Biofunctional textiles prepared with liposomes: in vivo and in vitro assessment

A sun filter, ethyl hexyl methoxycinnamate (EHMC) used as a tracer, was vehiculized by liposomes made up of internal wool lipids (IWL) or phosphatidylcholine (PC) and applied onto cotton and polyamide fabrics by exhaustion treatments. After topical applications of textiles on human volunteers, skin properties were evaluated by non-invasive biophysical techniques. Two methodologies based on percutaneous absorption were used to determine the content of the active principle penetration into the skin. PC liposomes showed more affinity for the fabric than IWL liposomes. Moreover, polyamide fabrics absorbed a slightly higher percentage of liposomes than cotton fabrics. A significantly higher amount of EHMC skin penetration was found when the biofunctional textiles were topically applied than when formulations were applied onto the skin. Moreover, the polyamide was the fibre with the highest released properties in all cases.     

Methadone Metabolism and Drug-Drug Interactions: In Vitro and In Vivo Literature Review

Methadone is utilized for the treatment of individuals with opiate dependence. Methadone undergoes N-demethylation by multiple cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes including CYP3A4, CYP2B6, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, CYP2C9, and CYP2C8. In vivo, polymorphism effects on methadone systemic exposure have been noted for CYP2B6, CYP3A4, and CYP2D6. Clinical drug interaction studies with antiviral drugs in methadone maintenance treatment patients yield varying results on methadone pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. In general, CYP inhibitors altered methadone exposure with no adverse effects. CYP inducers generally decreased methadone exposure with some reports of withdrawal symptoms in the subjects. Interaction studies with antiviral drug combinations yielding differing results depend on the enzyme(s) affected. For certain antiviral medicines which are dual inhibitor(s) and inducer(s) for CYP enzymes, their effect on methadone pharmacokinetics can change with time since the effect of induction is usually delayed compared to the effect of inhibition.     

Embodied Deviance,Gender, and Epistemologies of Ignorance: Re-Visioning Drugs Use in a Neurochemical,Unjust World

The paper develops key notions needed for a feminist embodiment approach to drugs, their use and users. First, the term embodied deviance is defined in relationship to women drug users. Second, the bodily tasks of gendered drug use are defined to show how “normal” embodiment is foreclosed to women drug users. Third, disease regimes and epistemologies of ignorance are introduced. Fourth, another piece is inserted into the feminist embodiment puzzle –emotions. Simply, we look at some of the practices that emerge from the affective dimensions of gendered drug use. In the concluding section of my paper, I ask, “Where do we go from here?”     

Distribution of Odds Ratio in 2 × 2 Contingency Table: Adjustment for Correlation

The Log-odds ratio for 2 × 2 contingency tables is often approximated by a normal distribution with an approximated variance. Hwang and Biswas (2008 Hwang , J.-S. , Biswas , A. ( 2008 ). Odds ratio for a single 2 × 2 table with correlated binomial for two margins . Statistical Methods and Applications 17 : 483 – 497 . [Google Scholar]) illustrated that the standard expression for the variance should be modified in the presence of correlation. They also provided an adjustment to this variance expression when a single 2 × 2 table is available with matched-pair data. In this present paper, we first provide the required adjustment for multiple 2 × 2 tables, theoretically and also with reference to some data examples. We illustrate that this variance-adjusted normal approximation is a better approximation for such data. We provide two examples, one of which came from a late-phase clinical trial. As the theoretical development of this research depends on the existence of a bivariate binomial distribution, a multivariate (and hence bivariate) binomial distribution is motivated and derived. We then provide a suitably correlation adjusted Mantel–Haenszel test procedure.     

