HIV pharmaceutical care in primary healthcare: Improvement in CD4 count and reduction in drug-related problems

AbstractBackground: Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is complex and many factors contribute to a patient’s response to initial therapy including adherence, drug effectiveness, and tolerance. Close HAART follow-up is needed, particularly when there are concurrent therapies such as prophylactic antibiotics and medications for the treatment of comorbidities. Objective: To assess the effectiveness of pharmacist intervention in reducing drug related problems in HIV/AIDS outpatients (intervention group) and in improving clinical parameters in the intervention group compared to the control group. Methods: We conducted a prospective controlled intervention study with patients paired by gender and initial T CD4+ lymphocyte (CD4) count. HIV-infected patients of a public outpatient service were enrolled for the study by consecutive and convenience sampling. Patients selected for the study were divided into a control group and an intervention group. Both groups were followed for one year; however, only the intervention group received pharmaceutical care. The primary outcome was the drug related problem (DRP) analysis for the intervention group. Secondary outcomes were CD4 count and viral load evaluation for both groups. Results: There was a total of 143 patients enrolled in this study, with 53 (37.06%) patients in the control group and 90 (62.94%) patients in the intervention group. A total of 202 pharmacist interventions with 193 pharmacist-patient and 9 pharmacist-physician interventions were proposed. After one year of pharmaceutical care, a reduction of 38.43% between the initial and final DRP was found (p=0.0001). The most common DRPs found were related to medication safety. The intervention group showed a mean increase of 84% for the CD4 count in comparison with that observed in the control group. The viral load was not significantly different between the final and initial mean values for both groups. Conclusion: Pharmacist appointments enabled identification, prevention, and solving of drug related problems, especially those related to drug safety. Also, pharmacist interventions improved adherence and increased HAART effectiveness as suggested by the higher elevation in the CD4 count seen in the intervention group in comparison with the control group

The influence of pH, polyethylene glycol and polyacrylic acid on the stability of stem bromelain

Enzyme stability is critical in biotechnology, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Investigations on this subject have drawn attention because of its practical application. Bromelain is a thiol-endopeptidase, obtained from pineapple (Ananas comosus), known for its clinical and therapeutic applications, particularly to selective burn debridement and improvement of antibiotic action and anti-inflammatory activities. To date, the use of bromelain in pharmacological or industrial applications is limited, due to commercial availability, costs, and sensitivity to pH and temperature. Therefore, a better understanding of enzyme stability would be of great interest. The aim of this study was to evaluate bromelain activity and stability in several pH (2.0 to 8.0) and in polyethylene glycol and polyacrylic acid solutions. We observed that bromelain was able to maintain its stability at pH 5.0 for the temperatures studied. PEG solutions increased bromelain stability, but PAA solutions had the opposite effect.Estabilidade de enzimas é uma questão fundamental em indústrias biotecnológicas, farmacêuticas e cosméticas. As investigações sobre o assunto têm chamado a atenção por sua aplicação prática. A bromelina é uma tiol-endopeptidase, obtida a partir do abacaxi (Ananas comosus). É conhecida por suas aplicações clínicas e terapêuticas, especialmente para desbridamento seletivo de queimaduras, melhoria de ações antibiótica e de atividades anti-inflamatórias. Até o momento, a utilização da bromelina em aplicações farmacológicas industriais é limitada, devido à disponibilidade comercial, os custos, a sensibilidade ao pH e temperatura. Portanto, a maior compreensão da estabilidade desta enzima seria de grande interesse. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a estabilidade da atividade da bromelina em vários pH (2,0 a 8,0) e em soluções de polietilenoglicol e de ácido poliacrílico. Observamos que a bromelina foi capaz de manter a sua estabilidade em pH 5.0, em todas as temperaturas estudadas. Soluções de PEG aumentaram a estabilidade da bromelina, enquanto que soluções de PAA obtiveram efeito oposto

Prevalence of potential drug-drug interactions in the intensive care unit of a Brazilian teaching hospital

