Recent Trends in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology

The foundations of pharmaceutical biotechnology mainly lie in the capability of plants, microorganism and animals to produce low and high molecular weight compounds useful as therapeutics.

Although molecules from plants and microorganisms are preferred extraction from plant biomass needs tedious downstream processing while in case of microorganisms it is easy with fewer amounts of impurities. Pharmaceutical biotechnology is poised to flourish for the last 4-6 decades with the advent of recombinant DNA technology and metabolic engineering supported by the well-developed bioprocess technology.

Large scale production and cost effectiveness and affordability could be achieved by way of synergising all these technologies.

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uinoa: Nutritional Aspects

Cereals play an important role in human nutrition, contributing approximately to half the energy and protein intake of the world’s population, with wheat, corn, rice, barley, oats, rye and sorghum being the most important.

Grapes in addition to these cereals, most commonly used in human and animal nutrition, other grains, such as quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, chia and flaxseed, have been studied in recent years because they present themselves as an excellent source of energy and protein with high nutritional value, besides fibers, lipids, vitamins and minerals.

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is a plant belonging to the family Amaranthaceae, native to the Andean regions being adaptable to different types of soil and climatic conditions, Its composition has aroused the attention of the scientific community for its high nutritional value

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Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry and Infra-Red Studies of Bioactive Phytoorganic Components of Combretum dolichopentalum Leaves

Plants are used as a source for many potent drugs, as plants synthesize lower molecular weight organic compounds which possess various biological activities.

A large number of medicinal plants and their purified constituents have shown therapeutic activities, and have proved as safe and effective therapeutic agents.

Many plant species have been used in folklore medicine to treat various ailments. The development of pharmaceuticals begins with identification of active principles, detailed biological assays and dosage formulations followed by clinical studies to establish safety, efficacy and pharmacokinetic profile of the new drug.

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Families that Live with Disorders Related to Substances and Addiction

The study of the importance of the family to understand people’s conflicts and suffering originated with the branch of psychology that focuses on family relations. Starting in the 1960s, the family was definitely included in clinical practice with the advent of the Family Therapy systemic models (COSTA, 2010).

Drug Addiction

The core premise of this approach is that the family is a living and open system under constant transformation. It is known that changes occur in the family according to the transformations in the society that comprises it. Thus, family composition is often diverse and is liable to have several arrangements. However, despite the transformations in family configurations, its foreground role remains unaltered. The family is the basis of personal development and the matrix of models and references, i.e., the foundation that manages to support its members. It is also the primary source of socialization and bonding. The study of the importance of the family to understand people’s conflicts and suffering originated with the branch of psychology that focuses on family relations. Read more>>>>>>

Biochemical Effects of Chamomile Oil on Inflammatory Biomarkers in Gastroenteritis

Acute gastroenteritis is a major health problem in hospital care and represents a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide especially indeveloping countries.

Chamomile Oil

Acute gastroenteritis is a clinical syndrome refers to inflammation of the lining of both the stomach and small intestines caused by a variety of viral, bacterial, and parasitic enteropathogens. Viruses that cause gastroenteritis include rotavirus, norovirus, adenovirus and astrovirus while the most common types of bacteria causing gastroenteritis are Salmonella, Shigella, Escherichia coli, and Campylobacter. When food contaminated with bacteria and remains at room temperature for many hours, the bacteria can multiply and increase the risk of infection. A number of protozoa can cause gastroenteritis, including Giardia lamblia, Cryptosporidium and Entamoeba histolytica. Poisoning with heavy metals can cause gastroenteritis e.g., arsenic and cadmium; also, seafood, e.g., ciguatera, scombroid and toxic encephalopathic shellfish poisoning. Read more>>>>>>

Delirium, The Geriatrics Ward Challenge

Delirium or acute confusion state is a medical emergency, characterized by altered mental status with fluctuating deficits in attention and cognition.

It’s an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Even though most of the causes are secondary to medical conditions and after they are solved, the delirium disappear, there are cases that it can persist for weeks and months.

Many risk factors are known, such as polypharmacy, restraint use, multiple illness, frailty, advanced age. Instruments like CAM (Confusion Assessment Method) can be useful to diagnose and non-pharmacological measures with low-dose antipsychotic drugs can be helpful in its resolution.

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Isolation and Identification of Multi Drug Resistant Efflux Pump Protein from Klebsiella pneumoniae

Efflux pump in bacteria contribute to intrinsic resistance to a wide variety range of antibiotic andoften have a broad substrate range due to the lack of new antibacterial agents.

