Profile of medicinal plants utilization through patent documents: the andiroba example

Today, one of the trends of the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food market is the development of products with components of natural origin, rationally exploiting biodiversity. Brazilian population makes secular use of medicinal plants including andiroba, whose oil is used in folk medicine as febrifuge, pain-relieving, anti-parasitic, anti-allergic as well as insect repellant. The present study attempts to evaluate the profile of utilization of andiroba by analyzing the patenting trends based on information collected on the databases of the World Intellectual Property Organization, European Patent Office and Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property in the period from 1990 to 2011. The following parameters were analyzed: chronological aspect of the applications, countries of priority, international patent classification, technologies and actors in the technological platform. The temporal analysis of the applications shows an evident increase despite a discontinuous evolution of the number of applications. Pharmaceutical, chemical and cosmetic areas were identified as the main areas for commercial application of the plant. Brazil is the country with the largest number of applications even though the majority of the patent technologies are already in public domain, indicating that the technological information contained in these documents could be used for research and investment in several areas

Trends in Nanopharmaceutical Patents

Investment in nanotechnology is now a given constant by governments, research centers and companies in both more developed countries and emerging markets. Due to their characteristics, such as high stability, ability to enable antigen identification on specific cells in the human body and controlling the release of drugs and, therefore, improving therapies, nanoparticles have been the subject of research and patent applications in the pharmaceutical field. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCDE), patent data can be used as a source of information in order to measure science and technology activities. Thereby, this paper presents an analysis based on patent documents related to nanotechnology in the pharmaceutical sector. As a result, the analysis of patents demonstrate primarily that nanobiotechnology attracts high levels of R&D investments, including nanoparticle-based chemotherapeutic agents/drugs, monoclonal antibody nanoparticle complexes and their role in drug delivery or contrast agents with non-toxic effects

Pharmaceutical Trademark Examination and its Implications for Self-medication: Parameters and Examples in Brazil

439-447<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: " times="" new="" roman";letter-spacing:-.1pt;mso-ansi-language:en-us"="" lang="EN-US">Self-medication, the use of drugs without any intervention <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: " times="" new="" roman";letter-spacing:-.1pt;mso-ansi-language:en-us"="" lang="EN-US">by a physician or other qualified professional, <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: " times="" new="" roman";letter-spacing:-.1pt;mso-ansi-language:en-us"="" lang="EN-US">is a very common practice in Brazil and poses a serious health risk, especially when <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: " times="" new="" roman";letter-spacing:-.1pt;mso-ansi-language:en-us"="" lang="EN-US">the consumer is <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: " times="" new="" roman";letter-spacing:-.1pt;mso-ansi-language:en-us"="" lang="EN-US">misled in the purchase of a particular pharmaceutical trademark. <span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold" lang="EN-GB">This work addresses the importance of considering the International Non-Proprietary Names, the Brazilian Nonproprietary Names (DCBs in Portuguese) and their prefixes, ‘stems’ and suffixes when examining a sign that will identify a drug as recommended by the World Health Organization. The paper presents a background on trademarks and some of their definitions, explains trademarks’ functions and registrability issues, as well as the need for creating a <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: " times="" new="" roman";letter-spacing:-.1pt;mso-ansi-language:en-us"="" lang="EN-US">global system of nomenclature for pharmaceutical products. Moreover, this work shows the Brazilian approach and comments on <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: " times="" new="" roman";letter-spacing:-.1pt;mso-ansi-language:en-us"="" lang="EN-US">the queries carried out in the trademark database of <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: " times="" new="" roman";letter-spacing:-.1pt;mso-ansi-language:en-us"="" lang="EN-US">the Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI in Portuguese). Finally suggestions are proposed to improve the examination of signs that will identify drugs, seeking safe use by consumers. </span

Proinflammatory Responses of Heme in Alveolar Macrophages: Repercussion in Lung Hemorrhagic Episodes

Clinical and experimental observations have supported the notion that free heme released during hemorrhagic and hemolytic episodes may have a major role in lung inflammation. With alveolar macrophages (AM) being the main line of defense in lung environments, the influence of free heme on AM activity and function was investigated. We observed that heme in a concentration range found during hemolytic episodes (3–30 μM) elicits AM to present a proinflammatory profile, stimulating reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitric oxide (NO) generation and inducing IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-10 secretion. ROS production is NADPH oxidase-dependent, being inhibited by DPI and apocynin, and involves p47 subunit phosphorylation. Furthermore, heme induces NF-κB nuclear translocation, iNOS, and also HO-1 expression. Moreover, AM stimulated with free heme show enhanced phagocytic and bactericidal activities. Taken together, the data support a dual role for heme in the inflammatory response associated with lung hemorrhage, acting as a proinflammatory molecule that can either act as both an adjuvant of the innate immunity and as an amplifier of the inflammatory response, leading tissue injury. The understanding of heme effects on pulmonary inflammatory processes can lead to the development of new strategies to ameliorate tissue damage associated with hemorrhagic episodes