Roles of Community Pharmacists in Screening and Disseminating of Information about Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Risks: Implications for Drug Safety Assessment

Background: The increasing use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) both on prescription and over the counter raises a major global health concern because of the risks associated with their use if no proper guidance is given by the health care provider. This study assessed the roles of community pharmacists in screening and disseminating information about the risks associated with NSAID use in Zambia. Methodology: This was a national cross-sectional study in which a structured self-administered questionnaire was administered to 245 registered community pharmacists in Zambia. Stata/BE, version 15.1 (Stata Corporation, College Station, Texas, USA) and multivariate logistic regression model was used to determine factors associated with information dissemination about ADRs of NS-NSAIDs. Results: 231 of the 245 distributed questionnaires were returned giving a response rate of 94.3%. All (100%) participating community pharmacists claimed to have practiced dispensing NSAIDs. However, only 26 (11.0%) and 71 (30.8%) regularly screened for risk factor of selective COX-2 NSAIDS (SC2-NSAIDS) and non-selective NSAIDS (NS-NSAIDs) respectively. Information dissemination on adverse drug reactions (ADRs) of SC2-NSAIDS was regularly provided by only 22 (9.5%) of pharmacists while that of NS-NSAIDs was regularly provided by 49 (21.2%). In the multivariate logistic regression model, being the owner of a pharmacy (AOR: 5.4, CI: 1.84 - 16.4) was significantly associated with information dissemination about ADRs of NS-NSAIDs while an hour increase in the working hours per day (AOR: 0.9, CI: 0.64 - 0.95) was associated with less likelihood of information dissemination. Conclusion: Pharmacists working in community pharmacies in Zambia did not regularly screen and disseminate information about the risks associated with NSAID use. Therefore, pharmacists should be able to screen and monitor patients at risk and be aware of the majority of risk factors while dispensing NSAIDs to minimize the associated complications.

Screening of Long Cowpea[Vigna unguiculata(L.)Walp.ssp.sesquipedialis]Varieties in Autumn in Hunan and Comparison of Various Comprehensive Evaluation Methods

[Objectives]The paper was to screen new varieties of long cowpea that are suitable for autumn cultivation in Hunan,as well as to develop a comprehensive evaluation method to assess their adaptability and performance.[Methods]A total of 48 long cowpea varieties were introduced,and a range of comprehensive evaluation methods was employed to assess these varieties through the collection and analysis of field data.[Results]The square Euclidean distance of 14 allowed for the classification of all varieties into eight distinct groups.Groups II,III,and V belong to the autumn dominant group within this region,while groups I and VIII belong to the intermediate group.Additionally,groups IV,VI,and VII belong to the autumn inferior group in this area.Through a comparative analysis of various comprehensive evaluation methods,it was determined that the common factor comprehensive evaluation,grey correlation method,and fuzzy evaluation method were appropriate for application in the selection of long cowpea varieties.Furthermore,the evaluation outcomes were largely consistent with the cluster pedigree diagram.[Conclusions]Through comprehensive index method,ten varieties demonstrating superior performance in autumn cultivation have been identified,including C20,C42,C29,C40,C3,C14,C18,C25,C15,and C47.The selected varieties exhibit several advantageous traits,such as a reduced growth duration,a lower position of initial flower nodes,a decreased number of branches,predominantly green young pods,elongated pod strips,thicker pod structures,an increased number of pods per plant,and higher overall yields.These characteristics render them particularly valuable for extensive cultivation.

Phosphorylated protein chip combined with artificial intelligence tools for precise drug screening

We have developed a protein array system,named"Phospho-Totum",which reproduces the phosphorylation state of a sample on the array.The protein array contains 1471 proteins from 273 known signaling pathways.According to the activation degrees of tyrosine kinases in the sample,the corresponding groups of substrate proteins on the array are phosphorylated under the same conditions.In addition to measuring the phosphorylation levels of the 1471 substrates,we have developed and performed the artificial intelligence-assisted tools to further characterize the phosphorylation state and estimate pathway activation,tyrosine kinase activation,and a list of kinase inhibitors that produce phosphorylation states similar to that of the sample.The Phospho-Totum system,which seamlessly links and interrogates the measurements and analyses,has the potential to not only elucidate pathophysiological mechanisms in diseases by reproducing the phosphorylation state of samples,but also be useful for drug discovery,particularly for screening targeted kinases for potential drug kinase inhibitors.

