ABSTRACT

Lyme borreliosis, also known as Lyme disease, is a multi-organ animal-borne disease, caused by bacteria – spirochetes of the Borrelia species classified as Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) strain (sensu lato). It is the most common tick-borne infectious disease in Europe and USA. The infection is transmitted by ticks of the species Ixodes ricinus. . In Europe, I. ricinus ticks usually prey on rodents and deer, Humans are infected through a tick bite to the skin. Bb has to be attached for at least 24 h for an infection to result. The risk of infection increases with length of time of human exposure to the tick, approaching 100% on the third day. Thus, early removal of ticks is the best method of Lyme borreliosis prophylaxis. The most common manifestation of Lyme disease, erythema migrans, appears at the site of a tick bite 3–30 days (but typically within 7–10 days) after the bite. It is recognized in more than 90% of patients who have objective evidence of B. burgdorferi infection. Erythema migrans is usually asymptomatic but may be pruritic or painful, and it may be accompanied by systemic clinical features such as fever, malaise, headache, myalgia, or arthralgia. A two-step diagnosis is necessary: the first step is based on a high sensitivity ELISA test with positive results confirmed by a more specific Western blot assay. Antibiotic therapy is curative in most cases, but some patients develop chronic symptoms, which do not respond to antibiotics.

Keywords: Lyme borreliosis ; ELISA; tick-borne; Western blot assay

ABSTRACT

Linum Usitatissimum (LU) has a lipid-lowering action in both normal and diabetic animals. Because OS leaves are rich in oil, the present study was conducted to explain the anti-hyperlipidemic and organ-protective effect of LU fixed oil in rats fed with a high fat (HF) diet. LU fixed oil was extracted by hexane and the fatty acids composition identified by GC-MS. Four groups of male Wistar rats included a normal control group, a high fat fed-diet (HF) group, a HF group treated with LU fixed oil, and a HF group treated with a reference drug Atorvastatin. The results show that LU fixed oil contains five kinds of fatty acids, of which alpha-linolenic acid was the major fatty acid. LU fixed oil depressed high serum levels of total cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL-C, and AI, whereas no significant effect on HDL-C was observed. LU fixed oil also suppressed high levels of liver cholesterol and triglyceride with no significant effect on both lipids in feces. In addition, LU fixed oil normalized the high serum levels of LDH and CK-MB but no significant effect on high serum levels of ALT, AST, and ALP was obtained. We conclude that treatment with LU fixed oil during the last three weeks of HF diet feeding decreased the high serum lipid profile and expressed antiartherogenic and cardioprotective actions against hyperlipidemia. The anti-hyperlipidemic action of OS fixed oil was mainly resulted from the suppression of liver lipid synthesis. Linolenic acid and linoleic acid contained in LU fixed oil were possibly responsible for both lipid-lowering and cardiac protective action against hyperlipidemia.

Keywords: Anti-Hyperlipidemic Activity, Linum Usitatissimum, Linolenic Acid, Atorvastatin.

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research was to prepare Tamoxifen loaded Nanosponge gel for Sustained release of drug, increase the drug solubility, and increase the drug permeability, to reduce the dosing frequency and side effects. The FTIR studies proved that there were no interactions between the drug and Polymers. Homogenization technique followed by centrifugation was employed to prepare Nanosponge using various polymers. The formulation were prepared using different Polymers (hydroxy Ethyl cellulose and PVA) in different ratios (Drug: Polymer–1:1, 1:1.5, 1:2, 1:2.5, 1:3, 1:3.5, 1:4 and 1:4.5) Using dichloromethane as cross linker as well as solvent. The formulations were characterized for drug entrapment efficiency. The Drug content of the formulations was observed to be from 62.90 to 95.94. The entrapment efficiency was found to be 68.97 to 99.44. The highest entrapment efficiency was observed with 98.68 and 99.44 for the formulations F4 and F8. The particle size analysis done by Malvern Zeta sizer showed that the average particle size of Tamoxifen loaded Nanosponge F3 average particle size of Tamoxifen loaded Nanosponge is 91.34nm and the poly dispersity index was found to be 0.196 and F8 average particle size of Tamoxifen Nanosponge F7 was 201.34nm and the poly dispersity index was found to be0.178. The in-vitro release of Tamoxifen Nanosponge optimized formulation F4 was found to be 46.39 % and F8was 45.56 % at the end of 24 hours. The drug content of the Gel G1and G2 was found to be 84 % and 81 % respectively. The in-vitro release of Doxorubicin Nanosponge Gel formulation G1 was found to be 28.77% and G2 was 22.12 % at the end of 24hours. The pH of the gels G1 and G2 was found to be 4.98 and 4.82 respectively. The Viscosity of the gels G1 and G2 was found to be 2.839x10⁶ cps and 2.823x10⁶ cps respectively.  Both of the optimized formulations of the respected drugs followed first order release kinetics with hi-guchi mechanism. In-vivo test performed showed that the both the formulations of respected drugs able to retain the drug for prolonged periods of time to provide stable drug release and bioavailability

Keywords: Tamoxifen, Nanosponge, Gel etc.