Gulf War illness (GWI) research has generated an abundance of interesting but diverse data. While increased molecular mechanisms have been identified, the high levels of heterogeneity for initial trigger factors, cellular defects, and symptoms continuously challenge the efforts of clinical implications of the research, including the search for biomarkers and the common mechanism of GWI. In this analysis, I consider GWI as an adaptive illness condition where system stresses and genome instability-mediated cellular evolution play an important role. By further defining GWI as an environmental illness caused by extremely high levels of specific Gulf War (GW) stresses, the challenges for GWI research are briefly reviewed, with comparisons to other common and complex diseases such as cancer. Based on the new discovery that many GWI patients display elevated genome instability coupled with increased cellular stress, a general model of GWI is proposed to unify GW-specific stress, cellular damage, and genome-heterogeneity-mediated cellular adaptation and evolution, as well as diverse-related symptoms. Finally, some new strategies are suggested based on the general model of GWI.

[ABSTRACT]  [FULL TEXT]  [PDF]  [Mobile Full text]  [EPub] [CITATIONS]

Cardiovascular diseases refer to all disorders related to the heart and its circulatory system, such as atherosclerosis, arrhythmia, hypertension, and stroke. In recent years, numerous environmental studies in humans and animal models have confirmed a positive association between ambient particulate matter (PM) exposure and cardiovascular morbidity/mortality. The deleterious impacts of the exposure are involved in multiple mechanisms, in which one is due to the pro-inflammatory effects that result from the peroxidation of lipids, which provide critical structure and function in cellular membranes, the main sites of pollutant attack. This review aims to assess the current scientific literature relating to pertinent mechanisms, molecular pathways, and at-risk populations associated with cardiovascular complications induced by ambient PM exposure.

[ABSTRACT]  [FULL TEXT]  [PDF]  [Mobile Full text]  [EPub] [CITATIONS]

Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the antiviral activity of the Cucumis metuliferus alkaloids against Newcastle disease virus-LaSota (NDV-L). Methods: Hemagglutination (HA) test method using embryonated eggs for study. Results: The result showed "nonlethality" of the alkaloids in 10 days old embryonated eggs. Exposure of the alkaloids to NDV-L infected embryonated eggs showed negative HA test result from varying 2-fold diluted concentration between 50 and 3.125 mg/ml of the alkaloid, while the concentration between 1.563 and 0.195 mg/ml gave positive HA test. Negative HA response means the alkaloids at that concentration have antiviral activities while positive HA test implies the presence of antibodies production in response to an antigen as seen with the control, meaning that viral replication was not inhibited when the embryonated eggs were exposed to lower doses of the alkaloids. Conclusion: The study showed that the alkaloids of C. metuliferus fruit pulp extract have good margin of safety with a high level of antiviral properties as confirmed by the result of the HA test.

[ABSTRACT]  [FULL TEXT]  [PDF]  [Mobile Full text]  [EPub] [CITATIONS]

[FULL TEXT]  [PDF]  [Mobile Full text]  [EPub] [CITATIONS]

This review has discussed various topics related to environmental health. The major findings highlighted are air pollution, children and adult vulnerability, cytokines related to interleukin-33, thymic stromal lymphopoietin, tobacco smoke related to neonates, women, and their families, and perinatal outcomes. The Emergency Department was also highlighted related to asthma and air pollution concentrations within the emergency department, admissions for respiratory effects in pediatrics, and in patients with asthma that often present to the emergency department for treatment for acute exacerbations.

[ABSTRACT]  [FULL TEXT]  [PDF]  [Mobile Full text]  [EPub]