The antlepileptic Materia Medica of Pedoacus Dioscorides

Since it was written about the middle of the 1st Century AD, and up to comparatively recent times, the great Herbal, or Materia Medica, of Dioscorides provided medicine with its chief source of information about what were then considered therapeutic substances. The work contained data on various materials of botanical, biological and mineral origin which were claimed to provide benefit to sufferers from epilepsy, though often with no clear underlying rationale for their use. Some of these materials continued to be used as antiepileptic remedies over many centuries till they were finally recognised to be without useful effect in the disorder. The longest survivor amongst the Dioscoridean antiepileptic remedies was a rather esoteric one, viz. two stones taken from the belly of a young swallow during the rising phase of the moon and also whilst the swallow's parent birds were absent from the nest. The stones, or one of them, were worn against the skin of the seizure sufferer. The use of the swallow stones for epilepsy was recommended as late as in the writings of Thomas Willis (1675). (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Inhibition of epidermal growth factor receptor expression by RNA interference in A549 cells

AIM: To investigate the biological features of A549 cells in which epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptors expression were suppressed by RNA interference (RNAi). METHODS: A549 cells were transfected using short small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) formulated with Lipofectamine 2000. The EGF receptor numbers were determined by Western blotting and flowcytometry. The antiproliferative effects of sequence specific double stranded RNA (dsRNA) were assessed using cell count, colony assay and scratch assay. The chemosensitivity of transfected cells to cisplatin was measured by MTT. RESULTS: Sequence specific dsRNA-EGFR down-regulated EGF receptor expression dramatically. Compared with the control group, dsRNA-EGFR reduced the cell number by 85.0 %, decreased the colonies by 63.3 %, inhibited the migration by 87.2 %, and increased the sensitivity of A549 to cisplatin by four-fold. CONCLUSION: Sequence specific dsRNA-EGFR were capable of suppressing EGF receptor expression, hence significantly inhibiting cellular proliferation and motility, and enhancing chemosensitivity of A549 cells to cisplatin. The successful application of dsRNA-EGFR for inhibition of proliferation in EGF receptor overexpressing cells can help extend the list of available therapeutic modalities in the treatment of non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC).