DRUG UTILIZATION EVALUATION OF BENZODIAZEPINES IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Objective: To assess the rationale use of benzodiazepines among various departments in a multi-speciality hospital. Methods: A prospective study was conducted with a sample size of 200 for a period of six months. Data was collected from patients based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Naranjo Adverse Drug Reaction Probability Scale and Drug Interaction Probability Scale (DIPS) were used as a study tool to measure the causality of adverse drug reactions and drug interactions. Based on the dosage of various benzodiazepines DDD was calculated and compared with WHO Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification Defined Daily Dose (DDD). Results: BZD’s were mostly prescribed in males (74.5%) and married patients (86.5%) were more exposed to benzodiazepines compared to others. Lorazepam (70.1%) was found to be the most commonly used drug, mainly prescribed for sedation, followed by anxiety. DDD was calculated and majority of patients had DDD in accordance with WHO standard. Based on cost analysis, Clobazam was found to be the high cost and Lorazepam being the low-cost drug. The results of drug utilization evaluation of benzodiazepines study were compiled and reported to the respected department physician and their feedback was collected. Conclusion: The study showed a rational utilization of benzodiazepines and the negative outcomes of BZDs can be reduced by providing drug-related information to the prescribers and consumers

Phytochemical and medicinal properties on Strychnos-nux-vomica (L)

Strychnos nux-vomica L. (Loganiaceae) is a deciduous tree that grows in tropical areas and is distributed throughout India and Southeast Asia. The dried seed of this plant S. nux vomica has been applied clinically in Chinese medicine for hundreds of years. S. nuxvomica is a non edible tree with a strong content of two poisonous alkaloids, strychnine and brucine. S. nux-vomica which belongs to the family loganiaceaalso called Kanjiram is a medium-sized tree. Other names of S. nux-vomica are Kanjiram, Kuchla, Kupilu.  Phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of alkaloid, carbohydrate, tannin, steroid, triterpenoid and glycoside in the extract. Seeds of Nux vomica used as nervine tonic, alexiteric, aphrodisiac, anthelmintic, digestive, purgative and stimulant. Detoxified S. Nux vomica seeds used in various Ayurvedic drugs like Agnitundi vati, Navjeevan Rasa and vishatinduka vati as an important ingredient. This study presents a review on the Phytochemical and Medicinal properties of S.nux vomica L

Phytochemical and Traditional uses on Acanthus ilicifolius (L)

Acanthus ilicifolius is a spiny herb found in mangrove of southern Thailand. It is also widely distributed in India and other tropical regions of Asia. The plant is reported to contain phytochemicals including alkaloid and wide range of glucosides  (lignan and phenylethanoid). In traditional medicine, the plant is used in the treatment of diseases ranging from snake bite to skin diseases. A. ilicifolius (sea holly) occurs in tropical Asia and Africa, through Malaya to Polynesia. It is a vine shrub or tall herb, up to 1.5 m high, scarcely woody, bushy, with very dense growth. Common names of which are holy leaved acanthus, sea holly and holy mangrove. A. ilicifoliusis abundantly available in freshwater ecosystem of Pichavaram mangroves located in southeast coast of India. The review analyses traditional medicinal usage, and phytochemical  investigations done on the A. ilicifoliusis medicinal plant

Medical imaging: Contribution toward background radiation and human exposure

Annual public exposure from background radiation is about 2.8 mSv which comes from both natural and manmade sources. The medical applications of ionizing radiation contribute around 98% of the manmade sources of background radiation. The annual per caput dose rose from 0.35 to 0.62 mSv by the worldwide usage of radiation diagnostic examinations. Based on the published reports, the diagnostic examinations – computed tomography (CT) scan and cerebral angiography are high (7.4 mSv and 9.3 mSv, respectively) in the average effective dose. In our study, we measured the entrance surface dose at different anatomical locations using thermoluminescence dosimeter in patients who underwent CT examinations and neurointerventional radiology procedures. The measured dose values range between 0.70 and 518.12 mGy for CT and 0.99 and 777.31 mGy for interventional procedures. Thus, X-radiation based procedures delivered a considerable amount of radiation dose to the patients. To minimize the risks of developing any health effects, safety measures should be taken to reduce the dose without compromising the image quality

