Development and Validation of Analytical methods for estimation of Simvastatin and Fenofibrate

The present work describes Stability indicating RP-HPLC and First order derivative UV spectrophotometric method for the quantitative determination of Simvastatin and Fenofibrate. Materials and methods: The parameters Specificity, linearity, accuracy, precision, detection limit, quantitation limit, Robustness and system suitability tests were studied and their results were compiled to ICH guideline Q2 (R2).  Chromatography was carried out by reverse phase technique on an RP-18 with mobile phase composed of Acetonitrile: Water (90:10; %v/v) adjusted to pH 3.3 with 10% orthophosphoric acid) with flow rate 1 ml/min. Both drugs were eluted, isocratically using detection wavelength 230 nm. Methanol was used as a solvent, the spectrum was recorded between 200-400 nm wavelengths, and all the zero-order spectrum (D0) were converted to first-order derivative spectrum (D1) using delta lambda 2.0 and scaling factor 4. 240 nm (zero crossing point of Fenofibrate) and 306 nm (zero crossing point of Simvastatin) were used for determination of Simvastatin and Fenofibrate, respectively. Regression analysis of UV-Spectrophotometric method showed good linearity r2 = 0.9991 at 240 nm of Simvastatin 1-5 µg/ml and r2 = 0.9998 at 306 nm of Fenofibrate 10-50 µg/ml. For proposed methods, the linearity for both methods were obtained in the concentration range of 1-5 μg/ml for Simvastatin and 10-50 μg/ml for Fenofibrate. Statistical analysis by student’s t-test showed no significance difference between the results obtained by these two methods.  Results: The suitability of method for the quantitative determination of Simvastatin and Fenofibrate was proved by validation. Conclusion: The proposed methods and its results had been successfully applied and validated statistically to the simultaneous estimation of Simvastatin and Fenofibrate in their combination for quality analysi

Drug-prescribing patterns during pregnancy in the tertiary care hospitals of Pakistan: a cross sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The rationale for use of drugs during pregnancy requires a careful assessment as in addition to the mother, the health and life of her unborn child is also at stake. Information on the use of drugs during pregnancy is not available in Pakistan. The aim of this study was to evaluate the patterns of drug prescriptions to pregnant women in tertiary care hospitals of Pakistan.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was a cross-sectional study conducted at five tertiary care hospitals of Pakistan. Copies of outpatient medicinal prescriptions given to pregnant patients attending the antenatal clinics were collected. The drugs were classified according to the pharmacological class and their teratogenic potential.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All the pregnant women attending the antenatal clinics received a prescription containing at least one drug. A total of 3769 distinct prescriptions given to different women were collected. Majority of the women who received the prescriptions belonged to third trimester (55.4%) followed by second (33.6%) and first trimester (11.0%). On an average, each prescription contained 1.66 ± 0.14 drugs. The obstetricians at Civil Hospital, Karachi and Chandka Medical College Hospital, Larkana showed a tendency of prescribing lesser number of drugs compared to those in other hospitals. Anti-anemic drugs including iron preparations and vitamin and mineral supplements (79.4%) were the most frequently prescribed drugs followed by analgesics (6.2%) and anti-bacterials (2.2%). 739 women (19.6%) received prescriptions containing drugs other than vitamin or mineral supplements. Only 1275 (21.6%) of all the prescribed drugs (n = 6100) were outside this vitamin/mineral supplement class. Out of these 1275 drugs, 29 (2.3%) drugs were prescribed which are considered to be teratogenic. Misoprostol was the most frequently prescribed (n = 6) among the teratogenic drugs followed by carbimazole (n = 5) and methotrexate (n = 5). Twenty nine pregnant women (0.8% of all the women studied) were prescribed these teratogenic drugs.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Less than one percent of the pregnant women attending tertiary care hospitals in Pakistan are prescribed teratogenic drugs. The prescribing practices of Pakistani physicians are similar to those in western countries.</p

Multiple roles for basement membrane proteins in cancer progression and EMT

Metastasis or the progression of malignancy poses a major challenge in cancer therapy and is the principal reason for increased mortality. The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of the basement membrane (BM) allows cells of epithelial phenotype to transform into a mesenchymal-like (quasi-mesenchymal) phenotype and metastasize via the lymphovascular system through a metastatic cascade by intravasation and extravasation. This helps in the progression of carcinoma from the primary site to distant organs. Collagen, laminin, and integrin are the prime components of BM and help in tumor cell metastasis, which makes them ideal cancer drug targets. Further, recent studies have shown that collagen, laminin, and integrin can be used as a biomarker for metastatic cells. In this review, we have summarized the current knowledge of such therapeutics, which are either currently in preclinical or clinical stages and could be promising cancer therapeutics.Data availability: Not applicableScientific Research at Majmaah University [R-2022-117]Dr. Niraj Kumar Jha is thankful to Sharda University for the infra-structure and facility. The author would like to thank Deanship of Sci-entific Research at Majmaah University for supporting this work under project number No. R-2022-117. The authors would like to acknowledge the support from their respective institutes throughout the review writing process

Care-seeking patterns for fatal non-communicable diseases among women of reproductive age in rural northwest Bangladesh

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Though non-communicable diseases contribute to an increasing share of the disease burden in South Asia, health systems in most rural communities are ill-equipped to deal with chronic illness. This analysis seeks to describe care-seeking behavior among women of reproductive age who died from fatal non-communicable diseases as recorded in northwest rural Bangladesh between 2001 and 2007.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This analysis utilized data from a large population-based cohort trial in northwest rural Bangladesh. To conduct verbal autopsies of women who died while under study surveillance, physicians interviewed family members to elicit the biomedical symptoms that the women experienced as well as a narrative of the events leading to deaths. We performed qualitative textual analysis of verbal autopsy narratives for 250 women of reproductive age who died from non-communicable diseases between 2001 and 2007.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The majority of women (94%) sought at least one provider for their illnesses. Approximately 71% of women first visited non-certified providers such as village doctors and traditional healers, while 23% first sought care from medically certified providers. After the first point of care, women appeared to switch to medically certified practitioners when treatment from non-certified providers failed to resolve their illness.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study suggests that treatment seeking patterns for non-communicable diseases are affected by many of the sociocultural factors that influence care seeking for pregnancy-related illnesses. Families in northwest rural Bangladesh typically delayed seeking treatment from medically certified providers for NCDs due to the cost of services, distance to facilities, established relationships with non-certified providers, and lack of recognition of the severity of illnesses. Most women did not realize initially that they were suffering from a chronic illness. Since women typically reached medically certified providers in advanced stages of disease, they were usually told that treatment was not possible or were referred to higher-level facilities that they could not afford to visit. Women suffering from non-communicable disease in these rural communities need feasible and practical treatment options. Further research and investment in adequate, appropriate care seeking and referral is needed for women of reproductive age suffering from fatal non-communicable diseases in resource-poor settings.</p