Intravenous lipid administration for drug-induced toxicity: a critical review of the existing data

Following the discovery that administration of intravenous lipid emulsion (ILE) may reverse the cardiac and neurological toxicity of certain local anesthetic agents, ILE's potential role has recently been explored in the setting of toxicity attributed to a variety of different drugs. The potential mechanisms, safety and efficacy of this approach are considered in this review. Data are reviewed from 76 published reports involving ILE administration for severe drug toxicity, including 55 where toxicity was due to nonanesthetic agents. ILE was reported to exert a positive therapeutic effect in only a proportion of the reported cases, with greatest evidence of efficacy concerning local anesthetic agents. Administration has typically involved bolus administration followed by continuous maintenance infusion, and a number of different mechanisms are proposed, from preferential partitioning of the drug from cardiac tissue to the circulating lipid fraction and direct inotropic effects related to carnitine pathways and fatty acid oxidative metabolism. No major adverse effects have been encountered, but too few data exist to adequately address the safety profile of ILE.     

Anti-inflammatory glucocorticoid drugs: reflections after 60 years

This review considers the problem of the serious concomitant side effects of powerful anti-inflammatory drugs modelled upon the principal human glucocorticoid hormone, cortisol. The very nature of the original bio-assays to validate their cortisol-like hormonal and anti-inflammatory activities ensured that pleiotropic toxins were selected for clinical studies. Other complicating factors have been (1) considerable reliance on bio-assays conducted in laboratory animals that primarily secrete corticosterone, not cortisol, as their principal anti-inflammatory adrenal hormone; (2) some differences in the binding of xenobiotic cortisol analogues (vis á vis cortisol) to transport proteins, detoxifying enzymes and even some intra-cellular receptors; (3) the “rogue” properties of these hormonal xenobiotics, acting independently of—but still able to suppress—hormonal mechanisms regulating endogenous cortisol; and (4) problems of intrinsic/acquired “steroid resistance”, diminishing their clinical efficacy, but not necessarily all their toxicities. The rather gloomy conclusion is that devising new drugs to reproduce the effect of multi-potent hormones may be a recipe for disaster, in contexts other than simply remedying an endocrine deficiency. Promising new developments include “designed” combination therapies that allow some reduction in total steroid doses (and hopefully their side effects); sharpening strategies to limit the actual duration of steroid administration; and resurgent interest in searching for more selective analogues (both steroidal and non-steroid) with less harmful side effects. Some oversights and neglected areas of research are also considered. Overall, it now seems timely to engage in some drastic rethinking about (retaining?) these “licensed toxins” as fundamental therapies for chronic inflammation.     

EJCP and clinical toxicology: the first 40 years

Introduction The European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology is now 40 years old and its history and development parallel developments in the related discipline of clinical (medical) toxicology. The journal has published many papers over its history that have informed its readers of scientific advances that link clinical pharmacology and clinical toxicology. Discussion This review will provide an overview of the developments in treatment of poisoning and how effects of poisoning may provide information for drug regulation and suggests ways in which developments in pharmacogenetics and metabolomics may stimulate future research in this area.     

Benefaction of probiotics for human health: A review

Humans are a unique reservoir of heterogeneous and vivacious group of microbes, which together forms the human-microbiome superorganism. Human gut serves as a home to over 100–1000 microbial species, which primarily modulate the host internal environment and thereby, play a major role in host health. This spectacular symbiotic relationship has attracted extensive research in this field. More specifically, these organisms play key roles in defense function, eupepsia along with catabolism and anabolism, and impact brain-gut responses. The emergence of microbiota with resistance and tolerance to existing conventional drugs and antibiotics has decreased the drug efficacies. Furthermore, the modern biotechnology mediated nano-encapsulated multiplex supplements appear to be high cost and inconvenient. Henceforth, a simple, low-cost, receptive and intrinsic approach to achieve health benefits is vital in the present era. Supplementation with probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics has shown promising results against various enteric pathogens due to their unique ability to compete with pathogenic microbiota for adhesion sites, to alienate pathogens or to stimulate, modulate and regulate the host's immune response by initiating the activation of specific genes in and outside the host intestinal tract. Probiotics have also been shown to regulate fat storage and stimulate intestinal angiogenesis. Hence, this study aims to underline the possible beneficial impact of probiotics for human health and medical sectors and for better lifestyle.