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“Previous reviews have focused on the potential cardiac toxicity of the racemic drug citalopram (Celexa (R)). Evaluating the safety of escitalopram (Lexapro (R)) is an important issue to consider, since it is the S-enantiomer of citalopram. Escitalopram has a small effect on the QTc interval. A prolonged QTc was seen in 2% to 14% of escitalopram overdose cases, without serious cardiac sequelae. The QTc prolongation effect of citalopram in beagle dogs has been attributed to the minor metabolite racemic didemethylcitalopram (DDCT). Whether the escitalopram minor metabolite S-DDCT has this effect is not known. Concentrations

MI-503 of S-DDCT are lower than DDCT, but for a broad range of doses of escitalopram and citalopram, the

S-DDCT and DDCT concentrations are well below the QTc prolonging concentrations reported in dogs. There is no strong evidence from human and animal studies that the cardiac safety of escitalopram is significantly superior to that of citalopram.”
“An investigation aimed at assessing the microbiological quality of meals consumed at Selleckchem R406 a university canteen after implementation of the HACCP system and personnel training was carried out. Cooked and warm-served products (74 samples), cooked and cold-served products (92 samples) and cold gastronomy products (63 samples) sampled from 2000 to 2007 underwent microbiological analyses. All the samples were tested for: Samonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, total mesophilic aerobes, coliforms, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, and sulphite-reducing clostridia. The microbiological

contamination of work surfaces (tables, tablewares, cutters, ladles, slicing machines, washbasins, etc.), hands and white coats of members of the canteen staff was also assessed. The microbiological results clearly demonstrated the success of the HACCP plan implementation, through a general improvement of the hygiene conditions of both meals and work surfaces.”
“Esophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer and sixth leading cause of cancer associated death worldwide. Besides environmental risk factors, genetic factors might play an important role in the CYT387 esophageal cancer carcinogenesis. We conducted a hospital based case-control study to evaluate the genetic susceptibility of functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the microRNAs on the development of esophageal cancer. A total of 629 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cases and 686 controls were recruited for this study. The hsa-miR-34b/c rs4938723 T bigger than C, pri-miR-124-1 rs531564 C bigger than G, pre-miR-125a rs12975333 G bigger than T and hsa-miR-423 rs6505162 C bigger than A genotypes were determined using Ligation Detection Reaction (LDR) method. Our results demonstrated that hsa-miR-34b/c rs4938723 CC genotype had a decreased risk of ESCC. The association was evident among patients who never drinking.