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This review discusses the history and current research on St. John’s Wort (an herb widely used for treatment of depression), including preclinical investigations, clinical trials and interactions with other medications.
Monitoring pharmacodynamic parameters such as core body temperature can be a useful tool in pharmacology studies. Our goal was to examine the usefulness of core temperature and locomotor activity as pharmacodynamic indicators, using nicotine as a test substance. In this study, we used an automated platform to conduct programmed dosing, temperature monitoring, and locomotor activity monitoring without human presence in the study room. Four rats were implanted with a gastric catheter and a temperature probe which could be externalized for direct connection to a power source and monitoring system outside the cage. Animals were housed in an interactive caging system which monitored locomotor activity, and connected to an automated dosing system and temperature monitor. The rats were intragastrically dosed with nicotine daily for four days (0.1, 0.3, 0.6, and 1 mg/kg). To control for possible development of tolerance, each rat was dosed in a different order. Core temperature and activity were continuously monitored for one hour before and two hours after dosing. Intragastric nicotine increased body temperature at all doses, with 0.6 mg/kg resulting in the greatest increase. 0.6 mg/kg nicotine also resulted in the greatest locomotor activation. Our data indicate that core temperature and motor activity can be useful pharmacodynamic indicators, as well as general indicators of animal health.
This article is the writer’s thoughts on how to improve K-12 science education, based on 40 years of his observations of what works and what doesn’t. He makes no claim to being an expert, only to being an interested observer. Refuting much of the negative thought about the current state of education in the United States, the writer notes the many talented and dedicated teachers and students who perform at the highest levels with the full support of their families and the business community. On the other hand, he concludes that we can do far better and outlines ways in which science education can be improved.
Pursuing central nervous system (CNS) active therapeutics is one of the most expensive and labor-intensive areas in drug development. An increase in the speed of CNS drug development could create a substantial savings for pharmaceutical companies. A common feature of all CNS drugs is that they must penetrate the blood brain barrier (BBB). The purpose of the current study was to determine the utility of in vivo microdialysis in combination with automated blood sampling as a screening tool when delineating BBB permeability to a CNS active compound such as nicotine, and its major metabolite, cotinine. The results of the current study suggest the combination of in vivo microdialysis with automated blood sampling can determine whether a drug readily crosses the blood brain barrier and is useful as a screening tool for CNS active drugs.
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