Safety Measures for Operating Team and Operation Theater During the Current Scenario of COVID-19

The COVID-19 has become a major threat to Pakistan and worldwide, and has become a significant issue for global health, economy and societies. This rapid spread was occurred from Wuhan, China to most of the part of the world. To elaborate the concept and recommendations regarding the safety precautions in operation theater (O.T) and inside associated team during the current scenario of COVID-19. Many research and review articles were studied to collect information about Covid-19 and strategies published in various journals using the search engine, PubMed and Medline. The COVID-19 has significantly changed all aspects of daily life around the world since very start of this year 2020. SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), a novel corona virus, has been infected many healthcare workers. In this perspective, hospitals need a strategy to manage their resources, staff and supplies so that patients receive optimal treatment. A decision tree algorithm was developed that defined the recommendations for safety measures in operation theater and operating procedures, these include identifying and developing an isolation room, administrative measures such as transformations in working flow and procedures, introducing personal protective equipment for the employees and formulating anesthetic clinical guidelines. These control actions are essential to enhance the excellence of care provided to COVID-19 patients and to minimize the risk of spread to other patients or staff. The operating room is a dynamic environment with numerous staff like anesthesiologists, physicians, nurses, O.T attendants and technicians; however, we agree that the containment steps are important in order to improve the standard of treatment provided to COVID-19 patients and to minimize the chance of viral spread to patients other than COVID-19 and hospital staff

Engineered Nanoparticles Against MDR in Cancer: The State of the Art and its Prospective

International audienceCancer is a highly heterogeneous disease at intra/inter patient levels and known as the leading cause of death worldwide. A variety of mono and combinational therapies including chemotherapy have been evolved over the years for its effective treatment. However, advent of chemotherapeutic resistance or multidrug resistance (MDR) in cancer is major challenge researchers facing in its successful chemotherapy. MDR is a complex process having multifaceted non-cellular or cellular-based mechanisms. Research in the area of cancer nanotechnology over the past two decade have now been proven that the smartly designed nanoparticles with targeting ligands help in successful chemotherapy through overcoming the MDR and preferentially accumulate in the tumor region by mean of active and passive targeting therefore reducing the off-target accumulation of payload. Many of such nanoparticles are in different stages of clinical trials as nanomedicines showing promising results in cancer therapy including the resistant cases. Nanoparticles as chemotherapeutics carriers offer the opportunity to have multiple payload of drug and or imaging agents for combinational and theranostics therapy. Moreover, nanotechnology further extended and brig in notice the new treatment strategies such as combining the NIR, MRI and HIFU in cancer chemotherapy and imaging. Here we discussed the cellular/non-cellular factors constituting the MDR in cancer and the role of nanomedicines in effective chemotherapy of MDR cases of cancers. Moreover, recent advancement like combinational payload delivery and combined physical approach with nanotechnology in cancer therapy has also been discussed

Fabrication of Nanoformulation Containing Carvedilol and Silk Protein Sericin against Doxorubicin Induced Cardiac Damage in Rats

Nanotechnology has emerged as an inspiring tool for the effective delivery of drugs to help treat Coronary heart disease (CHD) which represents the most prevalent reason for mortality and morbidity globally. The current study focuses on the assessment of the cardioprotective prospective ofanovel combination nanoformulation of sericin and carvedilol. Sericin is a silk protein obtained from Bombyx mori cocoon and carvedilol is a synthetic nonselective β-blocker. In this present study, preparation of chitosan nanoparticles was performed via ionic gelation method and were evaluated for cardioprotective activity in doxorubicin (Dox)-induced cardiotoxicity. Serum biochemical markers of myocardial damage play a substantial role in the analysis of cardiovascular ailments and their increased levels have been observed to be significantly decreased in treatment groups. Treatment groups showed a decline in the positivity frequency of the Troponin T test as well. The NTG (Nanoparticle Treated Group), CSG (Carvedilol Standard Group), and SSG (Sericin Standard Group) were revealed to have reduced lipid peroxide levels (Plasma and heart tissue) highly significantly at a level of p p p < 0.01, respectively. Hence, the outcomes of this study suggest that the developed nanoparticle formulation is effective against doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity

Rational Coformer Selection and the Development of New Crystalline Multicomponent Forms of Resveratrol with Enhanced Water Solubility