Klebsiella pneumoniae

There is considerable interest in restoring the activities of older antibiotics by inhibiting the action of efflux pump and there being a usual area of active drug development by pharmaceutical companies, but the fact is that little is known about the interaction of such inhibitors with the bacterium. The addition of combinatorial drugs to the existing antibiotics can thereby enhance the activity and restore its effective use in treatment regimens. Read more>>>>>>>>

Quinoa: Nutritional Aspects

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is a plant belonging to the family Amaranthaceae, native to the Andeanregions being adaptable to different types of soil and climatic conditions, Its composition has aroused the attention of the scientific community for its high nutritional value, being rich in proteins, unsaturated fats, dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals, with an extraordinary balance of essential amino acids.

Quinoa

It is also characterized by being a gluten-free grain that enables its use in the diet of celiac patients. Despite all these attributes, quinoa is still little used due to the high cost of the imported grain and little knowledge of its benefits by most consumers. More studies are needed to increase knowledge about this "pseudo-cereal" and prove their functional and nutritional benefits. Quinoa is a food plant of the family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Chenopodiaceae, genus Chenopodium, native to the Andean regions of Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, and its cultivation dates back thousands of years. Read more>>>>>>>>>

Tablet against Pneumonia?

Tablet against pneumonia does not really exist, and theoretically, it cannot be. However, hopes for the effectiveness of one of the universal remedy remain the main focus of the strategy and tactics in Acute Pneumonia (AP) for the past several decades.

Antibiotics are considered such a panacea. Indeed, the discovery of antibiotics has been one of the most outstanding achievements of 20th century medicine.

This fact cannot be doubted. Antibiotics remain the main mode of treatment of AP, despite reducing its effectiveness in comparison with the initial period of use.

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Anti-Candidal Activities of Leaf Extracts of Sansevieria aethiopica (Thunb): A Medicinal Plant Use in the Treatment of Oral Candidiasis in Eastern Cape of South Africa

Candida albicans is a fungus usually reproduced by budding it is a normal flora of human gastrointestinal and vaginal tracts. The occurrence of candidiasis is lower than the bacterialinfections; however Candida albicans infections ranked fourth among nosocomial bloodstream infections leading to death.

Oral Candidiasis

Candida spp. are frequently colonizes mucous membrane of human where they act as opportunistic fungal pathogens which may develop to candidaemia. The predisposing factors have been identified to include: high diabetes, pregnancy, usage oral contraceptives and antibiotics. Candidal infections have increased significantly in the recent time with mortality rate of 40%. Candida infection has been reported to be the one of the commonest causes of vaginitis among middle age women.Medicinal plants are used for the treatment of contagious and physiological diseases globally. The applications of medicinal plants are prominent among rural dwellers in poor-resource nations.

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Targeting Approaches for Effective Therapeutics of Bone Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a potentially fatal contagious disease and is one of the foremost, infectiousdisease and one of leading cause of death in the world. About more than 1 million people die every year because of this disease.

Bone Tuberculosis

The bacteria infects predominantly lungs however it can affect any part of the body. It is been known since ancient times that Mycobacterium tuberculosis is also responsible for affecting bones and joints area. It is also called as tuberculosis osteomyelitis or nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) skeletal infections.These infections generally occur due to restoration and revival of infection when mycobacterial gets harbored in the bone when pulmonary infection spreads and reaches to non-pulmonary site i.e. bones during primary infection by mycobacteria.

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Use of marijuana and cocaine among students in the municipality of Breves,Marajó Archipelago, Brazilian Amazon

The dependence of psychotropic drugs is a great challenge for parents, health professionals,educators, public policy managers, legislators and for the whole community.

Cocaine

The impact on society, the economy and the health of this disorder is immense. In the last decades, drug experimentation has been increasingly precocious, with abuse and dependency; despite the fact that preventive efforts are increasing .An individual’s first experiences with drugs often take place during adolescence. During this phase, the individual is particularly vulnerable from a psychological and social point of view. Thus, it is particularly important to study this age group in detail, especially in relation to frequent and heavy use of legal and illegal drugs and to identify the psychological and sociocultural factors that are associated with such use.

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Marijuana and Health

Worldwide, marijuana is likely the most commonly used “illicit” psychoactive substance. This is certainly the case in the US. The 2015 estimate is that 22.2 million individuals aged 12 or older are current marijuana users (i.e., users in thepast 30 days).

Marijuana

The trend data from the National Survey of Drug and Health (NSDUH) survey indicate a general pattern in increased rates over the past decade or so. Among 12th graders, more students smoke marijuana than tobacco. Marijuana’s popularity far surpasses that of all other illicit substances. In concert with the relatively high prevalence rates of marijuana use, many Americans view it as a low- or no-risk drug and as worthy of being made legal and marijuana policies have been shifting across the country in recent years, with reduced penalties for possession, decriminalization, expanded access for the purpose of treating health conditions, and even full commercial sales in some locations.

