Critical analysis of drug promotional literature available to the medical practitioners

Background: To ascertain whether the pharmaceutical companies are following the WHO criteria for “Ethical medicinal drug promotion 1988” and “OPPI Code of pharmaceutical marketing practices, 2012” and to what extent. Also, to evaluate the therapeutic claims made by them in their drug promotional literature and other aspects.Methods: Drug Promotional Literature (DPL) from different pharmaceutical companies was collected from various Medical practitioners and analysed to see if they achieved objectives. Therapeutic claims made by them were classified as authentic, exaggerated, controversial, false, and misinterpreted.Results: Total 250 DPLs were collected and critically analysed for information content. Out of the 11 WHO criteria for ethical medicinal drug promotion (1988), Majority (30%)  followed only 54.54% of the criteria while only 4% followed 100% of the criteria. The total number of claims in the 250 DPL were 354 of which 52.8% were authentic and 47.2% were misleading. From the misleading claims: 28.7% were exaggerated, 34.7% were controversial, 22.8% were false, 23% were ambiguous.Conclusions: This study enabled us to find out to what extent the pharmaceutical industries follow the standard criteria for DPL and evaluate the claims made by them. DPL is one of the important sources of drug information. Some of the pharmaceutical companies failed to follow the WHO criteria while advertising their products in order to make them look more lucrative having an underlying commercial motive. As they influence prescribing patterns of the clinicians, misleading promotional literature would result in irrational prescribing of drugs. To avoid this, DPL has to be critically evaluated

Effects of water-soluble polymers upon some properties of natural rubber latex

An investigation of the effects of various water-soluble polymers upon some properties of natural rubber latex has been carried out. All the polymers, which were of two principal types, distinguished according to the rate of addition of polymerisation reactants, were prepared by free-radical initiated solution polymerisation. Two types of monomers, namely, ionisable hydrophilic monomers and hydrophobic monomers were used in the preparation of polymers. Both types of polymers, referred to as Type 1 and Type 2, were principally characterised by viscometry, hydrophilicity assessment and infra-red analyses. It has been found that such characteristics of these polymers as molecular weight, composition distribution and hydrophilicity are dependent upon the method used for their preparation. Explanations which have been suggested for this dependence accord with theoretical predictions. It has also been found that certain properties of natural rubber (NR) latex such as mechanical stability (MST), viscosity, zinc-oxide thickening, heat-sensitivity and creaming can be modified with the addition of water-soluble polymers and that the extent to which each of these properties is modified depends upon the characteristics of the added polymer. The extent of the modification of MST and viscosity of NR latex greatly depended upon both the molecular weight and composition of the added polymer. The influence of composition of the added polymer in modifying zinc-oxide thickening was found to be more important than that of molecular weight. Even though the effects of polymers of Type 1 and Type 2 upon the properties of NR latex were generally similar it has not been able to make proper comparisons between the effects of these two types of polymers as their characteristics were different

Seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus co-infection in human immunodeficiency virus infected patients at a tertiary care hospital in South India

Background: About one third of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients are co infected with either hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) as the three viruses have similar routes of transmission that is through transfusion of blood and blood products, sharing of needles to inject drugs and unprotected sexual activity. The survival of HIV infected patients has been markedly improved with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). However several studies showed that the liver diseases caused by HBV or HCV have emerged as one of the leading causes of non AIDS related deaths in HIV patients. The objective of this work was to study the prevalence of HBV & HCV co-infection in HIV infected patients at a Tertiary care centre in South India.Methods: The study group includes 100 HIV seropositive individuals confirmed by three rapid tests as per NACO (National AIDS Control Organization) guidelines in ICTC (Integrated Counseling and Testing Centre), Department of Microbiology, Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. Age and sex matched 100 HIV seronegative individuals were also included in the study as controls. Both the groups were screened for detection of HBV and HCV markers by one rapid test and a solid phase enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (sandwich ELISA).Results: Out of 100 HIV positive patients in the study group 12(12%) were co infected with HBV and 2(2%) were co infected with HCV. Out of 12 HIV and HBV co infected patients 7(58.3%) were females and 5(41.7%) were males. The HIV &HCV co infected patients were both females. Co infection of HBV & HCV with HIV was found to be 0(0%). Co infection was most commonly seen in the age group 31-40 years followed by 21 – 39 years. In the control group out of 100 HIV negative individuals, 1(1%) was infected with HBV infection.Conclusions: The routine screening of HBV and HCV should be mandatory for HIV infected patients, as there is more chance of co infection with these Hepatitis viruses due to enhanced immunodeficiency by HIV and similar routes of transmission. Clear National policies should be established which should include clear economic and health care strategies to improve quality of living conditions, education and easy access to health care facilities.

Sources of resistance to Tobacco streak virus in wild Arachis (Fabaceae: Papilionoidae) germplasm

Stem necrosis disease caused by Tobacco streak virus (TSV), first recognized in 2000, has emerged as a potential threat to peanut (Arachis hypogaea) in southern states of India. The virus induces severe necrosis of shoots leading to death of the plant, and plants that survive are malformed, with severe reduction in pod yield. All the currently grown peanut cultivars in India are highly susceptible to the virus. Therefore, wild relatives of peanut were evaluated to identify potential sources of resistance to TSV infection. In all, 56 germplasm accessions from 20 wild Arachis spp. in four sections (Arachis, Erectoides, Procumbente, and Rhizomatosae), along with susceptible peanut cultivars (JL 24 and K 1375), were evaluated for resistance to TSV under greenhouse conditions using mechanical sap inoculations. Systemic virus infection, determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), in the test accessions ranged between 0 and 100%. Twenty-four accessions in section Arachis that had 0 to 35% systemically infected plants were retested, and systemic infection was not detected in eight of these accessions in repeated trials in the greenhouse. These are International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics groundnut (ICG) accession nos. 8139, 8195, 8200, 8203, 8205, and 11550 belonging to A. duranensis; ICG 8144 belonging to A. villosa; and ICG 13210 belonging to A. stenosperma. Even though the resistant accessions had 0 to 100% TSV infection in inoculated leaves, TSV was not detected in the subsequently emerged leaves. This is the first report of TSV resistance in Arachis spp. The eight TSV resistant accessions are cross compatible with A. hypogaea for utilization in breeding for stem necrosis disease resistance

