Cancer is now the second leading cause of death worldwide. It is estimated that every year, approximately 9.6 million people die of oncologic diseases. The most common origins of malignancy are the lungs, breasts, and colorectum. Even though in recent years, many new drugs and therapeutic options have been introduced, there are still no safe, effective chemopreventive agents. Cyclitols seem poised to improve this situation. There is a body of evidence that suggests that their supplementation can decrease the incidence of colorectal cancer, lower the risk of metastasis occurrence, lower the proliferation index, induce apoptosis in malignant cells, enhance natural killer (NK) cell activity, protect cells from free radical damage, and induce positive molecular changes, as well as reduce the side effects of anticancer treatments such as chemotherapy or surgery. Cyclitol supplementation appears to be both safe and well-tolerated. This review focuses on presenting, in a comprehensive way, the currently available knowledge regarding the use of cyclitols in the treatment of different malignancies, particularly in lung, breast, colorectal, and prostate cancers.

Inositol is a natural substance found widely in plants. It is used in therapies for many medical cases. The aim of this study was to determine the toxicity of myo-inositol (MI) and to investigate its potential hepatoprotective character. In the first part of the study, zebrafish embryos were incubated with 5, 10, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 mg/mL MI. Endpoints such as survivability, hatching rate, malformation, and mobility were evaluated. Our results demonstrated that the high doses of MI lead to increased mortality and malformations and reduce the hatching rate in comparison to the control group. Moreover, low doses of this compound do not produce a negative effect on zebrafish and even have the ability to increase the hatchingrate and mobility. In the second part of the study, the hepatoprotective effect of MI was tested. Zebrafish larvae from the line Tg(fabp10a:DsRed) were incubated for 24 h with 1% and 2% ethanol (EtOH),5 mg/mL of MI with 1% EtOH, and 5 mg/mL of MI with 2% EtOH. No significant differences between the groups with EtOH and the group treated with EtOH with MI were observed. Our results suggest that MI has no positive benefits on hepatocytes of zebrafish larvae.

Epilepsy, with about 70 million affected people worldwide, is one of the biggest challenges of medicine today. It is estimated that about one-third of epileptic patients receive inadequate treatment. Inositols have proved effective in many disorders; hence, in the current study, we tested potential antiepileptic properties of scyllo-inositol (SCI)—one of the most common commercially available inositols—in zebrafish larvae with pentylenetetrazol-induced seizures. First, we studied the general effect of SCI on zebrafish motility, and then we tested SCI antiepileptic properties over short (1 h) and long (120 h) exposure protocols. Our results demonstrated that SCI alone does not reduce zebrafish motility regardless of the dose. We also observed that short-term exposure to SCI groups reduced PTZ-treated larva motility compared to controls (p < 0.05). In contrast, prolonged exposure did not produce similar results, likely due to the insufficient concentration of SCI given. Our results highlight the potential of SCI use in epilepsy treatment and warrant further clinical studies with inositols as potential seizure-reducing drugs.

Introduction: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT), with prevalence of about 0.8%, is one of the most common autoimmune disorders in the world. Due to the fact that HT affects level of thyroid hormones, symptoms of HT are from almost every body system. Aim: The aim of this study was to estimate the correlations between symptoms reported by patients with HT and the level of TSH, fT3 and fT4 and also to check the frequency of reporting each symptom at presentation and to estimate the frequency of other co-existing with HT autoimmune diseases. Material and methods: This study included 65 patients with HT who decided to complete the online survey. Results and discussion: The most common among the reported symptoms were fatigue (77%), sleepiness (60%) and weak concentration (57%). The results also showed higher prevalence of: rheumatoid arthritis, coeliac disease, systemic lupus erythematous, diabetes mellitus type 1, inflammatory bowel disease and atopic dermatitis than in general population. Significant correlations were found between TSH level and the symptoms including: weak concentration (P = 0.0002), easy freezing (P = 0.02) and body weight gain (P = 0.02). There was also a correlation between level of fT3 and physical exercise (P = 0.02). Conclusions: The findings in this study suggest that there is a higher relative risk for some autoimmune disorders (especially rheumatoid arthritis, coeliac disease and systemic lupus erythematous) for people with HT. The findings also suggest that some symptoms of HT correlate with the level of thyroid parameters.

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