Patients in intensive care unit are prescribed large numbers of drugs, highlighting the need to study potential Drug-Drug Interactions in this environment. The aim of this study was to delineate the prevalence and risk of potential drug-drug interactions between medications administered to patients in an ICU. This cross-sectional observational study was conducted during 12 months, in an adult ICU of a teaching hospital. Inclusion criteria were: prescriptions with 2 or more drugs of patients admitted to the ICU for >; 24 hours and age of ≥18 years. Potential Drug-Drug Interactions were quantified and classified through MicromedexTM database. The 369 prescriptions included in this study had 205 different drugs, with an average of 13.04 ± 4.26 (mean ± standard deviation) drugs per prescription. Potential Drug-Drug Interactions were identified in 89% of these, with an average of 5.00 ± 5.06 interactions per prescription. Of the 405 different pairs of potentially interacting drugs identified, moderate and major interactions were present in 74% and 67% of prescriptions, respectively. The most prevalent interaction was between dipyrone and enoxaparin (35.8%), though its clinical occurrence was not observed in this study. The number of potential Drug-Drug Interactions showed significant positive correlations with the length of stay in the intensive care unit, and with the number of prescribed drugs. Acknowledging the high potential for Drug-Drug Interactions in the ICU represents an important step toward improving patient safety and best therapy results

Clinical relevancy and risks of potential drug–drug interactions in intensive therapy

AbstractPurposeEvaluate the potential Drug–Drug Interactions (pDDI) found in prescription orders of adult Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a Brazilian public health system hospital; quantify and qualify the pDDI regarding their severity and risks to the critical patient, using the database from Micromedex®.MethodsProspective study (January–December of 2011) collecting and evaluating 369 prescription orders (convenient sampling), one per patient.ResultsDuring the study 1844 pDDIs were identified and distributed in 405 pairs (medication A×medication B combination). There was an average of 5.00±5.06 pDDIs per prescription order, the most prevalent being moderate and important interactions, present in 74% and 67% of prescription orders, respectively. In total, there were 9 contraindicated, 129 important and 204 moderate pDDIs. Among them 52 had as management recommendation to “avoid concomitant use” or “suspension of medication”, while 306 had as recommendation “continuous and adequate monitoring”.ConclusionThe high number of pDDIs found in the study combined with the evaluation of the clinical relevancy of the most frequent pDDIs in the ICU shows that moderate and important interactions are highly incident. As the majority of them demand monitoring and adequate management, being aware of these interactions is major information for the safe and individualized risk management

Isolation and purification of bromelain from waste peel of pineapple for therapeutic application

The aim of this work was to isolate and purify bromelain extracted from the pineapple peel by ammonium sulfate precipitation (40-80%), followed by desalting and freeze-drying with a 75% activity recovery and 2.2 fold increased specific activity. Ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-Sepharose was able to separate the polysaccharides from the enzyme, which was recovered in the elution step, maintaining its enzymatic activity. The batch adsorption of bromelain was evaluated in terms of total protein and enzymatic activity using Langmuir and Langmuir-Freundlich models. Results showed that the process could be suitable for the recovery and purification of the enzyme, maintaining its specific activity.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Universidade Estadual de Campinas Faculdade de Engenharia QuímicaUniversidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Departamento de Ciências Exatas e da TerraUniversidade Federal de Uberlândia Instituto de Genética e BioquímicaUniversidade Estadual de Campinas Faculdade de Ciências MédicasUNIFESP, Depto. de Ciências Exatas e da TerraSciEL

Liquid-liquid extraction in the presence of electrolytes of nisin and green fluorescent protein (GFPuv)

