Barbiturates are known to suppress protective immunity, and their therapeutic use is associated with nosocomial infections. Although barbiturates inhibit T cell proliferation, differentiation, and cytokine synthesis, only thiobarbiturates markedly reduce the activation of immune regulatory transcription factors such as nuclear factor-kappaB and nuclear factor of activated T cells. In this study...

T HE POSSIBILITY OF DRUG intoxication frequently arises in patients admitted to the hospital in coma. Ingestion of salicylates by children and of barbiturates by adults are the most common causes. Since the introduction of glutethimide (2-ethyl-2-phenylglutarimide) in 1954, there have been increasing reports implicating this drug in drug intoxication. Since the clinical picture of glutethimide ...

The barbiturate phenobarbital has been in use in the treatment of epilepsy for 100 years. It has long been recognized that barbiturates act by prolonging and potentiating the action of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) on GABA(A) receptors and at higher concentrations directly activating the receptors. A large body of data supports the concept that GABA(A) receptors are the primary central nervous sys...

BACKGROUND Barbiturates have been shown to be neuroprotective in several animal models, but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. In this study, the authors investigated the effect of barbiturates on free radical scavenging and attempted to correlate this with their neuroprotective effects in a model of hypoxic cell death in human NT2-N neurons. METHODS Hydroxyl radicals were generated by as...