مجله فیزیولوژی و فارماکولوژی ایران
سال دوم شماره 4 (پیاپی 8، زمستان 1397)

Increasing consumer’s awareness of the risk associated with synthetic food additives and the relationship between nutrition and health, has led to the development of functional foods i.e. those with additional health benefits beyond their basic nutrition. Marine animals that comprise about half of the world's biodiversity provided a wide spectrum of bioactive compounds, including peptides. Marine peptides with different biological activities might be used in the production of functional foods. The aim of this study was to review the studies conducted on the therapeutic effect of marine bioactive peptides in animal models and humans.

In this study, we used scientific articles about the therapeutic effects of marine bioactive peptides, indexed in the ISI, SID, PubMed, PubMed Central, Scopus, Web of Science databases during 2000- 2016.

Marine bioactive peptides produced from different proteinaceous raw materials through enzymatic hydrolysis or fermentation have been demonstrated to possess diverse physiological functions such as immune stimulation, blood pressure and lipids lowering, anti-diabetic, anti-oxidative stress, anti-obesity, skin protection and wound healing activities as well as memory and learning enhancing property in animal model or in human.

Marine bioactive peptides have potential as a functional ingredient in food product or nutraceuticals to increase consumer health and wellbeing.

Prevention of acute kidney injury (AKI) in high-risk patients following medical interventions is one of the most frequent challenges in clinical situations. Ischemia-reperfusion injury is known to be a major cause of AKI in human. So far, many studies have been performed on ischemia-reperfusion- induced AKI to develop interventions that may prevent or minimize this type of injury. Ischemic conditioning strategies are one of the most potent of these methods which comprise local and remote ischemic pre-conditioning, local and remote ischemic post-conditioning and remote ischemic per-conditioning. These simple and easily applicable techniques result in protection against ischemia-reperfusion injury in many organs including the kidneys by relatively unknown mechanisms. In this review, we discuss about the role of ischemic conditioning strategies in reducing kidney damage following ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are essential fatty acids for structure and function of the cells. Their presence in the human and mammalian diet is mandatory. The deficiency of these fatty acids underlies pathogenesis of several diseases. The ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in the diet plays an important role in their physiologic effect. However, the dietary intake of these fatty acids in the most of the world is less than the amounts that should be present in a healthy diet. Moreover, the omega-6/omega-3 ratio is not balanced in the most of dietary sources. Therefore, there is a need to find the new sources of omega-3 and omega-6-rich foods. Echium amaenum is a plant from borage family. This study looks at the beneficial effects of Iranian Echium amaenum seed oil (EO) on human and mammalian health, based on the useful fatty acids present in EO.

In this study we used the papers regarding the beneficial effects of EO on health that are indexed in ISI, Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed Central, PubMed, SID databases during 2000-2017.

EO has the considerable amount of amega-3, stearidonic acid, α-linolenic acid, omega-6, γ- linoleic acid, linoleic acid, and the important omega-9, oleic acid. In addition to presence of many useful unsaturated fatty acids, the ratio of omega-6/omega-3 in EO makes the beneficial effects of EO unique for human.

The acute or chronic intake of EO, as a supplement with minimal side effects, low cost and ease of access, can be effective in the treatment and prevention of many diseases.

Research and studies on the pharmacological effects of medicinal plants, have been recently considered by many researchers. Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) is one of the oldest medicinal plant known by human and its application came back to the ancient Greece. This paper presents a review on the studies conducted on pharmacological effects of chamomile.

The papers regarding the pharmacologic effects of chamomile, which has been indexed since 2000 till 2017 in ISI, Web of Science, Scopus, Pubmed Central, Pubmed, and SID databases, are used in this study.

Therapeutic effects of chamomile on gastrointestinal and neurological diseases, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antimicrobial, antioxidant and anticancer properties as well as wound healing activity have been shown in clinical and experimental studies.

Matricaria chamomilla has been recognized as an important medicinal plant in the world. Different uses of this plant in the pharmaceutical and food industries indicate considerable commercial value of this plant in the world.

