Systemic Interleukin-4 Administration after Spinal Cord Injury Modulates Inflammation and Promotes Neuroprotection

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) causes dramatic disability and dysfunction in the motor, sensory and autonomic systems. The severe inflammatory reaction that occurs after SCI is strongly associated with further tissue damage. As such, immunomodulatory strategies have been developed, aimed at reducing inflammation, but also at shaping the immune response in order to protect, repair and promote regeneration of spared neural tissue. One of those promising strategies is the intraspinal administration of the cytokine interleukin-4 (IL-4) that was shown to promote a phenotype on specific immune cells associated with neuroprotection and repair. In this work, we evaluated if a systemic delivery of IL-4 for a 7-days period was also capable of promoting neuroprotection after SCI by analyzing different neural cells populations and motor recovery. IL-4 treatment promoted an elevation of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 in the serum both at 24 h and 7 days after injury. Locally, treatment with IL-4 led to a reduction on cells expressing markers associated with inflammation, CD11b/c and iNOS. Importantly, IL-4 treatment increased the neuronal markers βIII-tubulin and NeuN, and the oligodendrocyte marker O4, suggesting a neuroprotective effect. Moreover, 100% of the animals treated with IL-4 were able to recover weight support against only 33% of saline treated animals. Overall, these results show that systemic administration of IL-4 positively impacts different aspects of spinal cord injury, creating a more favorable environment for recovery to take place.

Therapy of lower respiratory tract infections: a comparison of ceftriaxone and cefotaxime

The objectives of this open, prospective, randomized and comparative study were to evaluate and compare the efficacy and safety of intravenous ceftriaxone (active ingredient of Rocephin) and cefotaxime in treatment of bacterial pneumoniae. Forty-three patients were enrolled in the study and in 40 (21 in the ceftriaxone group and 19 in the cefotaxime group) we were able to make an evaluation. Bacteriological results were essentially based on a positive culture obtained with transtracheal aspirate (TTA) - 34 out of 40 cases; in the remaining patients, at least an initial positive sputum culture was obtained. Most of the lower respiratory tract infections were secondary to previous chronic respiratory diseases or were nosocomial infections; 25 out of 40 cases were considered to be severe or critical situations. The overall efficacy (bacteriological eradication plus clinical cure or clear improvement) of ceftriaxone and cefotaxime were 90.5% (19/21) and 73.7% (14/19), respectively (p less than 0.05). The tolerability of both drugs was good: 16 (76.2%) patients in the ceftriaxone group and 12 (63.2%) in the cefotaxime group had no adverse events, while in 5 and 7 patients, respectively, tolerability was considered satisfactory (minor side effects, none of which required discontinuation or even reduction of dosage).