S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for the investigational Remdesivir as a potential antiviral for COVID-19 treatment. On May 7, 2020, Gilead Sciences, announced that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has granted regulatory approval of Veklury® (Remdesivir) as a treatment for SARS-CoV-2 infection, the virus that causes COVID-19 acute respiratory syndrome, under an exceptional approval pathway. Also, Corticosteroids are recommended for severe cases only to suppress the immune response and reduce symptoms, but not for mild and moderate patients where they are associated with a high-risk side effect. Based on the currently published evidence, we tried to highlight different diagnostic approaches, side effects and therapeutic agents that could help physicians in the frontlines.Evidence for potential effects of inorganic nitrate (NO3) on body weight is limited to inconsistent findings of animal experiments. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to quantify the overall effect of inorganic NO3, administered via drinking water, on body weight gain in rats. We searched PubMed, Scopus, and Embase databases, and the reference lists of published papers. Experiments on male rats, reported data on body weight in NO3-treated animals and controls, were included for quality assessment, meta-analyses, subgroup analyses, and meta-regressions. Of 173 initially obtained studies, 11 were eligible to be included in the analyses, which covered the years 2004 to 2019 and included a total of 43 intervention (n=395) and 43 control (n=395) arms. Overall, the final body weights were significantly lower in the NO3-supplemented groups compared to controls (WMD= -16.8 g, 95 % CI= -27.38, -6.24; P=0.002). Doses of NO3 higher than the median (> 72.94 mg L-1 d-1) and longer NO3 exposure (> 8 weeks) resulted in greater mean differences (WMD= -31.92 g, 95 % CI= -52.90, -10.94 and WMD= -23.16 g, 95 % CI= -35.64, -10.68 g). After exclusion of experiments using high doses of NO3 (> 400 mg L-1 d-1), the overall mean differences in body weights between the groups decreased by approximately 37 % but remained statistically significant (WMD= -10.11 g, 95 % CI= -19.04, -1.19, P=0.026). Mean changes in body weight were affected by age, baseline values in body weight, and the duration of the studies. These preliminary experimental findings strongly support the hypothesis that NO3 can be considered as a natural anti-obesity agent.Octyl gallate (OG) is an antioxidant commonly used in food, although there is no definition of its acceptable daily intake. There are reports in vitro and in vivo showing that food additives and drugs can alter lipid metabolism. Lipid droplet accumulation in hepatic cells is one of the main findings in the unregulated lipid metabolism and is strongly related to the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In this study, we investigated the effects of OG on lipid metabolism in the hepatocellular carcinoma cell line (HepG2). The results have shown, for the first time, that treatment with OG increased the overall amount of lipids, the triglyceride concentration, the lipid droplet area, and SREBP-1c and PPAR-γ gene expression. Taken together, the findings indicate that OG induces lipid droplet accumulation in HepG2 cells through the regulation of SREBP-1c and PPAR-γ gene expression without involving mTOR/S6K1 and may contribute to NAFLD when used as a food additive.Microglial cells are the primary immune cells in the central nervous system. In the mature brain, microglia perform functions that include eliminating pathogens and clearing dead/dying cells and cellular debris through phagocytosis. In the immature brain, microglia perform functions that include synapse development and the regulation of cell production through extensive contact with and phagocytosis of neural progenitor cells (NPCs). However, the functional role of microglia in the proliferation and differentiation of NPCs under hypoxic-ischemic (HI) injury is not clear. selleck products Here, we tested the hypothesis that microglia enhance NPCs proliferation following HI insult. Primary NPCs cultures were divided into four treatment groups 1) normoxic NPCs (NN); 2) normoxic NPCs cocultured with microglia (NN+M); 3) hypoxic NPCs (HN); and 4) hypoxic NPCs cocultured with microglia (HN+M). Hypoxic-ischemic injury was induced by pretreatment of the cell cultures with 100 µM deferoxamine mesylate (DFO). NPCs treated with 100 µM DFO (HN groups) for 24 hours had significantly increased expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1α), a marker of hypoxic cells. Cell number, protein expression, mitosis, and cell cycle phase were examined, and the data were compared between the four groups. We found that the number of cells expressing the NPCs marker Sox2 increased significantly in the HN+M group and that the number of PH3-positive cells increased in the HN+M group; flow cytometry analysis showed a significant increase in the percentage of cells in the G2/M phase in the HN+M group. In summary, these results support the concept that microglia enhance the survival of NPCs under HI injury by increasing NPCs proliferation, survival, and differentiation. These results further suggest that microglia may induce neuroprotective effects after hypoxic injury that can be explored to develop novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of HI injury in the immature brain.This note describes an autoclave chamber developed and constructed by Anton Paar and its application for in situ experiments under hydrothermal conditions. Reactions of crystalline phases can be studied by successive in situ measurements on a conventional laboratory X-ray diffractometer with Bragg-Brentano geometry at temperatures less then 483 K and saturated vapour pressure less then 2 MPa. Variations in the intensity of X-ray diffraction reflections of both reactants and products provide quantitative information for studying the reaction kinetics of both dissolution and crystal growth. Feasibility is demonstrated by studying a cementitious mixture used for autoclaved aerated concrete production. During a period of 5.7 h at 466 K and 1.35 MPa, the crystallization of torbermorite and the partial consumption of quartz were monitored.