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Recent Trends in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology

Plant and microbial products, in form of natural preservatives have been known since centuries for preservation of fruits, vegetables and milk in the form of bread, yoghurt,beer, wine, vinegar, cheese, pickles and other fermented materials.

Pharmaceutical Biotechnology

After the accidental discovery of the antibiotic molecule penicillin in 1929 by Alexander Fleming, the economic importance of microorganisms gained importance and bioprocesses such as fermentation, bioconversion and enzymatic biotransformation for production of various valuable products from microorganisms were explored. These products included antibiotics, amino acids, enzymes, enzyme inhibitors, nucleotides, vitamins, organic acids, vaccines and polysaccharides with applications in the field of medicine to improve human health.

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Formulation and Evaluation of Nystatin Vaginal Tablet

Nystatin was discovered in the New York State Health Laboratory is a antimycotic polyene antibiotic obtained from Streptomyces noursei. It is structurally similar toamphotericin B and has the same mechanism of action.

Nystatin Vaginal Tablet

Nystatin is 20-(4-amino-3,5-dihydroxy-6-methyl-oxan-2-yl)oxy-4,22,24,28,29,32,34,36-octahydroxy-2,3,5-trimethyl-26,38-dioxo-1-oxacyclooctatriaconta-6,8,12,14,16,18-hexaene-23-carboxylicacid.Its molecular formula is C47H75NO17. Nystatin is a yellow to light tan powder. It is freely soluble in dimethylformamide, slightly sparingly soluble in methyl alcohol, n-propyl alcohol and n-butyl alcohol, practically insoluble in alcohol, chloroform, and ether and insoluble in water.

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Tablet against Pneumonia?

Tablet against pneumonia does not really exist, and theoretically, it cannot be. However, hopes for the effectiveness of one of the universal remedy remain the main focus of thestrategy and tactics in Acute Pneumonia (AP) for the past several decades.

Pneumonia

Antibiotics are considered such a panacea. Indeed, the discovery of antibiotics has been one of the most outstanding achievements of 20th century medicine. This fact cannot be doubted. Antibiotics remain the main mode of treatment of AP, despite reducing its effectiveness in comparison with the initial period of use. Just the final results of the treatment of AP in children suggest that the time has come to rethink the role and place of antibiotics in General complex medical care. 

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Families that Live with Disorders Related to Substances and Addiction

The study of the importance of the family to understand people’s conflicts and suffering originated with the branch of psychology that focuses on family relations. Starting in the 1960s, the family was definitely includedin clinical practice with the advent of the Family Therapy systemic models (COSTA, 2010).

Drug Addiction

The core premise of this approach is that the family is a living and open system under constant transformation. It is known that changes occur in the family according to the transformations in the society that comprises it. Thus, family composition is often diverse and is liable to have several arrangements. However, despite the transformations in family configurations, its foreground role remains unaltered. The family is the basis of personal development and the matrix of models and references, i.e., the foundation that manages to support its members. It is also the primary source of socialization and bonding. 

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Drug Addiction, Relapse and Recovery

The illegality of drug use has prevented obtaining accurate assessment of the extent of their use and of the adverse effects in individuals and communities. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that approximately 10.2% of the population is involved in illicitdrug use and that among young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 years, illicit drug use is as high as 22%.

Drug Addiction

Recently, the increase in deaths from illicit drug overdose, particularly involving heroin, has become alarming. In 2013 alone, almost 44,000 deaths were related to opioid overdose from both prescribed and illegal sources. From 2010 through 2013, the age-adjusted death rate from heroin overdose nearly tripled. Moreover, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that there are 2.8 million people with substance use disorders who currently receive coverage from the current Affordable Care Act (ACA).

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Treating Alzheimer’s disease With Flavonoids and Xanthonoids

Development of drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease is a work in progress. Over the past couple decades, many novel therapeutic agents have been developed and tested. However, not many of them made it to the clinical level. Hence, researchers are constantly in search of newer and better methods that may one day lead to the development of more advanced and effective therapeutic regimes.

Alzheimer’s disease 

One of the most recent methods that may help in screening natural and synthetic compounds is the in silico method of cross docking. A recent study based on the same approach screened flavonoids and xanthonoids and found that luteolin works best against many Alzheimer specific protein targets viz: CDK5/p25.

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An Ethnobotanical Study of Medicinal Plants Used by the Tribes in Upper Subansiri District of Arunachal Pradesh, India

Main objective of the study was to identify and document the ethno botanically important and economic plants of the Upper Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh, India.

The Tagin, Hill Miri (now Nyshi) and Galo tribes of Upper Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh state of India use number of medicinal plants available in local forests as ‘traditional medicine’ for curing common illness.