We report the development of 10 new cocrystal forms of the nutraceutical compound resveratrol obtained through a rational coformer screening by utilizing the interaction site pairing energy differences computed based on molecular electrostatic potential calculations. A new monohydrate form of resveratrol and 10 novel cocrystals with 9 different coformers were characterized in the study. Among the newly developed solid forms of resveratrol, two of its cocrystals with (1) a Generally Recognized As Safe compound piperazine and (2) the bioactive compound methenamine were subjected to aqueous solubility determination. The newly developed piperazine cocrystal exhibits the highest aqueous solubility among the previously known cocrystals of resveratrol

Evaluation of the Pharmacokinetics of the Pancreastatin Inhibitor PSTi8 Peptide in Rats: Integration of In Vitro and In Vivo Findings

PSTi8 is a pancreastatin inhibitory peptide that is effective in the treatment of diabetic models. This study investigates the pharmacokinetic (PK) properties of PSTi8 in Sprague Dawley rats, for the first time. In vitro and in vivo PK studies were performed to evaluate the solubility, stability in plasma and liver microsomes, plasma protein binding, blood–plasma partitioning, bioavailability, dose proportionality, and gender difference in PK. Samples were analyzed using the validated LC-MS/MS method. The solubility of PSTi8 was found to be 9.30 and 25.75 mg/mL in simulated gastric and intestinal fluids, respectively. The protein binding of PSTi8 was estimated as >69% in rat plasma. PSTi8 showed high stability in rat plasma and liver microsomes and the blood–plasma partitioning was >2. The bioavailability of PSTi8 after intraperitoneal and subcutaneous administration was found to be 95.00 ± 12.15 and 78.47 ± 17.72%, respectively, in rats. PSTi8 showed non-linear PK in dose proportionality studies, and has no gender difference in the PK behavior in rats. The high bioavailability of PSTi8 can be due to high water solubility and plasma protein binding, low clearance and volume of distribution. Our in vitro and in vivo findings support the development of PSTi8 as an antidiabetic agent

Augmentation and Evaluation of an Olive Oil Based Polyherbal Combination against Diabetic Cardiomyopathy in Experimental Model of Rodents

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder that is prima facie a cause for numerous macro and micro vascular complications. A common macroscopic complication associated with diabetes is cardiomyopathy. Cardiomyopathy refers to diseases of the heart muscle, where the heart muscle becomes enlarged, thick, or rigid. As cardiomyopathy worsens, the heart becomes weaker and is unable to conduct the right amount of blood through the body and maintain a normal electrical rhythm. This can lead to heart failure or arrhythmias. Chronic diabetes is one of the instigating factors behind the etiology of this cardiac complication. Type-II diabetes is associated with impaired glucose metabolism that increases the dependence of a diabetic heart on fatty acid oxidation to meet its functional demands, resulting in mitochondrial uncoupling, glucotoxicity, lipotoxicity and initially subclinical cardiac dysfunction that finally gives way to heart failure. The increasing diabetic population with cardiac disorders and the ironically decreasing trend in newer medications to counter this complication leave us at a crossroads for pharmacological management of diabetic cardiomyopathy. Keeping this in view, the present study proclaims a newly developed polyherbal combination (PHC) with three herbs, namely Tinospora cordifolia, Withania somnifera and Boerhavia diffusa based in olive oil and administered in fixed dose (PHC-6 and PHC-10) to screen its cardioprotective potential against a well-established experimental model for diabetic cardiomyopathy. The three herbs mentioned have been known through the traditional literature for their antidiabetic and cardioprotective roles, hence they became the obvious choice. The study follows an experimental model proposed by Reed et al., where the capacity of the β-cell is unobtrusively impeded without totally compromising insulin release, bringing about a moderate disability in glucose resilience. Various sophisticated parameters, namely intraventricular septum thickness of hearts, Western blot of α/β- MHC monoclonal antibody (Ab), cardiac pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) activity, medium chain acyl coenzyme A dehydrogenase (MCAD) enzyme, etc. showed promising results where treatment with PHC (PHC-6 and PHC-10) significantly (*** p p < 0.0001) prevented the symptoms of cardiomyopathy in subsequent groups when compared to disease control group

Biodiversity: the overlooked source of human health

Biodiversity is the measure of the variation of lifeforms in a given ecological system. Biodiversity provides ecosystems with the robustness, stability, and resilience that sustains them. This is ultimately essential for our survival because we depend on the services that natural ecosystems provide (food, fresh water, air, climate, and medicine). Despite this, human activity is driving an unprecedented rate of biodiversity decline, which may jeopardize the life-support systems of the planet if no urgent action is taken. In this article we show why biodiversity is essential for human health. We raise our case and focus on the biomedicine services that are enabled by biodiversity, and we present known and novel approaches to promote biodiversity conservation