Olive oil and clove oil-based nanoemulsion for topical delivery of terbinafine hydrochloride : in vitro and ex vivo evaluation

In this article, formulation studies for terbinafine hydrochloride nanoemulsions, prepared by high-energy ultrasonication technique, are described. Pseudo-ternary phase diagram was constructed in order to find out the optimal ratios of oil and surfactant/co-solvent mixture for nanoemulsion production. Clove and olive oils were selected as oil phase. Based on the droplet size evaluation, maximum nanoemulsion region were determined for formulation development. Further characterization included polydispersity index (PDI), zeta potential, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, morphology, pH, viscosity, refractive index, ex vivo skin permeation, skin irritation, and histopathological examination. Droplet sizes of optimized formulations were in colloidal range. PDI values below 0.35 indicated considerably homogeneous nanoemulsions. Zeta potential values were from 13.2 to 18.1 mV indicating good stability, which was also confirmed by dispersion stability studies. Ex vivo permeation studies revealed almost total skin permeation of terbinafine hydrochloride from the nanoemulsions (96-98%) in 6 hours whereas commercial product reached only 57% permeation at the same time. Maximum drug amounts were seen in epidermis and dermis layers. Skin irritation and histopathological examination demonstrated dermatologically safe formulations. In conclusion, olive oil and clove oil-based nanoemulsion systems have potential to serve as promising carriers for topical terbinafine hydrochloride delivery.Peer reviewe

Families of Women Entrepreneurs in Pakistan Their Paramount Support or Dreadful Obstacle

Purpose: This research aims to identify some female entrepreneurs and their relationship profiles with their families, which are categorized by families having a prominent part in influencing their decisions, activities, and behavior. Methodology: The qualitative technique was used as it is well suited to examining the experiences of different people. Open-ended Interviews with Pakistani female entrepreneurs using a semi-structured questionnaire were used to obtain data. The research allowed us to focus on one of the most pressing concerns affecting female entrepreneurs: integrating life with family, work, and their goals related to their profession. Findings: Evidently, knowing and understanding the importance of the household in the entrepreneurial experiences of women is critical to deciphering the reasons why enterprises that are owned by women thrive or crash, as family relations will invariably influence their performance. Conclusion: The research revealed that female entrepreneurs and their families have a significant linkage with their entrepreneurial experiences i.e., individual decisions of women to become entrepreneurs and the features of their businesses cannot be fully comprehended unless the family dimension is also considered

Host defence peptides in diabetes mellitus type 2 patients with periodontal disease. A systematic review

The aim of the study was to critically assess and review the latest evidence relating the associations between host defence peptides (HDPs), periodontal diseases (PD) and diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2). To explore studies on HDPs, periodontal disease, and DM2, researchers utilised specific key phrases to search the electronic databases PubMed (National Library of Medicine), Embase (Ovid), Medline (EBSCO), and Dentistry and Oral Sciences (EBSCO). Quality assessment was conducted by means of the Newcastle Ottawa scale and the Systematic Review Centre for Laboratory Animal Experimentation (SYRCLE) tool. Following a thorough screening process, a total of 12 papers (4 case‐control, 6 cross‐sectional, 1 animal, and 1 in vitro) fulfilled the selection criteria and were included. The majority of research found that HDPs were upregulated in DM2 patients with PD. Three investigations, however, found that HDPs were downregulated in DM2 patients with PD. HDPs play a part in the pathophysiology of PD and DM2. Nonetheless, more human, animal and laboratory investigations are needed to fully understand validation of the link, as the evidence is limited. Understanding HDPs as common moderators is critical, aimed at unlocking their potential as therapeutic and diagnostic agents

Study of erythrocytes as a novel drug carrier for the delivery of artemether

Resealed erythrocytes have been explored in various dimensions of drug delivery, owing to their high biocompatibility and inability to initiate immune response. The present research was designed to evaluate the drug delivery potential of erythrocytes by loading a hydrophobic anti-malarial drug, Artemether. Three different loading techniques were applied to achieve maximum optimized drug loading. A HPLC method was validated for drug quantification in erythrocytes. The relatively high loading was achieved using hypotonic treatment was 31.39% as compared to other two methods. These, drug loaded erythrocytes were characterized for membrane integrity via ESR showing higher ESR values for drug loaded cells as compared to normal cells. Moreover, microscopic evaluation was done to observe morphological changes in erythrocytes after successful loading which showed swollen cells with slight rough surface as compared to smooth surface of normal cells. Drug release was studied for 8 h which showed more than 80% release within 3-7 h from erythrocytes treated with different hypotonic methods. Overall, the study revealed a potential application of erythrocytes in delivery of hydrophobic drugs using hypotonic treatment as compared to other methods

