controls (C) without a history of food, chemical, drug, or inhalant sensitivities. The main findings were: 1) FSR indicated sensitivities not only to foods, but also to environmental chemicals, drugs, and natural inhalants, as well as significantly more symptoms than C in multiple systems; 2) more FSR than C noted recent state depression and anxiety, as well as higher trait anxiety on the Bendig form of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale; 3) however, on multiple regression analysis, not only depression, but also the number of sensitivities (foods, chemicals, drugs, inhalants), accounted for part of the variance in total number of symptoms (38 and 17%, respectively), whereas none of the affective measures accounted for any of the variance in total number of sensitivities over all subjects; 4) after controlling for depression and anxiety, FSR still showed a trend toward poorer performance on a timed mental arithmetic task (p = 0.16); and 5) FSR and C showed opposite patterns of heart rate change to two different stressful tasks (mental arithmetic and isometric exercise) (group by task interaction, p < 0.05). The data are discussed in terms of a time-dependent sensitization (TDS) process that predicts a cross-sensitizing and cross-reactive role for xenobiotic agents (e.g., foods, chemicals, drugs, and inhalants) and for salient psychological stress in the expression of psychophysiological dysfunctions of FSR. As in other chronically ill populations, negative affect in food-sensitive individuals may explain greater symptom reporting, but not necessarily account for the illness itself. For either a food or a psychological stimulus to begin to elicit sensitized responses, e.g., marked physiological differences from C, FSR may require multiple, intermittent exposures spaced over 5-28 days rather than on only 1 day.

Adult↗

Early dyskinesia--vulnerability.

Relative vulnerability to dyskinesia in terms of exposure to antipsychotic drugs prior to onset of dyskinesia was studied in a sample of 100 psychiatric patients with dyskinesia onset generally within a year or less of the point of study entry. Unipolar and bipolar patients were more vulnerable to dyskinesia than other diagnostic groups. In the total sample, lithium exposure did not appear to delay development of dyskinesia. Longer exposure to antiparkinson drugs was associated with delayed onset of dyskinesia. Past exposure to electroconvulsive therapy was related to decreased vulnerability to dyskinesia.

Adult↗

The natural history of tardive dyskinesia.

Follow-up data from the first 100 patients with early dyskinesia are presented. After an average of 40.9 months, the cohort showed statistically significant decreases in tardive dyskinesia (TD) ratings. After TD onset, ratings decreased for 4 years, then plateaued and rose during the 7th year. Age was not a negative prognostic factor in this cohort. Improvement in TD correlated significantly with fewer neuroleptic-free periods before and more neuroleptic-free periods after TD onset. Neuroleptic dosage correlated negatively with improvement in trunk and dystonia ratings. Improvement in TD is the usual finding in longitudinal studies of TD cohorts. Follow-up studies of neuroleptic-treated groups with varying proportions of patients showing TD, by contrast, tend to show increased TD because new TD cases more than offset improvement. A naturalistic study with pharmacotherapy tailored to the underlying psychiatric disorder and conducted long-term from TD onset is the ideal design for investigating the natural history of TD.

Adult↗