Treatment of synthetic textile wastewater containing dye mixtures with microcosms

The aim was to assess the ability of microcosms (laboratory-scale shallow ponds) as a post polishing stage for the remediation of artificial textile wastewater comprising two commercial dyes (basic red 46 (BR46) and reactive blue 198 (RB198)) as a mixture. The objectives were to evaluate the impact of Lemna minor L. (common duckweed) on the water quality outflows; the elimination of dye mixtures, organic matter, and nutrients; and the impact of synthetic textile wastewater comprising dye mixtures on the L. minor plant growth. Three mixtures were prepared providing a total dye concentration of 10 mg/l. Findings showed that the planted simulated ponds possess a significant (p < 0.05) potential for improving the outflow characteristics and eliminate dyes, ammonium-nitrogen (NH4-N), and nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) in all mixtures compared with the corresponding unplanted ponds. The removal of mixed dyes in planted ponds was mainly due to phyto-transformation and adsorption of BR46 with complete aromatic amine mineralisation. For ponds containing 2 mg/l of RB198 and 8 mg/l of BR46, removals were around 53%, which was significantly higher than those for other mixtures: 5 mg/l of RB198 and 5 mg/l of BR46 and 8 mg/l of RB198 and 2 mg/l of BR46 achieved only 41 and 26% removals, respectively. Dye mixtures stopped the growth of L. minor, and the presence of artificial wastewater reduced their development

Enhancing methane production from lignocellulosic biomass by combined steam‑explosion pretreatment and bioaugmentation with cellulolytic bacterium Caldicellulosiruptor bescii

Background: Biogas production from lignocellulosic biomass is generally considered to be challenging due to the recalcitrant nature of this biomass. In this study, the recalcitrance of birch was reduced by applying steam-explosion (SE) pretreatment (210 °C and 10 min). Moreover, bioaugmentation with the cellulolytic bacterium Caldicellulosiruptor bescii was applied to possibly enhance the methane production from steam-exploded birch in an anaerobic digestion (AD) process under thermophilic conditions (62 °C). Results: Overall, the combined SE and bioaugmentation enhanced the methane yield up to 140% compared to untreated birch, while SE alone contributed to the major share of methane enhancement by 118%. The best methane improvement of 140% on day 50 was observed in bottles fed with pretreated birch and bioaugmentation with lower dosages of C. bescii (2 and 5% of inoculum volume). The maximum methane production rate also increased from 4-mL CH4/ g VS (volatile solids)/day for untreated birch to 9-14-mL CH4/ g VS/day for steam-exploded birch with applied bioaugmentation. Bioaugmentation was particularly effective for increasing the initial methane production rate of the pretreated birch yielding 21-44% more methane than the pretreated birch without applied bioaugmentation. The extent of solubilization of the organic matter was increased by more than twofold when combined SE pretreatment and bioaugmentation was used in comparison with the methane production from untreated birch. The beneficial effects of SE and bioaugmentation on methane yield indicated that biomass recalcitrance and hydrolysis step are the limiting factors for efficient AD of lignocellulosic biomass. Microbial community analysis by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing showed that the microbial community composition was altered by the pretreatment and bioaugmentation processes. Notably, the enhanced methane production by pretreatment and bioaugmentation was well correlated with the increase in abundance of key bacterial and archaeal communities, particularly the hydrolytic bacterium Caldicoprobacter, several members of syntrophic acetate oxidizing bacteria and the hydrogenotrophic Methanothermobacter. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate the potential of combined SE and bioaugmentation for enhancing methane production from lignocellulosic biomass

Mimicking the Neurotrophic Factor Profile of Embryonic Spinal Cord Controls the Differentiation Potential of Spinal Progenitors into Neuronal Cells

Recent studies have indicated that the choice of lineage of neural progenitor cells is determined, at least in part, by environmental factors, such as neurotrophic factors. Despite extensive studies using exogenous neurotrophic factors, the effect of endogenous neurotrophic factors on the differentiation of progenitor cells remains obscure. Here we show that embryonic spinal cord derived-progenitor cells express both ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) mRNA before differentiation. BDNF gene expression significantly decreases with their differentiation into the specific lineage, whereas CNTF gene expression significantly increases. The temporal pattern of neurotrophic factor gene expression in progenitor cells is similar to that of the spinal cord during postnatal development. Approximately 50% of spinal progenitor cells differentiated into astrocytes. To determine the effect of endogenous CNTF on their differentiation, we neutralized endogenous CNTF by administration of its polyclonal antibody. Neutralization of endogenous CNTF inhibited the differentiation of progenitor cells into astrocytes, but did not affect the numbers of neurons or oligodendrocytes. Furthermore, to mimic the profile of neurotrophic factors in the spinal cord during embryonic development, we applied BDNF or neurotrophin (NT)-3 exogenously in combination with the anti-CNTF antibody. The exogenous application of BDNF or NT-3 promoted the differentiation of these cells into neurons or oligodendrocytes, respectively. These findings suggest that endogenous CNTF and exogenous BDNF and NT-3 play roles in the differentiation of embryonic spinal cord derived progenitor cells into astrocytes, neurons and oligodendrocytes, respectively