Thursday, August 7, 2014

Herbal drugs and a Drosophila model of nephrolithiasis (kidney stones)

Wu SY, Shen JL, Man KM, Lee YJ, Chen HY, Chen YH, Tsai KS, Tsai FJ, Lin WY, Chen WC. An emerging translational model to screen potential medicinal plants for nephrolithiasis, an independent risk factor for chronic kidney disease. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2014;2014:972958. PMID: 25097661.

From the abstract: "Pharmacological therapy for urolithiasis using medicinal plants has been increasingly adopted for the prevention of its recurrence. A Drosophila melanogaster model developed for translational research of urolithiasis was applied to evaluate agents with potential antilithic effects and calcium oxalate (CaOx) formation. Potential antilithic herbs were prepared in a mixture of food in a diluted concentration of 5,000 from the original extract with 0.5% ethylene glycol (EG) as the lithogenic agent. ... The crystal formation rate in the EG group was 100.0%. In the study, 16 tested herbal drugs reached the crystal formation rate of 0.0% ... Two herbal drugs ... caused the death of all flies. Our rapid screening methods provided evidence that some medicinal plants have potential antilithic effects. ..."

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