White Button Mushroom, Agaricus bisporus (Agaricomycetes), and a Probiotics Mixture Supplementation Correct Dyslipidemia without Influencing the Colon Microbiome Profile in Hypercholesterolemic Rats

Consumption of foods rich in dietary fiber has attracted considerable attention for lowering blood cholesterol and triglycerides through attenuation of gut microbiome. Diets rich in fiber may provide substrates for microbes to digest and proliferate. In response, products of microbial digestion enter systemic circulation and support host energy homeostasis. In the present study, rats with hypercholesterolemia (HC) were supplemented with probiotics (PB) and Agaricus bisporus mushroom to examine the antidyslipidemia effects. Forty adult rats were divided into five treatment groups. The rats in the control group were fed only a chow maintenance diet (CON; n = 8), whereas an atherogenic diet (chow diet supplemented with 1.5% cholesterol and 0.5% cholic acid) was offered to the remaining rats to induce hypercholesterolemia (HC group; n = 32). Rats developed HC following a 24-day continuous supplementation with the atherogenic diet. From day 25 onward, the HC group was further divided into HC-CON, HC-PB (supplemented with PB at 1 mg/rat/day), HC-AB (supplemented with A. bisporus at 5% of diet), and HC-AB.PB (supplemented with both A. bisporus and PB). After 6 weeks of supplementation, rats were killed to collect blood to determine serum lipid profile, oxidative stress, and for metagenomics analysis of colon contents. Results showed that all supplementations corrected HC-induced oxidative stress. Furthermore, A. bisporus supplementation corrected HC-induced dyslipidemia (P ≤ .05). Blautia and Bifidobacterium were the most dominant bacterial genera in HC-AB and HC-PB groups, respectively. Phylum Firmicutes and class Clostridia predominantly occupied the gut microbiome in all groups. However, no significant differences were observed in microbiome diversity and clustering patterns among study groups. In conclusion, supplementation of A. bisporus mushroom and probiotics can lower oxidative stress and dyslipidemia with partial effects on the phylogenetic makeup in the gut microbiome

Evaluation of prescription behavior of tuberculosis patients in comparison with WHO guidelines

The present study was designed to evaluate the prescribing trend among the tuberculosis (TB) patients in different hospitals of Pakistan. In this study under directly observed therapy (DOT) programme, 38 patients including adults and children of both sexs who admitted suffering with either pulmonary or extra pulmonary TB, were selected. The majority of the patients were from rural areas (64 %) and the rest of patients from urban cities. The selected patients included both of initial phase (39 %) and continuation phase (61 %) and were receiving once daily dosing of rifampicin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol combination (RHZE), and ethambutol and isoniazid (EH), respectively. Two patients (5 %) were of category 2 (relapsed patients) while thirty six patients (95 %) were of category 1 (new cases). Family history, medication errors, and prescribing trends were observed and compared the treatment plan with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Pakistan Chest Society (PCS) guidelines. It was observed that WHO and PCS guidelines were followed in the hospitals and all the prescription trend was found rationale with no drug-drug interaction but yet the treatment period was more than 6 months due to poor patient compliance to the anti tuberculosis medication and ineffective DOT program in Pakistan.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Mortality from gastrointestinal congenital anomalies at 264 hospitals in 74 low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries: a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study

