FORMULATION AND IN VITRO EVALUATION OF ORLISTAT ORODISPERSIBLE TABLETS FOR ENHANCEMENT OF DISSOLUTION RATE

Objective: The aim of the present study was to formulate the oro dispersible tablets (ODTs) of Orlistat (OST) by direct compression technique using melt granulation method.Methods: Super disintegrants were used for the preparation of ODTs namely Crospovidone (CP), Croscarmellose sodium (CCS), Sodium starch glycolate (SSG). The powder mixture was subjected to pre compression evaluation like FTIR, Micromeritic, solubility studies and post-compression evaluation like friability, hardness, wetting time, dispersion time, disintegration time and in vitro dissolution rate.Results: FTIR studies confirmed that there was no chemical interaction between the drug and excipients. Micromeritic studies revealed that the powder blend has good flow ability. The results of hardness and friability complied with the official standards. The solid dispersions (SDs) prepared in OST to PEG 6000 ratio of 1:2 were showed good solubility than other SDs and it was selected for formulation development. It was evident from the results that the increase in super disintegrants concentration decreases the wetting, dispersion and disintegration times and CP showed the best results than other super disintegrating agents.Conclusion: The F4 formulation showed optimum drug release of 98.99 % at the end of 15 min when compared to the other formulations; it might be due to the presence of CP.Keywords: Direct compression, Melt granulation method, Orlistat, Orodispersible tablets, Polyethylene glycol.Â

Does treating obesity stabilize chronic kidney disease?

BACKGROUND: Obesity is a growing health issue in the Western world. Obesity, as part of the metabolic syndrome adds to the morbidity and mortality. The incidence of diabetes and hypertension, two primary etiological factors for chronic renal failure, is significantly higher with obesity. We report a case with morbid obesity whose renal function was stabilized with aggressive management of his obesity. CASE REPORT: A 43-year old morbidly obese Caucasian male was referred for evaluation of his chronic renal failure. He had been hypertensive with well controlled blood pressure with a body mass index of 46 and a baseline serum creatinine of 4.3 mg/dl (estimated glomerular filtration rate of 16 ml/min). He had failed all conservative attempts at weight reduction and hence was referred for a gastric by-pass surgery. Following the bariatric surgery he had approximately 90 lbs. weight loss over 8-months and his serum creatinine stabilized to 4.0 mg/dl. CONCLUSION: Obesity appears to be an independent risk factor for renal failure. Targeting obesity is beneficial not only for better control of hypertension and diabetes, but also possibly helps stabilization of chronic kidney failure

Pathophysiology of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis

Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is a major cause of idiopathic steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS) and end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). In recent years, animal models and studies of familial forms of nephrotic syndrome helped elucidate some mechanisms of podocyte injury and disease progression in FSGS. This article reviews some of the experimental and clinical data on the pathophysiology of FSGS

Chronic kidney disease in children: the global perspective

In contrast to the increasing availability of information pertaining to the care of children with chronic kidney disease (CKD) from large-scale observational and interventional studies, epidemiological information on the incidence and prevalence of pediatric CKD is currently limited, imprecise, and flawed by methodological differences between the various data sources. There are distinct geographic differences in the reported causes of CKD in children, in part due to environmental, racial, genetic, and cultural (consanguinity) differences. However, a substantial percentage of children develop CKD early in life, with congenital renal disorders such as obstructive uropathy and aplasia/hypoplasia/dysplasia being responsible for almost one half of all cases. The most favored end-stage renal disease (ESRD) treatment modality in children is renal transplantation, but a lack of health care resources and high patient mortality in the developing world limits the global provision of renal replacement therapy (RRT) and influences patient prevalence. Additional efforts to define the epidemiology of pediatric CKD worldwide are necessary if a better understanding of the full extent of the problem, areas for study, and the potential impact of intervention is desired

Differentially Expressed RNA from Public Microarray Data Identifies Serum Protein Biomarkers for Cross-Organ Transplant Rejection and Other Conditions

Serum proteins are routinely used to diagnose diseases, but are hard to find due to low sensitivity in screening the serum proteome. Public repositories of microarray data, such as the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), contain RNA expression profiles for more than 16,000 biological conditions, covering more than 30% of United States mortality. We hypothesized that genes coding for serum- and urine-detectable proteins, and showing differential expression of RNA in disease-damaged tissues would make ideal diagnostic protein biomarkers for those diseases. We showed that predicted protein biomarkers are significantly enriched for known diagnostic protein biomarkers in 22 diseases, with enrichment significantly higher in diseases for which at least three datasets are available. We then used this strategy to search for new biomarkers indicating acute rejection (AR) across different types of transplanted solid organs. We integrated three biopsy-based microarray studies of AR from pediatric renal, adult renal and adult cardiac transplantation and identified 45 genes upregulated in all three. From this set, we chose 10 proteins for serum ELISA assays in 39 renal transplant patients, and discovered three that were significantly higher in AR. Interestingly, all three proteins were also significantly higher during AR in the 63 cardiac transplant recipients studied. Our best marker, serum PECAM1, identified renal AR with 89% sensitivity and 75% specificity, and also showed increased expression in AR by immunohistochemistry in renal, hepatic and cardiac transplant biopsies. Our results demonstrate that integrating gene expression microarray measurements from disease samples and even publicly-available data sets can be a powerful, fast, and cost-effective strategy for the discovery of new diagnostic serum protein biomarkers

Offline Signature Verification Using Image Processing

A person’s signature is merely a handwritten sign that closely resembles his/her name, frequently stylized and distinctive, and that expresses the person’s identity, intent, and consent. Two types of verifications are present. They are online signature verification and offline signature verification. Generally, Offline Signature verification is less efficient and slower process compare to online verification when come to the situation having larger number of documents and files to verify with in less time. Over the years, many researchers have developed so many methods for signature verifications to help the people or organizations to find whether the signature of a particular person is forged or genuine. To overcome this problems; In this paper we introduced a simple method to improve the verification of the signature in Image Processing using Convolution Neural Networks(CNN). Signature Verification it is used to authenticate various kinds of documents, including cheques, draughts, certificates, approvals, letters, and other legal ones, such verification is crucial for preventing document forgery and falsification. Previously, to verify a signature, it was manually checked against copies of real signatures. This straightforward approach might not be sufficient given that forgery and signature fraud techniques are becoming more sophisticated as a result of improving technology