No abstract

In Japan, the use of health foods has increased with the rise in the prevalence of lifestyle-related diseases, with a consequent increase in health damage. Health foods that have caused health damage include green juice, aloe, Agaricus, and turmeric.Among them, turmeric affects the drug-metabolizing enzyme cytochrome P CYP and may cause changes in the effects of drugs. In this study, the state of intake of health foods and concomitant use of turmeric and drugs were investigated in individuals who were administered drugs.In Study , the state of intake of health foods, whether turmeric was used with other drugs, and changes in the perceived state of health were evaluated. As a result, of the subjects had used health foods, of which turmeric was the most frequent. Of these subjects, had used turmeric with other drugs. Hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes were frequently observed in these patients.Those who had used turmeric with other drugs reported no change in the perceive state of health.In Study , the disease name, names of the drugs administered, changes in the perceived state of health, and changes in the laboratory results were investigated in individuals who consented. The most frequent disease in these patients was hypertension. About / of the drugs administered were those that are metabolized by CYP A , but their concomitant use with turmeric caused no change in the perceive state of health or exerted no notable effect on the laboratory results.The results of this study suggest that the concomitant use of turmeric with drugs does not affect the perceived state of health or laboratory results. Further studies on the concomitant use of health foods and drugs primarily in patients with lifestyle-related diseases are awaited.

We examined the transcriptional augmentation of matrin 3, a nuclear matrix protein, of the SV40 promotermediated luciferase gene (pGL3) following transient transfection of recombinant plasmids into cells. It has been reported that the interaction of the Xmn I fragment, a highly repetitive DNA component as one of a typical matrix-or scaffold-attachment regions (MAR/SAR) tethered upstream from the SV40 promoter (pGL3-Xmn I) with matrin 3 appeared to be required for augmentation of luciferase gene transcription. In this study, we investigated the levels of induction in cells overexpressing the wild type and several deletion mutants of matrin 3. It appeared that pGL3-Xmn I augmented luciferase production to 4-times the control level in Ac2F cells, but 23-fold in cells overexpressing matrin 3. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay showed that the Xmn I fragment augmented luciferase gene transcription through interaction with matrin 3. Furthermore, our findings suggest that all of the functional domains tested in matrin 3 were necessary for transcriptional augmentation. We aim not only to describe the transcriptional augmentation of matrin 3 with MAR/SAR, but also to strengthen interest in their use to mediate the expression of therapeutic transgenes.