In the biotechnology field, it has been suggested that extractions in two-phase aqueous complex-fluid systems can possibly be used instead of, or as complementary processes to, the more typical chromatographic operations, to reduce the cost of the downstream processing of many biological products (Lam et al., 2004; Mazzola et al., 2006). This method offer attractive conditions to be applied in this study, thereby two-phase systems can be exploited in separation science for the extraction/purification of desired biomolecules directly on the culture medium (Mazzola et al., 2008). This study aimed to evaluate the aqueous two phase system (ATPS) composed by a nonionic surfactant, Triton X-114 (TX), in presence or absence of electrolytes, to separate two interesting biomolecules: nisin and recombinant green fluorescent protein (GFP). Results indicated that nisin partitions preferentially to the micelle rich-phase, with significant antimicrobial activity increase (up to 10-fold). GFP partitioned evenly between the phases in TX system without electrolytes.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Brazil (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Brazil (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil (FAPESP

Isolation and purification of bromelain from waste peel of pineapple for therapeutic application

The aim of this work was to isolate and purify bromelain extracted from the pineapple peel by ammonium sulfate precipitation (40-80%), followed by desalting and freeze-drying with a 75% activity recovery and 2.2 fold increased specific activity. Ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-Sepharose was able to separate the polysaccharides from the enzyme, which was recovered in the elution step, maintaining its enzymatic activity. The batch adsorption of bromelain was evaluated in terms of total protein and enzymatic activity using Langmuir and Langmuir-Freundlich models. Results showed that the process could be suitable for the recovery and purification of the enzyme, maintaining its specific activity.971979Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Stability of furosemide and aminophylline in parenteral solutions

Parenteral solutions (PS) are one of the most commonly used drug delivery vehicles. Interactions among the drug, components in the drug's formulation, and the PS can result in the formation of inactive complexes that limit efficacy or increase side effects. The aim of this work was to evaluate possible interactions between the drugs and PS, assess drug stability and to identify degradation products after 20 h at room temperature. Furosemide (FSM) and Aminophylline (APN) were added to PS containing either 20% mannitol or 0.9% NaCl at pH 6.5-7.5 and 10-11. Their behavior was studied individually and as an admixture, after 1 h oxidation with H2O2, using a spectrophotometer and HPLC. Individually, FSM and APN added to 20% mannitol and 0.9% NaCl solutions had the highest stability at pH 10-11. When FSM and APN were combined, the behavior of FSM was similar to the behavior observed for the drug individually in the same solutions. With the drugs combined in 20% mannitol pH 10-11, HPLC showed that both drugs were stable after a 20 h period yielding two distinct peaks; in oxidized samples, the elution profile showed four peaks with retention times unrelated to the untreated samples.Soluções parenterais de grande volume são frequentemente utilizadas no ambiente hospitalar para a veiculação de fármacos. No entanto, possíveis incompatibilidades entre as estruturas dos fármacos, em diferentes veículos de administração, podem gerar possíveis associações antagônicas ou sinérgicas, resultando em alterações das propriedades físico-químicas, consequentemente, dos efeitos farmacológicos e das respostas clínicas esperadas. Este artigo avaliou a estabilidade e a possível formação de produtos de degradação entre os fármacos furosemida e aminofilina quando estes foram veiculados em soluções parenterais, após o preparo e após o período de 20 h. Furosemida e aminofilina foram adicionadas às soluções de 20% manitol e 0,9% NaCl nos valores de pH 6,5-7,5 e 10-11. A estabilidade dos fármacos foi avaliada individualmente, combinada e após degradação com peróxido de hidrogênio através de espectrofotometria de UV e HPLC. Furosemida e aminofilina individualmente avaliadas mostraram alta estabilidade em ambas as soluções estudadas nos valores de pH 10-11. Quando os fármacos foram combinados o comportamento da furosemida foi similar ao observado na ausência de aminofilina. Os fármacos combinados em 20% manitol pH10-11 por HPLC foram estáveis após o período de 20 h. Após degradação o perfil de cromatograma encontrado foi diferente do observado na ausência de degradação mostrando que o método é indicativo de estabilidade.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa (CNPq)Coordenadoria de Apoio a Pesquisa (CAPES