The clinical efficacy of the monotherapy involving the administration of a high dose of dihydroartemisinin (DHA 900 mg) for 5 days was compared with that of the combination regimen (DHA 600 mg + mefloquine [MQ] 750 mg) in an open randomized study in 90 patients with uncomplicated falciparum malaria in the southern part of Viet Nam. Patients were randomly treated with the DHA-5 day monotherapy r...

OBJECTIVE Aim of this study was to identify whether docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) has a vital antidepressant by hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis) or not. METHODS Mice were divided into 2 groups: control group and DHA dietary group. DHA dietary group was treated with DHA dietary everyday for consecutive 50 days. The forced swimming test and tail suspension test were conducted. Hypoth...

DHA, the main n-3 PUFA in the brain, is synthesized from n-3 PUFA precursors by astrocytes. To assess the potential of this process to supply DHA for the brain, we investigated whether the synthesis in astrocytes is dependent on DHA availability. Rat brain astrocytes differentiated with dibutyryl cAMP and incubated in media containing 10% fetal bovine serum synthesized DHA from alpha-linolenic ...

In this placebo controlled, randomised, double blind trial, pregnant women received from the 20th week of gestation onwards either 500 mg docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), 400 mg 5-methyl-tetra-hydro-folate (5-MTHF), or placebo, or a combination of 500 mg DHA and 400 mg 5-MTHF. The dietary supplements were well tolerated; the dropout rates did not differ significantly in the active arms of the study ...

Low long-chain PUFA (LC-PUFA, or LCP) consumption relates to suboptimal neurodevelopment, coronary artery disease, and [postpartum (PP)] depression. Maternal-to-infant LCP transport during pregnancy and lactation is at the expense of maternal status, a process known as biomagnification. Despite biomagnification, maternal and infant LCP status generally declines during lactation. To assess the 1...

The role of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in the fluidity of the annular lipid regions and their associated membrane-bound proteins is still not as well understood as that in the global (bulk) lipid regions. We therefore studied the effects of dietary DHA on the relationship between annular and global lipid fluidity and membrane-bound enzymes such as 5'-nucleotidase and Mg(2)+-ATPase in the rat bi...

Inflammatory lipid mediators derived from arachidonic acid (AA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) modify the pathophysiology of brain ischemia. The goal of this work was to investigate the formation of eicosanoids and docosanoids generated from AA and DHA, respectively, during no-flow cerebral ischemia. Rats were subjected to head-focused microwave irradiation 5 min following decapitation (complet...

To determine the reductive process of extracellular dehydroascorbic acid (DHA), molecules (homocysteine, homocysteine thiolactone, methionine, cysteine, and homoserine) were tested to identify those with the potential to reduce DHA to ascorbic acid (AA). Homocysteine (Hcy) was the most potent of the molecules tested. The efficacy of Hcy was compared with that of other molecules able to reduce D...

The effect of dietary docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:6n-3) with two lipid types on lipid peroxidation of the brain was investigated in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice. Each group of female Balb/c mice was fed a diet containing DHA-connecting phospholipids (DHA-PL) or DHA-connecting triacylglycerols (DHA-TG) for 5 wk. Safflower oil was fed as the control. The lipid peroxide level of t...