Numerous studies have been performed on the effects of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in Parkinson's disease. The effectiveness of NSAIDs in diminishing the risk of Parkinson's disease development is still a question. Due to the high consumption of NSAIDs, this article reviews recent studies in this subject.

In this study, we reviewed the papers, which were cited in Pubmed database since 2007 till 2016 on the effects of NSAIDs on Parkinson's disease.
Results and

Based on the results of the studies conducted during 2007-2016, the use of NSAIDs is associated with a reduced risk in development of Parkinson's disease. However, the exact mechanism of neural protection by NSAIDs is not obvious. In this review article, we discussed on the reports and suggested various solutions to achieve more accurate results regarding impact of NSAIDs on Parkinson's disease.

Finding how certain behavior such as food consumption, aggression, cognition and movement arise from the interactions of individual cells in the neural circuits is a major challenge in neuroscience. Genetically, pharmacologically or lesioning manipulations have been used to investigate the response of neural network during a behavioral task. However, these approaches lack temporal precision on the timescale of neural coding and signaling. Using optogenetics researchers can control and manipulate the activity of specific cell types and projections with the speed and precision uniquely applicable by light. Optogenetics has revolutionized the field of neuroscience, and has enabled researchers to investigate the causal roles of specific neural circuit components. Here, in this review we consider the current state of this technology and provide a brief introduction of different opsins used in optogenetics and applying optogenetics in vivo to investigate function of different neural networks.

Epilepsy is the third most common neurological disorder after stroke and Alzheimer's disease. Genetic factors, infectious diseases, brain trauma / stroke, inflammation and febrile seizure during childhood are among the factors that cause epilepsy. However, the underlying cause of epilepsy is not known in 60% of patients, which is called cryptogenic epilepsy. Toxoplasmosis is an important parasitic infection with a worldwide spread caused by Toxoplasma gondii. Chronic infection does not have symptoms in people with an effective immune system. Nevertheless, recent studies have shown that this infection is probably a risk factor for some of the neurological abnormalities, including epilepsy. The aim of this study was to review published articles to estimate the risk of epilepsy due to Toxoplasmosis.

We directed a systematic literature search on the history of toxoplasmosis and epilepsy from different databases without any date limitation, to identify studies published in Persian or English. Search was conducted in a series of keywords in both Persian and English. The odds ratio was used to calculate the risk factor of Toxoplasma gondii for epilepsy. In all experiments, p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Ten studies were found until 2017. 3925 cases were studied, of which 2023 cases (627 Toxoplasma-positive) were epileptic and 1902 cases were not (572 Toxoplasma-positive). The total odds ratio was 1.16 (1.01-1.32), p = 0.034.

Despite few studies, toxoplasmosis might be considered as a risk factor for acquisition of epilepsy. To further clarify the effect of this parasite on acquisition of epilepsy, more comprehensive studies with enough number of different types of epilepsy and appropriate controls are required.

Alzheimer disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by severe cognitive impairment, inability to perform activities of daily living and mood changes. An increasing number of studies have supported that high cholesterol is a risk factor for the pathogenesis of AD, including beta-amyloid peptides (Aβ) pathology. Clinical and biomolecular studies have shown that statins, cholesterol-lowering drugs, could stave off the symptoms of AD. The role of cholesterol in the process of Aβ production and deposition has been fully considered on the basis of scientific results during the last 2 decades. It is clear that statins play a neuroprotective role to limit beta-amyloid pathology via cholesterol-lowering therapies. In addition, statins may favor the α-secretase nonamyloidogenic pathway of APP processing and inhibit the dimerization of b-secretase. Statins retard Aβ pathology via the anti-inflammation, anti-atherosclerotic actions, anti-oxidant and anti-apoptotic effects. There are a number of individual clinical cases where cognition is clearly adversely affected by statins. Also these findings suggest that administration of statins in midlife might prevent AD in late life by modifying genetic and non-genetic risk factors for AD.

It appears that there is still a lot of work to implement statin medications in clinical and preclinical studies of AD.