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•Alpiniae oxyphyllae Fructus (AOF) could treat Alzheimer's disease (AD).•AOF has many compounds that could act on multiple targets and signaling pathways.•The neuropharmacological ...mechanism of AOF was summarized.•The pharmacokinetics of the compounds in AOF are different in normal and AD rats.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a common progressive neuro-degenerative disease, and the morbidity and mortality are still on the rise. In spite of recent advances in AD treatment, their clinical efficacy has been limited, non-curative and easy to drug resistance. Alpiniae oxyphyllae Fructus (AOF), derived from the dried and mature fruits of the Zingiberaceae plant Alpinia oxyphylla Miq, is a choice in traditional Chinese medicine to treat AD, which has a good effect and has been used for a long time. Recent studies have demonstrated its potent activities in modulating multiple signaling pathways associated with β-amyloid deposition, tau protein phosphorylation, chronic inflammation, oxidative stress. The neuropharmacological mechanism of AOF in AD have been fully illustrated in numerous studies. In this review, we first briefly described the active components of AOF and related mechanism for treating AD. And we also provide a systematic overview of recent progress on the pharmacokinetic characteristics of the active ingredients of AOF and analyzed their bioavailability differences in the development of AD. Thus, AOF hold a great therapeutic potential in the treatment of AD and is worthy of further research and promotion.
Recently, drug-drug cocrystal attracts more and more attention. It offers a low risk, low-cost but high reward route to new and better medicines and could improve the physiochemical and ...biopharmaceutical properties of a medicine by addition of a suitable therapeutically effective component without any chemical modification. Having so many advantages, to date, the reported drug-drug cocrystals are rare. Here we review the drug-drug cocrystals that reported in last decade and shed light on the opportunities and challenges for the development of drug-drug cocrystals.
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As a Second generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), afatinib is approved to treat advanved/metastatic EGFR-mutant NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer). However, the clinical application of afatinib ...is limited via acquired resistance. It has been revealed that CDK4/6 inhibitors hinder proliferation of cells and bring about differentiation as well as death of multiple malignant cells not only in vivo but also in vitro. Our research investigated whether a combination of Palbociclib with afatinib treatment was able to reverse acquired resistance with regard to NSCLC cells. The findings of our research demonstrated that combined Palbociclib and afatinib treatment exerted synergism in decreasing survival of cells with acquired resistance. Furthermore, combined Palbociclib with afatinib attenuated resistance that brings about recurrence of malignancies in xenografts with acquired resistance. In summary, the combination of Palbociclib and afatinib serves as an innovative strategy to reverse the acquired AR in pulmonary malignancies.
Public intensive care databases cover a wide range of data that are produced in intensive care units (ICUs). Public intensive care databases draw great attention from researchers since they were ...time-saving and money-saving in obtaining data. This study aimed to explore the current status and trends of publications based on public intensive care databases.
Articles and reviews based on public intensive care databases, published from 2001 to 2021, were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) for investigation. Scientometric software (CiteSpace and VOSviewer) were used to generate network maps and reveal hot spots of studies based on public intensive care databases.
A total of 456 studies were collected. Zhang Zhongheng from Zhejiang University (China) and Leo Anthony Celi from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, USA) occupied important positions in studies based on public intensive care databases. Closer cooperation was observed between institutions in the same country. Six Research Topics were concluded through keyword analysis. Result of citation burst indicated that this field was in the stage of rapid development, with more diseases and clinical problems being investigated. Machine learning is still the hot research method in this field.
This is the first time that scientometrics has been used in the investigation of studies based on public intensive databases. Although more and more studies based on public intensive care databases were published, public intensive care databases may not be fully explored. Moreover, it could also help researchers directly perceive the current status and trends in this field. Public intensive care databases could be fully explored with more researchers' knowledge of this field.
Lack of cancer-targeted delivery of chemotherapeutics is one of the major obstacles for successful cancer therapy. Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) have shown great promise in drug-delivery ...applications since they are highly scalable, biodegradable nanocarriers with high-drug-loading capacity. However, traditional method prepared NLC, the diameter of which range from 80 to 200 nm, is easily blocked and trapped in perivascular regions without further penetration. As a result, ultrasmall NLC with size under 100 nm or lower range are reported to be ideally tumor targeting carrier as it allows for superior tumor accumulation and permeation. Moreover, surface modification of NLC with folic acid (FA) could significantly increase the drug-delivery efficiency through active targeting effect. In our study, an ultrasmall NLC with FA modification (FA-NLC) was prepared to load docetaxel (DTX) for cancer therapy. Our results showed that DTX-loaded FA-NLC comprised of homogeneous particles with size around 30 nm. In addition, it exhibited great colloidal stability, satisfactory drug-loading efficiency, and high biocompatibility in vitro. Meanwhile, in vivo studies indicated that ultrasmall FA-NLC exhibited greater tumor retention and enhanced antitumor effect compared with control.
Abstract
Objective
This study incorporates the results of subgroup analyses of currently published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and real-world cohort studies to compare the effectiveness and ...safety of new direct oral anticoagulants (NOACs) and warfarin among nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients with diabetes.
Methods
The PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and ClinicalTrials.gov databases were searched. Five retrospective cohort studies and four subgroup analyses of RCTs were included in this meta-analysis.