Screening of Common Traditional Chinese Drugs for Reversing Multidrug Resistance of KBV200 In Vitro

The ethanolic extracts of 100 common traditional Chinese drugs, which are widely used in many prescriptions in treatment of cancer in China, were screened for MDR of KBV200 cell line in vitro with MTT method. The result showed 9 extracts having MDR reversal activity. They were the extracts of Fructus Lagenariae Sicerariae, Radix Glycyrrhizae, Poria, Herba Andrographitis, Radix Sophorae Tonkinensis, Caulis Mahoniae, Folium Artemisiae Argyi, Rhizoma Curcumae, Fructus Cnidii. Other 5 extracts showed cytotoxic on KBV200 cell line. $$$$

High-throughput computational screening and in vitro evaluation identifies 5-(4-oxo-4H-3,1-benzoxazin-2-yl)-2-[3-(4-oxo-4H-3,1-benzoxazin-2-yl)phenyl]-1H-isoindole-1,3(2H)-dione(C3),as a novel EGFR—HER2 dual inhibitor in gastric tumors

Gastric cancers are caused primarily due to the activation and amplification of the EGFR or HER2 kinases resulting in cell proliferation,adhesion,angiogenesis,and metastasis.Conventional therapies are ineffective due to the intra-tumoral heterogeneity and concomitant genetic mutations.Hence,dual inhibition strategies are recommended to increase potency and reduce cytotoxicity.In this study,we have conducted computational high-throughput screening of the ChemBridge library followed by in vitro assays and identified novel selective inhibitors that have a dual impediment of EGFR/HER2 kinase activities.Diversity-based High-throughput Virtual Screening(D-HTVS)was used to screen the whole ChemBridge small molecular library against EGFR and HER2.The atomistic molecular dynamic simulation was conducted to understand the dynamics and stability of the protein-ligand complexes.EGFR/HER2 kinase enzymes,KATOIII,and Snu-5 cells were used for in vitro validations.The atomistic Molecular Dynamics simulations followed by solvent-based Gibbs binding free energy calculation of top molecules,identified compound C3(5-(4-oxo-4H-3,1-benzoxazin-2-yl)-2-[3-(4-oxo-4H-3,1-benzoxazin-2-yl)phenyl]-1H-isoindole-1,3(2H)-dione)to have a good affinity for both EGFR and HER2.The predicted compound,C3,was promising with better binding energy,good binding pose,and optimum interactions with the EGFR and HER2 residues.C3 inhibited EGFR and HER2 kinases with IC50 values of 37.24 and 45.83 nM,respectively.The GI50 values of C3 to inhibit KATOIII and Snu-5 cells were 84.76 and 48.26 nM,respectively.Based on these findings,we conclude that the identified compound C3 showed a conceivable dual inhibitory activity on EGFR/HER2 kinase,and therefore can be considered as a plausible lead-like molecule for treating gastric cancers with minimal side effects,though testing in higher models with pharmacokinetic approach is required.

Brain organoids are new tool for drug screening of neurological diseases

At the level of in vitro drug screening,the development of a phenotypic analysis system with highcontent screening at the core provides a strong platform to support high-throughput drug screening.There are few systematic reports on brain organoids,as a new three-dimensional in vitro model,in terms of model stability,key phenotypic fingerprint,and drug screening schemes,and particula rly rega rding the development of screening strategies for massive numbers of traditional Chinese medicine monomers.This paper reviews the development of brain organoids and the advantages of brain organoids over induced neurons or cells in simulated diseases.The paper also highlights the prospects from model stability,induction criteria of brain organoids,and the screening schemes of brain organoids based on the characteristics of brain organoids and the application and development of a high-content screening system.

Screening of Common Traditional Chinese Drugs for Reversing Multidrug Resistance of KBV200 In Vitro

The ethanolic extracts of 100 common traditional Chinese drugs, which are widely used in many prescriptions in treatment of cancer in China, were screened for MDR of KBV200 cell line in vitro with MTT method. The result showed 9 extracts having MDR reversal activity. They were the extracts of Fructus Lagenariae Sicerariae, Radix Glycyrrhizae, Poria, Herba Andrographitis, Radix Sophorae Tonkinensis, Caulis Mahoniae, Folium Artemisiae Argyi, Rhizoma Curcumae, Fructus Cnidii. Other 5 extracts showed cytotoxic on KBV200 cell line. $$$$

