65 research outputs found
Diminazene aceturate (DIZE) ameliorates hypertension and induces anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects in TGR(Mren2)27
No full textINTRODUCTION: Diminazene aceturate (DIZE) was described as an angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) activator. ACE2/Angiotensin-(1-7)/Mas receptor axis presents protective actions on cardiovascular diseases and plays an important modulatory role in the neurobiology of mood and anxiety disorders. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effects of chronic intracerebroventricular (ICV) treatment with DIZE on blood pressure, anxiety- and depression-like behaviors in hypertensive transgenic (mRen2)27 rats (TGR). METHODS: Male TGR and Sprague-Dawley rats (10-12 weeks old) were subjected to chronic ICV infusion of DIZE (1.0 μg/h for 7 days). Blood pressure and heart rate were measured by tail plethysmography and anxiety- and depression-like behaviors were evaluated through elevated plus maze, marble burying and forced swim tests, respectively. RESULTS: Treatment with DIZE induced a significant reduction in mean arterial pressure in both TGR and SD rats. A decrease in heart rate was only observed in the hypertensive animals. Additionally, treatment with DIZE attenuated the anxiety- and depression-like behaviors that were observed in TGR. CONCLUSION: DIZE has central anti-hypertensive, anxiolytic, and anti-depressive effects
The potential actions of angiotensin-converting enzyme II (ACE2) activator diminazene aceturate (DIZE) in various diseases
No full textThe renin angiotensin system (RAS) regulates fluid balance, blood pressure and maintains vascular tone. The potent vasoconstrictor angiotensin II (Ang II) produced by angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) comprises the classical RAS. The non-classical RAS involves the conversion of Ang II via ACE2 into the vasodilator Ang (1-7) to counterbalance the effects of Ang II. Furthermore, ACE2 converts AngA into another vasodilator named alamandine. The over activation of the classical RAS (increased vasoconstriction) and depletion of the non-classical RAS (decreased vasodilation) results in vascular dysfunction. Vascular dysfunction is the leading cause of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Additionally, local RAS is expressed in various tissues and regulates cellular functions. RAS dysregulation is involved in other several diseases such as inflammation, renal dysfunction and even cancer growth. An approach in restoring vascular dysfunction and other pathological diseases is to either increase the activity of ACE2 or reduce the effect of the classical RAS by counterbalancing Ang II effects. The antitrypanosomal agent, diminazene aceturate (DIZE), is one approach in activating ACE2. DIZE has been shown to exert beneficial effects in CVD experimental models of hypertension, myocardial infarction, type 1 diabetes and atherosclerosis. Thus, this review focuses on DIZE and its effect in several tissues such as blood vessels, cardiac, renal, immune and cancer cells
Diminazene Aceturate Reduces Angiotensin II Constriction and Interacts with the Spike Protein of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2
No full textDiminazene aceturate (DIZE) is a putative angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) activator and angiotensin type 1 receptor antagonist (AT(1)R). Its simple chemical structure possesses a negatively charged triazene segment that is homologous to the tetrazole of angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB), which explains its AT(1)R antagonistic activity. Additionally, the activation of ACE2 by DIZE converts the toxic octapeptide angiotensin II (AngII) to the heptapeptides angiotensin 1–7 and alamandine, which promote vasodilation and maintains homeostatic balance. Due to DIZE’s protective cardiovascular and pulmonary effects and its ability to target ACE2 (the predominant receptor utilized by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 to enter host cells), it is a promising treatment for coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). To determine DIZE’s ability to inhibit AngII constriction, in vitro isometric tension analysis was conducted on rabbit iliac arteries incubated with DIZE or candesartan and constricted with cumulative doses of AngII. In silico docking and ligand interaction studies were performed to investigate potential interactions between DIZE and other ARBs with AT(1)R and the spike protein/ACE2 complex. DIZE, similar to the other ARBs investigated, was able to abolish vasoconstriction in response to AngII and exhibited a binding affinity for the spike protein/ACE2 complex (PDB 6LZ6). These results support the potential of DIZE as a treatment for COVID-19
Longitudinal Analysis of Antibody Responses to Trachoma Antigens Before and After Mass Drug Administration.
No full textBlinding trachoma, caused by the bacteria Chlamydia trachomatis, is a neglected tropical disease targeted for elimination by 2020. A major component of the elimination strategy is mass drug administration (MDA) with azithromycin. Currently, program decisions are made based on clinical signs of ocular infection, but we have been investigating the use of antibody responses for post-MDA surveillance. In a previous study, IgG responses were detected in children lacking clinical evidence of trachoma, suggesting that IgG responses represented historical infection. To explore the utility of serology for program evaluation, we compared IgG and IgA responses to trachoma antigens and examined changes in IgG and IgA post-drug treatment. Dried blood spots and ocular swabs were collected with parental consent from 264 1-6 year olds in a single village of Kongwa District, central Tanzania. Each child also received an ocular exam for detection of clinical signs of trachoma. MDA was given, and six months later an additional blood spot was taken from these same children. Ocular swabs were analyzed for C. trachomatis DNA and antibody responses for IgA and total IgG were measured in dried bloods spots. Baseline antibody responses showed an increase in antibody levels with age. By age 6, the percentage positive for IgG (96.0%) was much higher than for IgA (74.2%). Antibody responses to trachoma antigens declined significantly six months after drug treatment for most age groups. The percentage decrease in IgA response was much greater than for IgG. However, no instances of seroreversion were observed. Data presented here suggest that focusing on concordant antibody responses in children will provide the best serological surveillance strategy for evaluation of trachoma control programs
Haiti in Translation: Anacaona by Jean Métellus
No full textThis interview with Susan Pickford considers her translation of Jean Métellus’s 1986 play Anacaona. Susan contacted me via the University of Liverpool’s Francofil Listserv, where she first heard of the blog series. She informed me of her translation of Anacaona, and I leaped at the opportunity to interview her via e-mail about a Haitian author who has been seldom translated into English and whose work is growing increasingly out of print in France
Poesias para la Fiesta, que el Colegio de la Cõpañia de Iesus de Granada dedica á la celebridad de la Concepcion de N. Señora, motiuada de el Breve de nuestro Santissimo Padre Alexando Septimo, este año de 1662...
