Biomedical subjects

S M Ellis

Publications and source records attributed to S M Ellis.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1994

Antifungal screening of medicinal plants of British Columbian native peoples.

One hundred methanolic plant extracts were screened for antifungal activity against 9 fungal species. Eighty-one were found to have some antifungal activity and 30 extracts showed activity against 4 or more of the fungi assayed. The extracts with the greatest fungal inhibition were prepared from Alnus rubra catkins, Artemisia ludoviciana aerial parts, Artemisia tridentata aerial parts, Geum macrophyllum roots, Mahonia aquifolium roots and Moneses uniflora aerial parts. In addition to these, extracts prepared from the following plants also exhibited antifungal activity against all 9 fungi: Asarum caudatum whole plant, Balsamorhiza sagittata roots, Empetrum nigrum branches, Fragaria chiloensis leaves, Gilia aggregata aerial parts and roots, Glehnia littoralis roots, Heracleum lanatum roots, Heuchera cylindrica roots and Rhus glabra branches.

Antifungal Agents↗

PubMed1994

Adsorption of 222Rn by open-faced and diffusion-barrier canisters at different conditions of temperature and humidity.

Open-faced and diffusion-barrier charcoal canisters were individually exposed to a fixed temperature, humidity, and radon concentration in a chamber for a period of 7 d. The radon progeny activity in the canister under study was measured every 3 h. A total of 15 runs were made for the open-faced canisters and nine runs for the barrier canisters with temperatures and absolute humidities ranging from 15-30 degrees C and 0-15 g m-3, respectively. In addition, several runs were made with the radon, temperature, and humidity changing during the 7 d. Results show that open-faced canisters adsorb radon up to 60% more efficiently at 15 degrees C than at 30 degrees C while the barrier canisters show little temperature dependence. The barrier canisters are much less sensitive to humidity effects than the open-faced canister. When used to measure the radon concentration in air, the open-faced canister integrates over a period of only approximately 48 h while the barrier canister integrates over a period of approximately 96 h. The short integration time and the interference of water adsorption by open-faced canisters indicate that the open-faced canisters should be used for exposure times of 48 h and no longer.

Adsorption↗

PubMed1993

The application of new bioavailability parameters in the bioequivalence testing of antimicrobial agents.

Two new bioavailability parameters were recently suggested [Koeleman et al. 1991] to define (i) the time that the concentration in the blood stays above a defined minimum effective concentration, te and (ii) the onset of the effect, to. In addition to conventional bioequivalence parameters, the new bioavailabilty parameters (to and te) were calculated in this study and statistically compared for penicillin, chloroquine, oxytetracycline, amoxycillin and flucloxacillin from available bioequivalence data. For oxytetracycline, flucloxacillin and amoxycillin, the conventional bioavailability parameters indicated partial equivalence whereas using the te and to parameters, more realistic indications of the possible extent of the performance of a drug from dosage forms were obtained than with the conventional bioequivalence parameters. The new parameters gave additional information for a better evaluation of the performance of a drug from a dosage form.

Amoxicillin↗

PubMed1992

Antibiotic screening of medicinal plants of the British Columbian native peoples.

One hundred methanolic plant extracts, 96 of which had documented medicinal uses by British Columbian native peoples, were screened for antibiotic activity against 11 bacterial strains. Eighty-five percent were found to have significant antibiotic activity against at least two of the bacteria tested. Ninety-five percent of the plants categorized as potential antibiotics based on their ethnobotanical usage were found to exhibit significant antibiotic activity. Seventy-five were found to be active against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, 46 were active against an antibiotic supersusceptible strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and 18 of these were also active against a wild type strain. The extracts with the broadest spectra of activity were prepared from: Alnus rubra bark and catkins, Fragaria chiloensis leaves, Moneses uniflora aerial parts, and Rhus glabra branches.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗

PubMed1991

New bioavailability parameters to compare the efficacy of antimicrobial drugs in dosage forms.

Pharmacokinetic parameters such as AUC, Cmax and tmax have been used to represent the rate and extent of absorption of drugs from dosage forms in comparative bioequivalence testing. None of these parameters gives a direct indication of how long the drug concentration is maintained above an acceptable level e.g. minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) or the minimum effective concentration (MEC). This is clinically important in evaluating the onset and duration of a therapeutic effect obtained from a test dosage form in comparison to the reference dosage form. The purpose of this study is to investigate the possibility of a bioavailability parameter which relates the time that the drug concentration in the systemic circulation is maintained above a certain level (te) and the first time that the blood concentration exceeds this level (to). Two methods were used to calculate the time that drug levels are maintained above a certain minimum level. The proposed parameters proved to be valuable when the efficacy of erythromycin was used as an example. Although some problems, such as undefined MIC/MEC may arise, te and to can be used along with the conventional bioequivalence parameters to obtain a better indication of the clinical efficacy.

Biological Availability↗

PubMed1989

Monoclonal antibody preparation and purification of a tumor cell collagenase-stimulatory factor.

Tumor cells from several sources produce a factor(s) which stimulates fibroblast collagenase production. Monoclonal antibodies have been raised against the tumor cell collagenase-stimulatory factor from LX-1 human lung carcinoma cells and have been used for purification of the factor from LX-1 cell membranes. These purified preparations stimulated fibroblast collagenase production, and 80% of these preparations contained a single Mr approximately 58,000 protein detectable by immunoblotting; the other 20% contained an additional minor component with a molecular weight of 35,000. A single protein with a molecular weight of approximately 58,000 was also detected in radiolabeled preparations of the purified factor by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and autoradiography. Conditioned media from LX-1 cells contain several species with molecular weights lower than 58,000 which are immunologically cross-reactive with the membrane-derived factor. Immunofluorescence analysis indicates that the tumor cell collagenase-stimulatory factor is distributed on the outer surface of LX-1 cells and is absent from the cell surface of fibroblasts. These and previous results indicate that the factor is present on the tumor cell surface, is released into conditioned media possibly after proteolytic cleavage, and appears to have an important role in inducing collagenolysis of host stroma during tumor invasion.

Animals↗

PubMed1976

Maternal thyroid function, iodine deficiency and fetal development.

In an area of New Guinea where there is dietary iodine deficiency, measurements of thyroid function have been made on women of child-bearing age, several of whom were pregnant at the time. The outcome of these pregnancies, and also of those occurring in the four preceding years, were examined in relation to indices of thyroid function. More stillbirths, infant deaths and endemic cretins occurred among the offspring of women who showed biochemical evidence of iodine deficiency, without clinical evidence of hypothyroidism. This situation differs from that of untreated myxoedema or congenital hypothyroidism in women, which is usually associated with altered menstrual function, infertility or repeated abortion. Mechanisms that may account for these differences and the possible implications are discussed.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed1975

Is "T4 toxicosis" a normal biochemical finding in elderly women?

The lack of equivalence in the distrubtion of normal ranges for free thyroxine index (FT4I) and free triiodothyronine index (FT3I) in the over sixty-five age-group, as compared with the fifteen-sixty-five age-group, supports the idea that "T4 toxicosis" is a common biochemical finding in elderly women. The disparity between FT4I and FT3I ranges was also reflected in the true free T4 and free T3 levels which were measured in some cases. These results suggest that when an increased FT4I is found in an elderly woman with cardiac disease, caution should be exercised in interpreting the result as indicating that thyrotoxicosis is the cause of the cardiac disorder. Estimation of total T3, FT3I, or free T3 seems useful in confirming euthyroidism in such cases.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1973