Several studies have investigated the antinociceptive, immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties of compounds found in the lavender essential oil (LEO), however to date, there is still lack of substantial data. The objective of this study was to assess the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects of lavender essential oil. The 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical decolorization assay was used for antioxidant activity evaluation. The anti-inflammatory activity was tested using two models of acute inflammation: carrageenan-induced pleurisy and croton oil-induced ear edema. The antinociceptive activity was tested using the pain model induced by formalin. LEO has antioxidant activity, which is dose-dependent response. The inflammatory response evoked by carrageenan and by croton oil was reduced through the pre-treatment of animals with LEO. In the pleurisy model, the drug used as positive control, dexamethasone, was more efficacious. However, in the ear swelling, the antiedematogenic effect of the oil was similar to that observed for dexamethasone. In the formalin test, LEO consistently inhibited spontaneous nociception and presented a similar effect to that of tramadol. The results of this study reveal (in vivo) the analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities of LEO and demonstrates its important therapeutic potential.

Sepsis is a syndrome caused by uncontrolled systemic inflammatory response of the individual, which represents a serious epidemiological problem worldwide. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and fructose-1,6-bisphosphate (FBP) in the treatment of experimental sepsis. We used rats that were divided into five experimental groups: normal control (not induced), septic control (induced using a capsule with non sterile fecal content and Escherichia coli), treated with FBP (500 mg/kg i.p.), treated with NAC (150 mg/kg i.p.), and treated with the combination of FBP with NAC. In the group treated with NAC, 16.68% of the mice survived, the FBP reduced the mortality of mice during the acute stage of the disease and increased the animals' survival time in 33.34%, and the combination of drugs had no effect. Our results show that NAC prevented the mortality of animals after septic induction. These data confirm the validity of the use of NAC in the treatment of sepsis. Our data also show that the synergistic action with FBP does not improve the picture.

It has been previously showed that fructose-1,6-bisphosphate (FBP) has anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects on several experimental inflammation models. However, the effects and mechanism of FBP on Zymosan-induced acute lung injury (ALI) in mice had not been tested. In this study, our aim was to assess the anti-inflammatory activities of FBP on Zymosan-induced ALI. We found that in vivo treatment with FBP (500 mg/kg i.p.) markedly decreased the nitric oxide (NO) levels in the lungs and significantly reduced bronchoalveolar lavage fluid total cell and neutrophil counts and protein exudation after Zymosan challenge. Furthermore, FBP inhibited inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) activities in RAW macrophages. Meanwhile, FBP did not inhibit the cyclooxigenase 2, interleukin-6, and nuclear factor kappa B transcription. Taken together, these results suggest that FBP shows anti-inflammatory effects through inhibiting lung edema, NO, and iNOS activities.

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Comparison of the performance of polymerase chain reaction and pp65 antigenemia for the detection of human cytomegalovirus in immunosuppressed patientsComparação do desempenho da reação em cadeia da polimerase e antigenemia pp65 para detecção de citomegalovírus humano em pacientes imunossuprimidos ABSTRACT Introduction: Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is often reactive in latently infected immunosuppressed patients. Accordingly, HCMV remains one of the most common infections following solid organ and hemopoietic stem cell transplantations, resulting in significant morbidity, graft loss and occasional mortality. The early diagnosis of HCMV disease is important in immunosuppressed patients, since in these individuals, preemptive treatment is useful. The objective of this study was to compare the performance of the in-house qualitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and pp65 antigenemia to HCMV infection in immunosuppressed patients in the Hospital de Clínicas of Porto Alegre (HCPA). Methods: A total of 216 blood samples collected between August 2006 and January 2007 were investigated. Results: Among the samples analyzed, 81 (37.5%) were HCMV-positive by PCR, while 48 (22.2%) were positive for antigenemia. Considering antigenemia as the gold standard, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive values and negative predictive values for PCR were 87.5%, 76.8%, 51.8% and 95.5% respectively. Conclusions: These results demonstrated that qualitative PCR has high sensitivity and negative predictive value (NPV). Consequently PCR is especially indicated for the initial diagnosis of HCMV infection. In the case of preemptive treatment strategy, identification of patients at high-risk for HCMV disease is fundamental and PCR can be useful tool.