No full text4 ej. de la misma obraPie de imp. tomado del colofónAnot. ms. en ej. A-031-126 (25-5) : " Esto hizo el P. Pedro de Montenegro ".Anot. ms. en ej. A-031-132 (40-2) : " Author deste pliego de poesias P. Pedro de Montenegro "Su inicio es: "Alexandro nos dize... ".Palau y Uriarte dan como autor de las seguidillas al P. MontenegroEn CCPB recogidos con sign. top. A-31-126 (255)Enc. Holandes
Translating the Francophone Caribbean: Centering Black Production, Decentering Translation Practices
No full textIn her article, “A Tree as a Record: On Translating Mahagony by Edouard Glissant,” translator Betsy Wing recounts how Martinican writer Edouard Glissant expressed his disinclination to respond to translators’ questions and justified his intention by saying, “I wrote it once, now it’s your turn to write it” (124). According to Glissant, translating and writing are similar in nature. The art of translation therefore does not lie in the process of translating words into another language but in the skill to compose a text anew, that is to say to develop unique ways of ‘writing’ and therefore to deconstruct the idea of translation as a simple act of transferal. As such, this article considers various translators who have ‘written’ Caribbean texts anew. It will specifically look at three works from Black French-speaking Caribbean authors which were all translated into English, namely Patrick Chamoiseau, L’esclave vieil homme et le molosse (1997) translated by Linda Coverdale as Slave Old Man (2019); Gisèle Pineau’s La Grande drive des esprits (1993) translated by J. Michael Dash as The Drifting of Spritis (1999); and Yanick Lahens’s Tante Résia et les Dieux (1994) translated by Betty Wilson as Aunt Résia and the Spirits and Other Stories (2010).
Comparing these translations side by side offers several points of interest: First, it places the race and gender of the author at the core of the translation. Chamoiseau, a Black Martinican man, was translated by Coverdale, a white woman from the United States; Lahens, a Black Haitian woman, by Wilson, a Black Jamaican woman; Pineau, a Black Guadeloupean woman, by Dash, a Trinidadian man. How does the race, gender, or ethnic background of the translator influence the process of translating Black-authored texts? In what ways does it affect the translation of Black experiences? Secondly, we examine various approaches to translating Caribbean creoles into English. For example, Coverdale deliberately keeps the Martinican French in her translation to emphasize the musicality of the text and the voice of the author over transparency and understanding. Similarly to Coverdale, Wilson’s translation preserves the Haitian Creole, which bears traces of orality, while also indicating filiations between Haitian Creole and creoles spoken in the Anglophone Caribbean in footnotes. Dash, on the other hand, elects to substitute one creole with another, the Guadeloupean with the Jamaican, allowing the text “to shove the reader around, to [to make them] feel unbalanced” (Dash, 30:09). If the approaches diverge between the translators, each of them views translation as a way to render a foreign text accessible, while simultaneously unsettling the reader’s world.
Overall, this comparative analysis of the translations of Black authors from the Francophone Caribbean seeks to highlight a plurality of translation approaches centering Black cultural production while destabilizing the idea of a uniform translation practice
Comparison of the Cepheid GeneXpert CT/NG assay to the Hologic Aptima Combo2 assay for the detection of Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae in self-collected rectal swabs
No full textLa Mulâtresse During the Two World Wars: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Suzanne Lacascade’s Claire-Solange, âme-africaine and Mayotte Capécia’s Je suis Martiniquaise
No full textWhen we think of the literature produced before, during, and after the two World Wars we rarely think of the Caribbean as a site of significant literary output. Typically, we privilege a white, male, European literary voice. If we do consider literature from elsewhere, it usually follows a pattern of normative privilege. Therefore, it is useful to consider the female Caribbean voice and its response to colonialism, racism, and gender violence during the period between 1914 and 1945. Claire-Solange, âme-africaine offers arguably one of the best examples of a female Caribbean perspective on World War I as well as global politics. Although Suzanne Lacascade’s novel has been obscured and lost over time, the Martinican author portrays everyday scenarios in France during World War I to empower marginalized Caribbean women during one of the most tumultuous moments in the early 20th Century. While Lacascade shifts our lens to the First World War, Mayotte Capécia’s Je suis Martiniquaise is set, in part, during the blockade years in Martinique during World War II under Admiral Georges Robert. Together, these two Martinican female writers – even though they are less well known than their canonical male compatriots Aimé Césaire, Édouard Glissant, and Patrick Chamoiseau – lucidly portray the everyday lives of mulatto women in Martinique and in France as they negotiate their place on the periphery of French society. I argue below that through their interrogations of the everyday during these two wars that Lacascade and Capécia generate female protagonists who challenge racial, cultural, gender, and sexual stereotypes, which have historically rendered mixed race women as marginalized figures in Francophone Caribbean literature
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