Summary Background Congenital anomalies are the fifth leading cause of mortality in children younger than 5 years globally. Many gastrointestinal congenital anomalies are fatal without timely access to neonatal surgical care, but few studies have been done on these conditions in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared outcomes of the seven most common gastrointestinal congenital anomalies in low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries globally, and identified factors associated with mortality. Methods We did a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of patients younger than 16 years, presenting to hospital for the first time with oesophageal atresia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, intestinal atresia, gastroschisis, exomphalos, anorectal malformation, and Hirschsprung’s disease. Recruitment was of consecutive patients for a minimum of 1 month between October, 2018, and April, 2019. We collected data on patient demographics, clinical status, interventions, and outcomes using the REDCap platform. Patients were followed up for 30 days after primary intervention, or 30 days after admission if they did not receive an intervention. The primary outcome was all-cause, in-hospital mortality for all conditions combined and each condition individually, stratified by country income status. We did a complete case analysis. Findings We included 3849 patients with 3975 study conditions (560 with oesophageal atresia, 448 with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, 681 with intestinal atresia, 453 with gastroschisis, 325 with exomphalos, 991 with anorectal malformation, and 517 with Hirschsprung’s disease) from 264 hospitals (89 in high-income countries, 166 in middleincome countries, and nine in low-income countries) in 74 countries. Of the 3849 patients, 2231 (58·0%) were male. Median gestational age at birth was 38 weeks (IQR 36–39) and median bodyweight at presentation was 2·8 kg (2·3–3·3). Mortality among all patients was 37 (39·8%) of 93 in low-income countries, 583 (20·4%) of 2860 in middle-income countries, and 50 (5·6%) of 896 in high-income countries (p<0·0001 between all country income groups). Gastroschisis had the greatest difference in mortality between country income strata (nine [90·0%] of ten in lowincome countries, 97 [31·9%] of 304 in middle-income countries, and two [1·4%] of 139 in high-income countries; p≤0·0001 between all country income groups). Factors significantly associated with higher mortality for all patients combined included country income status (low-income vs high-income countries, risk ratio 2·78 [95% CI 1·88–4·11], p<0·0001; middle-income vs high-income countries, 2·11 [1·59–2·79], p<0·0001), sepsis at presentation (1·20 [1·04–1·40], p=0·016), higher American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score at primary intervention (ASA 4–5 vs ASA 1–2, 1·82 [1·40–2·35], p<0·0001; ASA 3 vs ASA 1–2, 1·58, [1·30–1·92], p<0·0001]), surgical safety checklist not used (1·39 [1·02–1·90], p=0·035), and ventilation or parenteral nutrition unavailable when needed (ventilation 1·96, [1·41–2·71], p=0·0001; parenteral nutrition 1·35, [1·05–1·74], p=0·018). Administration of parenteral nutrition (0·61, [0·47–0·79], p=0·0002) and use of a peripherally inserted central catheter (0·65 [0·50–0·86], p=0·0024) or percutaneous central line (0·69 [0·48–1·00], p=0·049) were associated with lower mortality. Interpretation Unacceptable differences in mortality exist for gastrointestinal congenital anomalies between lowincome, middle-income, and high-income countries. Improving access to quality neonatal surgical care in LMICs will be vital to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 of ending preventable deaths in neonates and children younger than 5 years by 2030

Non-orthogonal multiple access for unmanned aerial vehicle communication system

The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) assisted communication systems provide users a unique connectivity platform to support high data traffic demand of the future. However, the practical proliferation of the aerial nodes is highly involved in finding solutions to the challenges of low spectral efficiency and limited energy reserves of the system. In spite of the fact that the power domain Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) has established its proficiency for the next generation terrestrial wireless networks, the design and validation of NOMA’s performance are still needed in the new perspective of an aerial Base Station (BS) deployment. Hence, the thesis investigates the capability of NOMA as a promising candidate for future aerial communication systems with the objectives to maximize jointly data-rate, coverage, and energy efficiency of the system. First, NOMA’s feasibility is established by formulating the problem of achievable sum-rate constituting a joint function of power allocation and UAV-BS altitude. Then, a constrained coverage expansion methodology, facilitated by the increase of NOMA user-rate is proposed. Next, a swarm intelligence based user-pairing strategy jointly optimized with UAV altitude and user power allocation is devised to minimize the transmission power of the aerial system. Finally, the formulated non-linear fractional programming problem of energy efficiency maximization is solved using a nested Dinkelbach’s structure. Taken together, the presented results manifest that NOMA performs better than the baseline scheme of Orthogonal Multiple Access (OMA). Particularly, the proposed NOMA schemes achieve 30% coverage radius expansion, 18% spectral efficiency enhancement, and 25% transmission power reduction compared to OMA. In addition, two times improvement in energy efficiency is observed for the NOMA system as it achieves 3 bps/joule compared to 1.5 bps/joule of OMA in dense-urban deployment. In conclusion, the research findings prove the proficiency of NOMA for future aerial communication systems

Problematic mobile phone consumption among young consumers: policy and research implication.

Youth represents a largest segment for both telecom operators and mobile phones manufacturers in Pakistan. However, there is relatively a little research regarding the inappropriate and problematic mobile phone consumption among youth. This paper with the help of extant literature argues that young consumers are generally involved in problematic mobile phone consumption than any other age group. This warrants a thorough research on different aspects of problematic mobile phone consumption patterns among young consumers for better consumer policy making and for their wellbeing. Present article proposes some potential research areas with regards to young mobile phone consumers and provides a few suggestions to protect young consumers from the negative consequences of mobile phone consumption

Ectopic Mediastinal Parathyroid Adenoma Excision via Video Assisted Thoracoscopic Approach: A Case Report

Ectopic parathyroid adenomas can be a cause of recurrent and refractory hyperparathyroidism. Majority of parathyroid adenomas are located in the neck region, however in very few cases they are located within the mediastinum. In such cases excision via cervical approach is not possible and it becomes a diagnostic as well as surgical challenge. Excision via thoracoscopic approach is a preferred approach in this regard. Here we represent a case of ectopic parathyroid adenoma embedded within thymus gland which underwent surgical excision via thoracoscopic approach. Key words: Ectopic, Parathyroid adenoma, Thoracoscop