A Cell Screening Algorithm Integrating Genetic and Numerical Differentiation

The consistency of the cell has a significant impact on battery capacity,endurance,overall performance,safety,and service life extension.However,it is challenging to identify cells with high consistency and no loss of battery energy.This paper presents a cell screening algorithm that integrates genetic and numerical differentiation techniques.Initially,a mathematical model for battery consistency is established,and a multi-step charging strategy is proposed to satisfy the demands of fast charging technology.Subsequently,the genetic algorithm simulates biological evolution to efficiently search for superior cell combinations within a short time while evaluating capacity,voltage consistency,and charge/discharge efficiency.Finally,through experimental validation and comparative analysis with similar algorithms,our proposed method demonstrates notable advantages in terms of both search efficiency and performance.

An integrated microfluidics platform with high-throughput single-cell cloning array and concentration gradient generator for efficient cancer drug effect screening

Background:Tumor cell heterogeneity mediated drug resistance has been recognized as the stumbling block of cancer treatment.Elucidating the cytotoxicity of anticancer drugs at single-cell level in a high-throughput way is thus of great value for developing precision therapy.However,current techniques suffer from limitations in dynamically characterizing the responses of thousands of single cells or cell clones presented to multiple drug conditions.Methods:We developed a new microfluidics-based“SMART”platform that is Simple to operate,able to generate a Massive single-cell array and Multiplex drug concentrations,capable of keeping cells Alive,Retainable and Trackable in the microchambers.These features are achieved by integrating a Microfluidic chamber Array(4320 units)and a sixConcentration gradient generator(MAC),which enables highly efficient analysis of leukemia drug effects on single cells and cell clones in a high-throughput way.Results:A simple procedure produces 6 on-chip drug gradients to treat more than 3000 single cells or single-cell derived clones and thus allows an efficient and precise analysis of cell heterogeneity.The statistic results reveal that Imatinib(Ima)and Resveratrol(Res)combination treatment on single cells or clones is much more efficient than Ima or Res single drug treatment,indicated by the markedly reduced half maximal inhibitory concentration(IC50).Additionally,single-cell derived clones demonstrate a higher IC_(50) in each drug treatment compared to single cells.Moreover,primary cells isolated from two leukemia patients are also found with apparent heterogeneity upon drug treatment on MAC.Conclusions:This microfluidics-based“SMART”platform allows high-throughput single-cell capture and culture,dynamic drug-gradient treatment and cell response monitoring,which represents a new approach to efficiently investigate anticancer drug effects and should benefit drug discovery for leukemia and other cancers.

A robust luminescent assay for screening alkyladenine DNA glycosylase inhibitors to overcome DNA repair and temozolomide drug resistance

Temozolomide(TMZ)is an anticancer agent used to treat glioblastoma,typically following radiation therapy and/or surgical resection.However,despite its effectiveness,at least 50%of patients do not respond to TMZ,which is associated with repair and/or tolerance of TMZ-induced DNA lesions.Studies have demonstrated that alkyladenine DNA glycosylase(AAG),an enzyme that triggers the base excision repair(BER)pathway by excising TMZ-induced N3-methyladenine(3meA)and N7-methylguanine lesions,is overexpressed in glioblastoma tissues compared to normal tissues.Therefore,it is essential to develop a rapid and efficient screening method for AAG inhibitors to overcome TMZ resistance in glioblastomas.Herein,we report a robust time-resolved photoluminescence platform for identifying AAG inhibitors with improved sensitivity compared to conventional steady-state spectroscopic methods.As a proof-of-concept,this assay was used to screen 1440 food and drug administration-approved drugs against AAG,resulting in the repurposing of sunitinib as a potential AAG inhibitor.Sunitinib restored glioblastoma(GBM)cancer cell sensitivity to TMZ,inhibited GBM cell proliferation and stem cell characteristics,and induced GBM cell cycle arrest.Overall,this strategy offers a new method for the rapid identification of small-molecule inhibitors of BER enzyme activities that can prevent false negatives due to a fluorescent background.

