Saffron, the dried red-orange stigmas of Crocus sativus L, has been known as a flavoring agent, food coloring and traditional herbal medicine. Pharmacological effects of saffron are mainly attributed to crocin, crocetin, picrocrocin and safranal. These components especially crocin, have significant effects including antidepressant and anticonvulsant, analgesic, anti-cancer and other therapeutic...

Introduction. Hepatotoxicity is a concern in HIV/hepatitis C virus (HCV) coinfected patients due to their underlying liver disease. This study assessed the incidence of hepatotoxicity in HIV/HCV co-infected patients in two outpatient infectious diseases clinics. Methods. HIV/HCV co-infected adults were included in this retrospective study if they were PI or NNRTI naïve at their first clinic vis...

To observe drug-induced hepatotoxicity by long-term gefitinib administration in the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer. The data of 101 patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer, for which gefitinib had been used orally for 3 months or longer, were retrospectively analyzed. The median duration of gefitinib administration was 14 months (3-60 months). Forty pati...

Background Toxicities due to anti-TB treatment frequently occur among TB/HIV-coinfected patients. Objectives To determine the association between anti-TB drug concentrations and the occurrence of hepatotoxicity and peripheral neuropathy among TB/HIV-coinfected patients. Methods TB/HIV-coinfected patients were started on standard dose anti-TB treatment according to WHO guidelines. Anti-TB dr...

Idiosyncratic drug-induced hepatotoxicity is a major cause of liver damage and drug pipeline failure, and is difficult to study as patient-specific features are not readily incorporated in traditional hepatotoxicity testing approaches using population pooled cell sources. Here we demonstrate the use of patient-specific hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) derived from induced pluripotent stem cells for...

The protective effects of oleanolic acid-type saponins and their derivatives on in vitro immunological liver injury of primary cultured rat hepatocytes were studied. A known antihepatotoxic saponin (chikusetsusaponin IVa, 1) showed hepatoprotective activity in this model. Although a rhamnosyl derivative (2) of 1 similarly showed hepatoprotective activity, its prosapogenin (5) did not show any h...

BACKGROUND To determine the rates of hepatotoxicity and treatment completion associated with intermittent rifampin and pyrazinamide (RZ) therapy for latent tuberculosis infection, we evaluated a cohort of patients from a targeted tuberculin testing site in Tennessee. METHODS From 4 February 2000 through 9 November 2001, a total of 423 patients with latent tuberculosis infection received direc...

INTRODUCTION We evaluated the safety of current treatment regimens for patients with RA and HBV in a large US cohort. METHODS We identified biologic and nonbiologic treatment episodes of RA patients using 1997 to 2011 national data from the US Veterans Health Administration. Eligible episodes had evidence of HBV infection (HBV surface antigen, HBV core antibody, HBV e-antibody and/or HBV DNA)...

diabetes is a common metabolic disease in the world that has many adverse effects. olibanum gum resin (from trees of the genus boswellia) has traditionally been used in the treatment of various diseases such as diabetes. the aim of this study was the comparison of olibanum gum resin effect with placebo on the treatment of type 2 diabetes. inclusion criteria was diabetic patients with fasting bl...

noncommunicable diseases pose a real threat to and their incidence is forecast to increase in both developed and developing countries; and, diabetes, obesity, and related complications are predicted to pose a great burden on health care systems all across the world. however, current used conventional medications and surgical interventions fall short of effectively controlling the rampant spread...