Effect of Betong Watercress and Phenethyl Isothiocyanate on N-Demethylation of Caffeine in Rats

Purpose: To investigate the effect of Betong watercress and phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC) on the N-demethylation of caffeine (CF) in ratsMethods: Male Wistar rats were subjected to 2 phases of experiment. Phase I, they received a single oral dose of CF (10 mg/kg), while in phase II, they were pretreated with the following regimens: 10 mg/kg  fluvoxamine, i.p.; a single oral dose of 2, 10, and 20 mg/kg PEITC; 2, 10, and 20 mg/kg PEITC, once daily for five days; single oral dose of 800 mg/kg Betong watercress; 800 mg/kg Betong watercress once daily for five days, before receiving the same dose of CF as in phase I. Serum concentrations of CF and its metabolites after 3 h of CF administration were measured. Caffeine metabolic ratios (CMRs) and ratio of serum  concentration of metabolites to that of CF were calculated and compared.Results: CMRs were decreased by a single pretreatment \with fluvoxamine (30 – 40%), PEITC (2 - 20 mg/kg) (40 – 55%), and Betong watercress (9 – 22%). The decreases caused by 10 and 20 mg/kg PEITC were significantly greater than those by fluvoxamine. CMRs were also decreased after five days of pretreatment with all doses of PEITC (43 – 69%) and Betong watercress (28 – 44%). The reduction in metabolic ratio after single- and multiple PEITC pretreatments was dose- and time-independent.Conclusion: Betong watercress and PEITC inhibit N-demethylation of CF in rats. Such an effect indicates that they have inhibitory activity on CYP1A2 and CYP2C.Keywords: Watercress, Phenethyl isothiocyanate, Caffeine,  N-demethylation, Fluvoxamine, Cytochrom

An overview of recent developments in the analytical detection of new psychoactive substances (NPSs)

New psychoactive substances (NPSs), sometimes referred to as “legal highs” in more colloquial environments/ the media, are a class of compounds that have been recently made available for abuse (not necessarily recently discovered) which provide similar effects to the traditional well studied illegal drugs but are not always controlled under existing local, regional or international drug legislation. Following an unprecedented increase in the number of NPSs in the last 5 years (with 101 substances discovered for the first time in 2014 alone) its, occasionally fatal, consequences have been extensively reported in the media. Such NPSs are typically marketed as ‘not for human consumption’ and are instead labelled and sold as plant food, bath salts as well as a whole host of other equally nondescript aliases in order to bypass legislative controls. NPSs are a new multi-disciplinary research field with the main emphasis in terms of forensic identification due to their adverse health effects, which can range from minimal to life threatening and even fatalities. In this mini-review we overview this recent emerging research area of NPSs and the analytical approaches reported to provide detection strategies as well as detailing recent reports towards providing point-of-care/in-the-field NPS (“legal high”) sensors

Prevalence of drug–drug interactions in geriatric patients at an ambulatory care pharmacy in a tertiary care teaching hospital

Abstract Objective A cross-sectional study was performed from February to May 2015, to estimate the prevalence of drug–drug interactions in geriatric patients at the ambulatory care pharmacy at King Abdul-Aziz Medical City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Results A total of 310 patients were included, with a mean age (± SD) of 73.78 ± 6.96, and 48.70% were female. The overall prevalence of DDIs of all categories was 90.64%. Category B DDIs was 55.80%, category C DDIs 87.74%, category D DDIs 51.93%, and category X DDIs 16.45%. Atorvastatine plus omeprazole was identified as the most common interacting pair, with a prevalence of 25.26%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that category D or X DDIs are more likely to occur in the female patient (OR = 1.79; 95% CI 1.07, 2.97), the patient taking more than three medications (OR = 22.62; 95% CI 2.93, 174.83), and the patient with more than two conditions (OR = 3.09; 95% CI 1.81, 5.27)