AN OVERVIEW OF VARIOUS SCALES USED IN CAUSALITY ASSESSMENT OF ADVERSE DRUG REACTIONS

Establishing a relationship of causality between the medications received and the events occurred utilizing causality assessment scale is much needed to reduce the occurrence of Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) and to prevent exposure of patients towards additional drug hazards. Causality assessment can be defined as the determination of chance, whether a selected intervention is the root cause of the adverse event observed. The causality assessment is the responsibility of either a single expert or an established committee. As it is a common phenomenon of variable perception of knowledge and experience by each expert, there is a high possibility of disagreement and inter-individual variability on assessment. Many of the causality assessment methods have their advantages and disadvantages. However, no single scale has been adopted as standardized and considered for uniform acceptance

Evaluation of the relation between anemia and periodontitis by estimation of blood parameters: A cross-sectional study

Background: Anemia of chronic disease is defined as anemia occurring in chronic infections, inflammatory conditions, or neoplastic disorders which are not due to marrow deficiencies or other diseases, and occurring despite the presence of adequate iron stores and vitamins Aims: To evaluate the relation between anemia and periodontitis by estimation of blood parameters and to assess whether periodontitis like other inflammatory conditions can lead to anemia. It is a randomized controlled clinical trial. Materials and Methods: A total of 50 healthy controls, 50 chronic generalized gingivitis, and 50 chronic generalized periodontitis patients were selected. Hemoglobin levels (Hb), erythrocyte count red blood cell, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), mean corpuscular volu e (MCV), mean corpuscular Hb (MCH) and MCH concentration (MCHC), gingival index, plaque index, probing pocket depth, and clinical attachment level were recorded. Intergroup comparison of blood parameters is by one-way ANOVA. Intergroup pair wise comparison of the three groups is by Newman–Keuls multiple post-hoc procedures. Karl Pearsons's correlation coefficient method is used for correlation between different parameters for three groups. Results: The results revealed a decrease in Hb and erythrocyte counts and increase in white blood corpuscles counts in chronic generalized periodontitis when compared to healthy controls and chronic generalized gingivitis group. There was no statistically significant difference in MCV, MCH, MCHC, and ESR among the groups. Conclusions: The treatment of periodontitis can lead to an improvement in hematocrit and other related blood parameters in chronic generalized periodontitis patients with anemia. This provides evidence that periodontitis like other chronic diseases may also cause anemia

AN OVERVIEW OF DRUG INFORMATION CENTER – FUNCTIONS AND CHALLENGES IN INDIA

Drug information has been providing data on drugs that are being used in the health-care system. It also bears dosing, adverse drug reactions (ADRs), side effects, pharmacokinetic parameters and educating the health-care professionals and managing drug shortage, identifying alternative treatments, and developing alternative protocols for restrictive use. The Moto of drug information is to contribute genuine, precise, appropriate, impartial drug information to the patients, nursing staff, practicing physician, pharmacist, and other health-care professional. Drug information regularly responds to inquiries from patients, health-care professionals. The drug information center routinely receives queries from hospital staff, patients, and responds to queries regarding ADRs, drug interactions, pharmacokinetic parameters of drugs, and information on new drugs available in the market. Drug information services help in improving patient safety, minimizing drug-related issues to the patient, and rational use of drugs by both physician and patient. Drug information services are providing unambiguous data with a well-trained and registered clinical pharmacist. Most of the developed countries are using this service successfully. In well-developed countries, these centers provide accurate and up to date drug information to health-care professionals within minutes. However, developing countries like India need to pay more attention to the services. Information present in this paper not only enlightens the drug information services but also on the future aspects that need to be taken

Glucose 6‐phosphate dehydrogenase variants increase NADPH pools for yeast isoprenoid production

Isoprenoid biosynthesis has a significant requirement for the co‐factor NADPH. Thus, increasing NADPH levels for enhancing isoprenoid yields in synthetic biology is critical. Previous efforts have focused on diverting flux into the pentose phosphate pathway or overproducing enzymes that generate NADPH. In this study, we instead focused on increasing the efficiency of enzymes that generate NADPH. We first established a robust genetic screen that allowed us to screen improved variants. The pentose phosphate pathway enzyme, glucose 6‐phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), was chosen for further improvement. Different gene fusions of G6PD with the downstream enzyme in the pentose phosphate pathway, 6‐phosphogluconolactonase (6PGL), were created. The linker‐less G6PD‐6PGL fusion displayed the highest activity, and although it had slightly lower activity than the WT enzyme, the affinity for G6P was higher and showed higher yields of the diterpenoid sclareol in vivo. A second gene fusion approach was to fuse G6PD to truncated HMG‐CoA reductase, the rate‐limiting step and also the major NADPH consumer in the pathway. Both domains were functional, and the fusion also yielded higher sclareol levels. We simultaneously carried out a rational mutagenesis approach with G6PD, which led to the identification of two mutants of G6PD, N403D and S238QI239F, that showed 15–25% higher activity in vitro. The diterpene sclareol yields were also increased in the strains overexpressing these mutants relative to WT G6PD, and these will be very beneficial in synthetic biology applications