CNN based plant disease identification using PYNQ FPGA

This research presents a novel approach for plant disease identification utilizing Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and the PYNQ FPGA platform. The study leverages the parallel processing capabilities of FPGAs to accelerate CNN inference, aiming to enhance the efficiency of plant disease detection in agricultural settings. The implementation involves optimizing the CNN architecture for deployment on the PYNQ FPGA, considering factors such as image size and learning rates. Through experimentation, the research refines hyper parameters, achieving improved accuracy and F1 scores. Visualizations using heat maps highlight the CNN's reliance on color, shape, and texture for feature extraction in disease identification. The integration of FPGA technology demonstrates promising advancements in real-time, high-performance plant disease classification, offering potential benefits for precision agriculture and crop management. This research contributes to the growing field of FPGA-accelerated deep learning applications in agro technology, addressing challenges in plant health monitoring and fostering sustainable agricultural practices

Structure-based design of diverse inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate uridyltransferase: combined molecular docking, dynamic simulation and biological activity

Persistent nature of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is one of the major factors which make the drug development process monotonous against this organism. The highly lipophilic cell wall, which constituting outer mycolic acid and inner peptidoglycan layers, acts as a barrier for the drugs to enter the bacteria. The rigidity of the cell wall is imparted by the peptidoglycan layer, which is covalently linked to mycolic acid by arabinogalactan. Uridine diphosphate-N-acetylglucosamine (UDP-GlcNAc) serves as the starting material in the biosynthesis of this peptidoglycan layers. This UDP-GlcNAc is synthesized by N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate uridyltransferase (GlmU^Mtb), a bi-functional enzyme with two functional sites, acetyltransferase site and uridyltransferase site. Here, we report design and screening of nine inhibitors against UTP and NAcGlc-1-P of uridyltransferase active site of GlmU^Mtb. Compound 4 was showing good inhibition and was selected for further analysis. The Isothermal Titration Calorimetry (ITC) experiments showed the binding energy pattern of compound 4 to the uridyltransferase active site is similar to that of substrate UTP. In silico Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation studies, for compound 4, carried out for 10 ns showed the protein-compound complex to be stable throughout the simulation with relative rmsd in acceptable range. Hence, these compounds can serve as a starting point in the drug discovery processes against Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Next-generation sequencing analysis reveals high bacterial diversity in wild venomous and non-venomous snakes from India.

Abstract Background The oral cavities of snakes are replete with various types of bacterial flora. Culture-dependent studies suggest that some of the bacterial species are responsible for secondary bacterial infection associated with snakebite. A complete profile of the ophidian oral bacterial community has been unreported until now. Therefore, in the present study, we determined the complete bacterial compositions in the oral cavity of some snakes from India. Methods Total DNA was isolated from oral swabs collected from three wild snake species (Indian Cobra, King Cobra and Indian Python). Next, the DNA was subjected to PCR amplification of microbial 16S rRNA gene using V3-region-specific primers. The amplicons were used for preparation of DNA libraries that were sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq platform. Results The cluster-based taxonomy analysis revealed that Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria were the most predominant phyla present in the oral cavities of snakes. This result indicates that snakes show more similarities to birds than mammals as to their oral bacterial communities. Furthermore, our study reports all the unique and common bacterial species (total: 147) found among the oral microbes of snakes studied, while the majority of commonly abundant species were pathogens or opportunistic pathogens to humans. A wide difference in ophidian oral bacterial flora suggests variation by individual, species and geographical region. Conclusion The present study would provide a foundation for further research on snakes to recognize the potential drugs/antibiotics for the different infectious diseases