The ethnobotanical information was collected by field survey among aboriginal community, by study with herbaria and museum, by study of rituals, myths and folkfores and through folk market survey.

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Gastroretentive Controlled Release Glibenclamide Oral Tablet Formulation

Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC-4000cps, fixed amount), various contents of calcium hydroxide, stearyl alcohol, magnesium stearate, different drug: PVP ratios and altered tablet hardness were used to design floating tablet formulation capable to deliver glibenclamide in a sustained manner.

Both full factorial and Box-Wilson designs, in consecutive manner, were used to investigate for the influences of these formulation variables on the developed dosage form performance and drug release.

Tablet hardness has revealed an influential effect on tablet onset of floating, and drug release was shown to be more evident in the initial phase (p<0.05).

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Delirium, The Geriatrics Ward Challenge

Delirium or acute confusion state is a medical emergency, characterized by altered mental status with fluctuating deficits in attention and cognition.

It’s an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Even though most of the causes are secondary to medical conditions and after they are solved, the delirium disappear, there are cases that it can persist for weeks and months.

Many risk factors are known, such as polypharmacy, restraint use, multiple illness, frailty, advanced age. Instruments like CAM (Confusion Assessment Method) can be useful to diagnose and non-pharmacological measures with low-dose antipsychotic drugs can be helpful in its resolution.

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Infection Control in the Use of Urethral Catheter: Knowledge and Practices of Nurses

To identify knowledge and practises of nurses regarding infection control in the use of urethral catheter and associated urinary tract infection in private tertiary care hospital Peshawar.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the current knowledge of nurses regarding urinary catheter care.

The study was also focused on practises and standard guidelines about urinary catheter care of nurses in private tertiary care hospitals.

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On a New Neovaginal Prosthesis of PLA (Polylactic Acid)

Vaginal dilation is proposed as the first choice treatment for patients with vaginal aplasia, but many patients with MRKH or Rokitansky syndrome (and cases with CAIS) may require a vaginoplasty.

It is also necessary to make vaginoplasty in patients with vaginal or cervico-vaginal atresia with a functional uterus before performing an utero-neovaginal anastomosis, also in trans-sexual men.

In any case, the aim of vaginoplasty is the formation of a satisfactory vagina in appearance, function, and feeling without additional morbidity.

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Improved Targeted Delivery for Chemotherapeutic Drugs

Drug delivery systems offer the potential to improve the therapeutic index of chemotherapeutic agents via targeting the antitumor drug to its desired site of action, and hence, increasing the drug concentration in cancer cells and decreasing its concentration in healthy cells.

Several nano-sized drug carriers, such as nanoparticles, liposomes, micells and polymer-drug conjugates, have been investigated in order to minimize side effects of anticancer drugs and enhance the antitumoral drug efficacy in cancer therapy.

Drug delivery systems offer the potential to improve the therapeutic index of chemotherapeutic agents via targeting the antitumor drug to its desired site of action, and hence, increasing the drug concentration in cancer cells and decreasing its concentration in healthy cells.

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Clinical Pharmacist Active Role in Registrative Clinical Trials

The gold standard for a registrative trial is to obtain the best results in clinical outcomes under research to be sure that the drugs can give the best results. But are we sure that the actual registrative procedure are really the best?

Is request clinical pharmacist presence in clinical trial for drug registrative use? If the pharmacist presence in medical team gives improving in some clinical outcomes why is not request by regulatory clinical pharmacist presence in registrative trial?” Luisetto, J Pharma Care Health Sys 2016, 3:2

A 2015 research article by M. Luisetto, F. Carini, G. Bologna and Behzad Nili A Pharmacist cognitive service and pharmaceutical care today and tomorrow outlook. UKJPB 3: 67-72.We have seen that a general improvement of clinical outcomes can be achieved with a stabile presence of clinical pharmacist in many medical team

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Logarithmic Partition Coefficient Comparison Study and Molecular Weight of Synthesized Prodrugs of Ibuprofen+Paracetamol, Diclofenac Sodium+Paracetamol and Ibuprofen+Diclofenac Sodium

Prodrug is a substance which after administration is metabolized into a pharmacologically active drug. Actually prodrug has least medicinal value in in-vitro/in-vivo but after biotransformation by metabolism in invivo it releases the active medicament.

A drug is a substance which is a chemical entity, has definite structural skeleton, obtained by natural or synthetic or semisynthetic source, which can fit on bioreceptor platform having controlling capacity to control over the biochemical malfunction.

Every drug is xenobiotic because it is coming from outer source (xeno) and active in biological unit (biotic). Prodrug is the precursor of drug which is made by derivatization of the same to enhance the bioavailability by pharmacokinetics, lipid solubility by partition coefficient and increase the physicochemical and biochemical parameters by pharmacodynamics.

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