Diazepam and halazepam in anxiety: some prognostic indicators

A multiple step-search regression procedure was applied to data obtained with 37 diazepam and 42 halazepam treated anxious outpatients. Good treatment outcome was predicted for those patients who reported a more adequate family adjustment, the presence of precipitating stress, and who either had no prior psychotropic drug treatment, or if they had received such treatment, had experienced a good response. Probably of greatest interest to the practicing clinician was the observation that patients high in initial anxiety but low in initial interpersonal problems improved the most with both medications. Differential drug effects indicated halazepam to do particularly poorly in less anxious patients and in those patients given a good prognosis by the doctor. Diazepam response was much less affected by these variables. It is speculated that the excessive sedating effect of the daily halazepam dosage (160 mg/d) used in this study may explain these differential drug effects. In the dosages employed, namely, diazepam 20 mg/d and halazepam 160 mg/d, diazepam produced the more consistent anti-anxiety effects. The indication that halazepam 160 mg/d was more effective than diazepam 20 mg/d in the initially sicker patients, while of interest, is probably simply a dose-related phenomenon, indicating that diazepam 20 mg/d was too low a daily dosage for severely anxious patients, a fact well known by most clinicians.

The disposition of threo-alpha-(2-piperidyl)-2-trifluoromethyl-6-(4-trifluoromethylphenyl)-4-pyridinemethanol phosphate in mice

Following oral administration of the 14C-labeled title compound to male mice, the drug was well absorbed and rapidly distributed throughout the body. At least 90% of the radioactivity in the tissues at 2 hr after dosing was identified as parent compound by thin-layer chromatography. The peak plasma level of radioactivity occurred at 4 hr, and the t1/2 of elimination of parent drug was about 26 hr from the plasma and about 27 hr from the red blood cells. The major route of elimination of total radioactivity was fecal (84%), with only 5.5% in the urine at 240 hr. Only a trace of radioactivity (0.32%) was found in the expired air over a 192-hr period.

Primary type V hyperlipoproteinemia in childhood

Metabolic studies of a 9-year-old girl with primary type V hyperlipoproteinemia demonstrated normal glucose tolerance, plasma insulin and glucagon responses to stimuli, and serum uric acid level. Fasting plasma triglyceride levels rapidly increased when the patient received a diet containing 40% of the total calories as fat and rapidly decreased on a 10% fat diet. Hepatic and nonhepatic lipase activities in postheparin plasma were normal, thus excluding type I hyperlipoproteinemia. Because of the potential complication of acute pancreatitis in this disorder, early diagnosis and prompt institution of diet therapy is important.

Morphology, growth, chromosomal pattern and fibrinolytic activity of two new human neuroblastoma cell lines

Neuroblastoma cell lines LA-N-1 and LA-N-2 were extablished from neuroblastoma cells in the bone marrow and in the primary tumor, respectively, of two children with metastatic neuroblastoma. Morphology, growth in vitro and in athymic nude mice, chromosomal patter, and fibrinolytic activity of these cell lines and of previously extablished human neuroblastoma cell lines IMR-32, SK-N-MC, and SK-N-SH were compared. Most LA-N-1 cells were tear-drop shaped, small cells with processes; they tended to grow in clusters. LA-N-2 was comprised of elongated cells and small round cells, the latter growing in dense clumps on the former. Electron microscopy revealed numerous cytoplasmic dense cores in many LA-N-1 cells but none in LA-N-2 CELLS. During logarithmic growth in vitro, doubling times for LA-N-1, LA-N-2, SK-N-MC, SK-N-SH, and IMR-32 cells were 32,56, 23, 36, and 26 hr, respectively. Cells of all lines formed colonies in soft agar, and, after variable latency periods, LA-N-1, LA-N-2, SK-N-MC, and IMR-32 cells formed tumors in athymic nude mice. The marker chromosome(s) characteristic of each cell line was present in more than 90% of cells of given line. Significant plasminogen-dependent fibrinolytic activity was present in cells of all lines. These studies indicate that LA-N-1 and LA-N-2 cells arose from single but different aberrant progenitor cells and that they have properties of neuroblastoma cells. They also demonstrate that cell lines derived from human neuroblastomas are heterogenous as are the tumors in children.

Purification and properties of a diacetyl reductase from Escherichia coli

A reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH)-dependent reductase with the ability to reduce diacetyl has been isolated from Escherichia coli and has been purified 800-fold to near homogeneity. The product of the reduction of diacetyl was shown to be acetoin. The enzyme proved to catalyze the oxidation of NADPH in the presence of both uncharged alpha- and beta-dicarbonyl compounds. Even monocarbonyl compounds showed slight activity with the enzyme. On the basis of its substrate specificity, it is suggested that the enzyme functions as a diacetyl reductase. In contrast to other diacetyl reductases, the one reported here is specific for NADPH and does not possess acetoin reductase activity. The pH optimum of this enzyme was found to be between 6 and 7. The maximal velocity for the NADPH-dependent reduction of diacetyl was determined to be 9.5 mumol per min per mg of protein and the K(m) values for diacetyl and NADPH were found to be 4.44 mM and 0.02 mM, respectively. The molecular weight was estimated by gel filtration on Sephadex G-100 to be approximately 10,000.