Survey of polypharmacy prescription in a tertiary care hospital, belagavi

  Polypharmacy is the use of four or more medications in one prescription or implies the prescription of too many medications for an individual. Concerns about polypharmacy include increase adverse drug reactions, drug interactions, prescribing cascade and higher cost. Objectives: To conduct a prescription survey of polypharmacy in tertiary care hospital at Belagavi. Methodology: The study was conducted in the Medicine outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital, Belagavi, after obtaining approval and clearance from the Institutional Ethics Committee. Total 83 patients were selected by Simple Random Sampling and the data were collected prospectively by direct observation in specially designed proforma containing relevant patient details like registration number, age, gender and diagnosis, disease data and drug data. Results: Out of the total sample population (N=83), 56.62% had prescriptions falling under major polypharmacy (>6 drugs), 43.37% had prescriptions categorized as minor polypharmacy (3-5 drugs). The most common age group of patients receiving prescriptions with polypharmacy was between 41 to 60 years accounting for 38.55%. Majority of the patients receiving prescriptions with polypharmacy in our study were females (59.03%) as compared to males (40.96%). Major polypharmacy is more prevalent in patients receiving treatment for Hypertension (60.24%) followed by patients with diabetes (23.67%). Conclusion: Our prescription survey portrays polypharmacy to be widely prevalent in a tertiary care setting. Specific treatment goals with certainty are the essential need for curing diseases rather than polypharmacy, which could be a possible threat of more harm than good

Propagation of pure fetal and maternal mesenchymal stromal cells from terminal chorionic villi of human term placenta

Long term propagation of human fetal Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSC) in vitro has proven elusive due to limited availability of fetal tissue sources and lack of appropriate methodologies. Here, we have demonstrated the presence of fetal and maternal cells within the tips of Terminal Chorionic Villi (TCV) of normal human term placenta and we have exploited inherent differences in the adhesive and migratory properties of maternal vs. fetal cells, to establish pure MSC cultures of both cell types. The origin and purity of each culture was confirmed by X-Y chromosome-specific Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH) and Short Tandem Repeat (STR) genotyping. This is the first demonstration of fetal and maternal cells in the TCV of human term placenta and also of deriving pure fetal MSC cultures from them. The concomitant availability of pure cultures of adult and fetal MSC from one tissue provides a good system to compare genetic and epigenetic differences between adult and fetal MSCs and also to generate new models of cell based therapies in regenerative medicine

Phytochemical fractions from Annona muricata seeds and fruit pulp inhibited the growth of breast cancer cells through cell cycle arrest at G(0)/G(1) phase

Introduction: Annona muricata (L.) (AM), commonly known as Soursop and Lakshmanaphala/Hanumaphala in India, has been extensively used in ethnomedicine for treating tuberculosis, urinary tract infections (UTIs) and cancers. The fruit is a rich source of antioxidants and antitumor agents. Methods: In this study, we have extracted phytochemicals that exhibited anti-cancer property from the (a) fruit pulp using methanol (AMPM) and water (AMPW); and (b) seeds using methanol (AMSM). Qualitative phytochemical analysis showed the presence of phenolics, tannins, alkaloids, flavonoids, sterols, terpenoids, carbohydrates and proteins in AMPM and AMPW. All three extracts were first checked for in vitro antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and then tested for efficacy against MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231. Results: Among these three extracts, AMSM showed the highest antioxidant power as well as similar to 80% inhibition at 320 mu g/ml concentration in both cell lines upon treatment for 24h. However, only about 40% inhibition was observed with 320 mu g/ml AMPM treatment, despite its highest anti-inflammatory potential. Water extract AMPW exhibited about 80% growth inhibition at 50% dilution. Since fruit pulp is the one consumed, the extracts AMPM and AMPW were further tested for apoptosis induction and cell cycle arrest. Analysis of the data showed increased apoptosis and G0/G1 cell cycle arrest upon exposure to AMPM and AMPW