Ligand Based Virtual Screening of Molecular Compounds in Drug Discovery Using GCAN Fingerprint and Ensemble Machine Learning Algorithm

The drug development process takes a long time since it requires sorting through a large number of inactive compounds from a large collection of compounds chosen for study and choosing just the most pertinent compounds that can bind to a disease protein.The use of virtual screening in pharmaceutical research is growing in popularity.During the early phases of medication research and development,it is crucial.Chemical compound searches are nowmore narrowly targeted.Because the databases containmore andmore ligands,thismethod needs to be quick and exact.Neural network fingerprints were created more effectively than the well-known Extended Connectivity Fingerprint(ECFP).Only the largest sub-graph is taken into consideration to learn the representation,despite the fact that the conventional graph network generates a better-encoded fingerprint.When using the average or maximum pooling layer,it also contains unrelated data.This article suggested the Graph Convolutional Attention Network(GCAN),a graph neural network with an attention mechanism,to address these problems.Additionally,it makes the nodes or sub-graphs that are used to create the molecular fingerprint more significant.The generated fingerprint is used to classify drugs using ensemble learning.As base classifiers,ensemble stacking is applied to Support Vector Machines(SVM),Random Forest,Nave Bayes,Decision Trees,AdaBoost,and Gradient Boosting.When compared to existing models,the proposed GCAN fingerprint with an ensemble model achieves relatively high accuracy,sensitivity,specificity,and area under the curve.Additionally,it is revealed that our ensemble learning with generated molecular fingerprint yields 91%accuracy,outperforming earlier approaches.

An Experimental Model for Screening Anti-AIDS Drugs with Bovine Immunodeficiency Virus

The assays for bovine immunodeficiency virus (BIV) induced syncytium formation and BIV long terminal repeat (LTR) directed luciferase (Luc) gene expression were applied to screen and evaluate anti AIDS drugs. Frequency of the syncytium formation and BIV LTR directed Luc activity were in proportion to the number of input BIV infected cells. AZT inhibited the syncytium formation and the BIV LTR directed Luc gene expression level. Its inhibitory effects were dosedependent with the IC 50 being 0.24 and 0.052 mmol / L, respectively.

Inspiration of Foreign Innovative Drug Pricing Methods and Medical Insurance Payment Standards to China

Objective To study the innovative drug pricing methods and medical insurance payment standards in foreign countries and to provide reference for China’s government.Methods The official websites were searched for information and related literature,and literature review was used.Results and Conclusion In foreign countries,the clinical value of innovative drugs and their impact on medical insurance funds were comprehensively evaluated based on factors such as quality-adjusted life years,clinical benefit,and improvement of clinical benefit.Then,the evaluation results were taken as an important basis for whether innovative drugs were admitted to the medical insurance catalog and establishing medical insurance payment standards.By using international experience for reference,innovative drug pricing methods and medical insurance payment standards for China’s national conditions can be improved by establishing a basic database of clinical value and drug economic evaluation of innovative drugs,as well as innovative drug payment models based on decision thresholds.

Screening Methods for Waterlogging Tolerance at Maize (Zea mays L.) Seedling Stage

Waterlogging strongly affects agronomic performance of maize （Zea mays L.）. In order to investigate the suitable selection criteria of waterflooding tolerant genotypes, and identify the most susceptible stage and the best continuous treatment time to waterlogging, 20 common maize inbred lines were subjected to successive artificial waterflooding at seedling stage, and waterlogging tolerance coefficient （WTC） was used to screen waterflooding tolerant genotypes. In addition, peroxidase （POD） activities and malondialdehyde （MDA） contents were measured for 6 of 20 lines. The results showed that the second leaf stage （V2） was the most susceptible stage, and 6 d after waterflooding was the best continuous treatment time. Dry weight （DW） of both shoots and roots of all lines were significantly reduced at 6 d time-point of waterlogging, compared to control. POD activities and MDA contents were negatively and significantly correlated, and the correlation coefficient was -0.9686 （P 〈 0.0001）. According to the results, WTC of shoot DW can be used for practical screening as a suitable index, which is significantly different from control and waterlogged plants happened 6 d earlier. Furthermore, leaf chlorosis, MDA content and POD activities could also be used as reference index for material screening. The implications of the results for waterlogging-tolerant material screening and waterlogging-tolerant breeding have been discussed in maize.

Methodology of drug screening and target identification for new necroptosis inhibitors

Apoptosis has been considered as the only form of regulated cell death for a long time. However, a novel form of programmed cell death called necroptosis was recently reported. The process of necroptosis is regulated and plays a critical role in the occurrence and development of multiple human diseases. Thus,the study on the molecular mechanism of necroptosis and its effective inhibitors has been an attractive field for researchers. Herein, we introduce the molecular mechanism of necroptosis and focus on the literature about necroptosis drug screening in recent years. In addition, the identification of the critical drug targets of the necroptosis is also discussed.

