Dengue fever (DF), one of the most important emerging arboviral diseases, is transmitted through the bite of container breeding mosquitoes Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. A household entomological survey was conducted in Dhaka from August through October 2000 to inspect water-holding containers in indoor, outdoor, and rooftop locations for Aedes larvae. The objective of this study was to determine mosquito productivity of each container type and to identify some risk factors of households infested with Aedes larvae. Of 9,222 households inspected, 1,306 (14.2%) were positive for Aedes larvae. Of 38,777 wet containers examined, 2,272 (5.8%) were infested with Aedes larvae. Containers used to hold water, such as earthen jars, tanks, and drums were the most common containers for larval breeding. Tires in outdoor and rooftop locations of the households were also important for larval breeding. Although present in abundance, buckets were of less importance. Factors such as independent household, presence of a water storage system in the house, and fully/partly shaded outdoors were found to be significantly associated with household infestation of Aedes larvae. Identification and subsequent elimination of the most productive containers in a given area may potentially reduce mosquito density to below a level at which dengue transmission may be halted.

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is the most severe and progressive form of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which can lead to life-threatening conditions, however, there is still no approved drug for the treatment of NASH. In this study we used human-like NASH mouse model and treated orally with isorhamnetin at a dose of 50 mg/kg to analyze the effect of isorhamnetin on the progression of NASH. NASH-induced mice represented severe steatosis with inflammation, and fibrosis in liver accompanied with high level of liver injury markers in serum. Isorhamnetin treatment reduced intrahepatic lipid accumulation and TG content by inhibiting de novo lipogenic pathway in NASH-induced mice. Consistent with this, isorhamnetin-treated NASH mice showed improved liver injury markers, reduced collagen deposition as well as decreased gene expression of fibrogenic markers. Taken together, here we showed for the first time that synthesized isorhamnetin alleviates pathologic features of NASH and thus can potentially contribute to NASH drug development.

Caffeoylquinic acid (CQA) is a natural polyphenol with evidence of antioxidant and neuroprotective effects and prevention of deficits in spatial learning and memory. We studied the cognitive-enhancing effect of 3,4,5-tricaffeoylquinic acid (TCQA) and explored its cellular and molecular mechanism in the senescence-accelerated mouse prone 8 (SAMP8) model of aging and Alzheimer’s disease as well as in human neural stem cells (hNSCs). Mice were fed with 5 mg/kg of TCQA for 30 days and were tested in the Morris water maze (MWM). Brain tissues were collected for immunohistochemical detection of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) to detect activated stem cells and newborn neurons. TCQA-treated SAMP8 exhibited significantly improved cognitive performance in MWM compared to water-treated SAMP8. TCQA-treated SAMP8 mice also had significantly higher numbers of BrdU+/glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP+) and BrdU+/Neuronal nuclei (NeuN+) cells in the dentate gyrus (DG) neurogenic niche compared with untreated SAMP8. In hNSCs, TCQA induced cell cycle arrest at G0/G1, actin cytoskeleton organization, chromatin remodeling, neuronal differentiation, and bone morphogenetic protein signaling. The neurogenesis promoting effect of TCQA in the DG of SAMP8 mice might explain the cognition-enhancing influence of TCQA observed in our study, and our hNSCs in aggregate suggest a therapeutic potential for TCQA in aging-associated diseases.

In the present study, we conducted microarray gene expression profiling to explore the direction of differentiation of human amnion epithelial cells (hAECs) treated with rosmarinic acid (RA). hAECs have several clinical advantages over other types of stem cells, including availability, low immunogenicity, low rejection rate, non-tumorigenicity, and less ethical constraint. On the other hand, RA is a phenolic compound having several health benefits, including neuroprotective and antidepressant-like activities. In this study, hAECs were isolated from discarded term placenta and were treated with 20 μM RA for 7 days. Microarray gene expression profiling was conducted for three biological replicates of RA-treated and untreated control cells on day 0 and day 7. Gene set enrichment analysis, and gene annotation and pathway analysis were conducted using online data mining tools GSEA and DAVID. Gene expression profiling showed that RA treatment biased hAECs toward ectodermal lineage progression, regulated transcription factors involved in neuronal differentiation, regulated neural specific epigenetic modifiers and several extracellular signaling pathways of neural induction, and significantly inhibited Notch signaling pathway. Gene expression profiling of RA-treated hAECs reveals for the first time a potential role of RA in neural induction and neuronal differentiation of hAECs. Having a naturally occurring compound as differentiation inducer as well as a readily available source of stem cells would have great advantages for the cell-based therapies. Findings from our genome-wide analysis could provide a foundation for further in-depth investigation.

In this study, the effects of an ethanolic extract of Aurantiochytrium mangrovei 18W-13a strain (AM18W-13a) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory responses in RAW264 murine macrophages were studied. Pre-treatment with the AM18W-13a extract significantly suppressed the LPS-induced production of nitric oxide and pro-inflammatory cytokines. RAW264 cells treated with the AM18W-13a extract for 1 and 24 h were subjected to DNA microarray analyses for detecting the differentially expressed genes. The treatment of RAW264 cells with the AM18W-13a extract for 24 h significantly suppressed the expression of several genes associated with inflammation or chemotaxis. Furthermore, treatment with the AM18W-13a extract for 1 h suppressed the expression of Pde4b, but induced the expression of Egr2 and Egr3 in RAW264 cells. Additionally, the AM18W-13a extract significantly enhanced the expression of certain anti-inflammatory mediators. This study is the first report of the anti-inflammatory effects of the AM18W-13a extract and its mechanism of action in LPS-stimulated murine macrophages.