Results
A meta-analysis of the data of 26,7272 patients showed that for patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation and diabetes, NOACs can significantly reduce the incidence of stroke/systemic embolism (SSE), ischaemic stroke, and haemorrhagic stroke compared with warfarin, with no significant difference in major bleeding and all-cause mortality. Additionally, NOACs were superior to warfarin in the incidence of intracranial bleeding, gastrointestinal bleeding, myocardial infarction, and vascular death.
Conclusions
Among nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients with diabetes, NOACs were associated with a lower risk of SSE versus warfarin, with no significant difference in major bleeding. Therefore, NOACs may be a better clinical choice.
Abstract
Sepsis is the dysregulated host response to an infection which leads to life-threatening organ dysfunction. Metabolomic profiling in bio-fluid or tissue is vital for elucidating the ...pathogenesis of sepsis and evaluating therapeutic effects of medication. In this study, an untargeted metabolomics approach was applied to study the metabolic changes in lung tissue of septic rats induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) and investigate the treatment effects of Xubijing injection (XBJ). Metabolomics analyses were performed on ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-Q Exactive hybrid quadrupole-orbitrap high-resolution accurate mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap-HRMS) together with multivariate statistical analysis. A total of 26 differential metabolites between CLP and sham-operated group were identified. The altered metabolic pathways included energy metabolism, amino metabolism, lipid metabolism, fatty acid metabolism and hormone metabolism. Among the 26-varied metabolites, 15 were significantly regulated after XBJ treatment. The metabolic pathway network of sepsis was drawn to interpret the pathological feature of lung damage caused by sepsis and the underlying regulating mechanism of XBJ on the molecular levels. Our findings display that LC-MS-based metabolomics is a useful tool for uncovering the underlying molecular mechanism of sepsis, and XBJ may exert therapeutic effect by regulating multiple metabolic pathways.
Background:
No clinical study on the use of polymyxin B in Chinese children has been reported, thus making it difficult for pediatric clinicians to rationally select these drugs.
Methods:
A ...retrospective analysis of children treated with polymyxin B during hospitalization in a hospital from June 2019 to June 2021 was conducted to analyze its effectiveness and the incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI) during treatment with polymyxin B.
Results:
A total of 55 children were included in this study, and the results showed that the intravenous polymyxin B-based regimen had an effective rate of 52.7% in the treatment of Carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacterial (CR-GNB) infection in children. The results of the subgroup analysis showed that the course of treatment was longer in the favorable clinical response group than in the unfavorable outcome group (
p
= 0.027) and that electrolyte disturbances in children during the course of treatment could lead to unfavorable clinical outcomes (
p
= 0.042). The risk of incidence of AKI during treatment was 27.3%, and the all-cause mortality rate in the children on their discharge from the hospital was 7.3%.
Conclusion:
Polymyxin B can be used as a salvage therapy for CR-GNB infection in children when no other susceptible antibiotics are available, and the monitoring of kidney function should be strengthened.
ObjectiveTo understand the work experiences of pharmacists in fever clinics and isolation wards of designated hospitals for the novel coronavirus pneumonia in China and provide the basis for work ...management strategies and psychological interventions in pharmacy for prevention and control of future epidemics.MethodsUsing qualitative research methods, 13 pharmacists who met the inclusion criteria and worked in fever clinics and isolation wards of designated hospitals for novel coronavirus pneumonia attended focus group interviews and semistructured interviews. The Colaizzi analysis method was used for data analysis, summary and induction.ResultsThree themes were identified: (1) the roles of pharmacists in fever clinics and isolation wards in epidemic prevention and control, including ensuring the supply of medicines, providing medication guidance for patients, providing medication information for physicians and nurses, and participating in infection control; (2) the difficulties at work, including the lack of office equipment, information equipment and other infrastructure, the difficulty of management of pharmacists in isolation wards, challenging environments, and insufficient attention of hospitals, medical staff, and society to pharmacists; (3) the loopholes in drug management, including the management of special-class drugs and national free AIDS antiviral drugs, and the retrieval of drugs.ConclusionPharmacists have played an essential role in the fight against the epidemic of novel coronavirus pneumonia in China. The themes and experiences identified in this study can offer guidance to the pharmacy society in implementing strategies to prepare for future public health events.
ObjectiveThe rapid spread of COVID-19 has overwhelmed healthcare systems across the world. During the early stage of the pandemic, frontline healthcare workers (FHWs) caring for patients at intensive ...care units (ICUs) faced extreme pressure and challenges. This qualitative study aimed to describe the different phases of psychological distress of FHWs during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.DesignQualitative study.SettingThe First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, a designated hospital for patients with COVID-19 in central China.ParticipantsEight physicians and six nurses working in the ICU who provided direct patient care for COVID-19 patients.MethodsA descriptive phenomenological study using thematic analysis was applied. Semi-structured one-on-one interviews over telephone or Wechat (a social platform in China) rather than face-to-face interviews were conducted due to quarantine. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim and then were analysed thematically.FindingsA total of 14 interviews were conducted, and each interview lasted 20–60 min. Five thematic categories were identified, and the participants’ psychological experiences were classified into five stages (1) the mobilisation period: a sense of responsibility with worries; (2) the preparation period: worries, fears and doubts about the epidemic; (3) the transitional period: complex and diverse psychological feelings; (4) the adaptation period: self-adjustment and help from external support and (5) the reflection period: a reflection on life and nature.ConclusionThe study showed that the COVID-19 pandemic had significant psychological impacts on FHWs. Self-regulation and external support help FHWs to overcome challenges to a certain extent. More attention should be paid to the psychological wellbeing of ICU FHWs in COVID-19-designated hospitals.
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