The Use of Dried Blood Spot Samples in Screening Drugs of Abuse

The present article will provide an overview of use of dried blood sampling method for analysis of drug of abuse. Relatively short half life and instability in blood, calls for alternative sampling method for determination of drugs of abuse. Dried blood spot (DBS) method has many advantages over the conventional sampling methods. The available method for DBS sample collection, storage and transport are described here. The techniques involved in and the factors that may influence the accuracy and reproducibility of the DBS methods for determination of drugs of abuse are presented. The DBS sampling has the potential to be a useful technique to detect drugs of abuse. The use of DBS for any drug should be judged against the potential error involved with the method.

A review of deep learningg methods for ligand based drug virtual screening

Drug discovery is costly and time consuming,and modern drug discovery endeavors are progressively reliant on computational methodologies,aiming to mitigate temporal and financial expenditures associated with the process.In particular,the time required for vaccine and drug discovery is prolonged during emergency situations such as the coronavirus 2019 pandemic.Recently,the performance of deep learning methods in drug virtual screening has been particularly prominent.It has become a concern for researchers how to summarize the existing deep learning in drug virtual screening,select different models for different drug screening problems,exploit the advantages of deep learning models,and further improve the capability of deep learning in drug virtual screening.This review first introduces the basic concepts of drug virtual screening,common datasets,and data representation methods.Then,large numbers of common deep learning methods for drug virtual screening are compared and analyzed.In addition,a dataset of different sizes is constructed independently to evaluate the performance of each deep learning model for the difficult problem of large-scale ligand virtual screening.Finally,the existing challenges and future directions in the field of virtual screening are presented.

The potential role of the three-dimensional-bioprinting model in screening and developing drugs

Recently,we have read with great interest the original article used different spatial configuration models of colorectal cancer(CRC)for validating the antitumor efficacy with Diiminoquinone.We feel obliged to provide new insight into the drug screening models by integrating and analyzing the original method and result.These comments may provide comprehensive insights into threedimensional drug screening models and the difference between pathologic subtypes in CRC.

A living cell-based fluorescent reporter for high-throughput screening of anti-tumor drugs

Suppression of cellular O-linkedβ-N-acetylglucosaminylation(O-Glc NAcylation)can repress proliferation and migration of various cancer cells,which opens a new avenue for cancer therapy.Based on the regulation of insulin gene transcription,we designed a cell-based fluorescent reporter capable of sensing cellular O-Glc NAcylation in HEK293 T cells.The fluorescent reporter mainly consists of a reporter(green fluorescent protein(GFP)),an internal reference(red fluorescent protein),and an operator(neuronal differentiation 1),which serves as a"sweet switch"to control GFP expression in response to cellular OGlc NAcylation changes.The fluorescent reporter can efficiently sense reduced levels of cellular OGlc NAcylation in several cell lines.Using the fluorescent reporter,we screened 120 natural products and obtained one compound,sesamin,which could markedly inhibit protein O-Glc NAcylation in He La and human colorectal carcinoma-116 cells and repress their migration in vitro.Altogether,the present study demonstrated the development of a novel strategy for anti-tumor drug screening,as well as for conducting gene transcription studies.

A Pilot Survey of Mercury in Drugs, Cosmetics and Household Products Using Reliable Analytical Methods

The concentration of mercury (Hg) was accurately determined in more than 228 drugs, cosmetics and household products manufactured in a variety of countries. Some drugs were found to contain up to 4424 ppb Hg, and some skin creams contained up to 2769 ppm Hg. Hg in skin creams was found to be almost 100% elemental Hg (Hg0), a volatile species of Hg. Hg0 can enter the human body through inhalation and skin absorption, potentially resulting in the serious consequence of mercury poisoning. The mercury can also volatilize, contaminating the surrounding air. Other people, for example, infants and children, who are close to or contacting the skin of the person using the cosmetics, can also absorb the mercury. Total mercury (THg) was determined by combustion/trap/CVAFS. Methyl mercury (MeHg) and inorganic mercury (Hg2+) were determined by the ethylation based method. The emission of Hg0 was determined by evaporation/trap/CVAFS. All analyses were performed in accordance with explicit quality assurance and quality control protocols and procedures.