Gamal O. Elhassan

Resistance to cancer chemotherapy: failure in drug response from ADME to P-gp

Cancer chemotherapy resistance (MDR) is the innate and/or acquired ability of cancer cells to evade the effects of chemotherapeutics and is one of the most pressing major dilemmas in cancer therapy. Chemotherapy resistance can arise due to several host or tumor-related factors. However, most current research is focused on tumor-specific factors and specifically genes that handle expression of pumps that efflux accumulated drugs inside malignantly transformed types of cells. In this work, we suggest a wider and alternative perspective that sets the stage for a future platform in modifying drug resistance with respect to the treatment of cancer.

Evolution of Tumor Metabolism might Reflect Carcinogenesis as a Reverse Evolution process (Dismantling of Multicellularity)

Carcinogenesis occurs through a series of steps from normal into benign and finally malignant phenotype. This cancer evolutionary trajectory has been accompanied by similar metabolic transformation from normal metabolism into Pasteur and/or Crabtree-Effects into Warburg-Effect and finally Cannibalism and/or Lactate-Symbiosis. Due to lactate production as an end-product of glycolysis, tumor colonies acquire new phenotypes that rely on lactate as energetic fuel. Presence of Warburg-Effect indicates that some tumor cells undergo partial (if not complete) de-endosymbiosis and so cancer cells have been become unicellular microorganism (anti-Dollos Law) specially when they evolve to develop cannibalism as way of metabolism while oxidative types of cells that rely on lactate, as their energetic fuel, might represent extra-endosymbiosis. Thus, at the end, the cancer colony could be considered as integrated metabolic ecosystem. Proper understanding of tumor metabolism will contribute to discover potential anticancer agents besides conventional chemotherapy.

Isolation, Purification and Characterization of Antimicrobial Agent Antagonistic to Escherichia coli ATCC 10536 Produced by Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032 Isolated from the Soil of Unaizah, Al Qassim Province of Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND Escherichia coli is one of the most common pathogenic bacteria, which cause urinary tract infections in infants as well as in adult human beings. Due to the emergence of antibiotic resistance in E. coli, there is a great demand of new antimicrobial agent for the treatment of infections caused by such E. coli. This study aims to isolate, identify and characterize the native soil-bacterial strains predominate in the soil of Unaizah city, which produce antimicrobial agent antagonistic to E. coli ATCC 10536, followed by isolation, purification and characterization of antimicrobial agent. MATERIALS AND METHODS Pour plate, spread plate and 16S rRNA sequence analysis methods were followed for the isolation and identification of soil bacteria. Ammonium sulphate and dialysis (MWCO-8 KD) methods were followed for the isolation and partial purification of antimicrobial agent from the cell free broths. The characterization of antimicrobial agent was carried out by determining the minimum inhibitory concentration and effects of temperature and pH on the antimicrobial stability. RESULTS Out of the twenty five soil samples, only one soil-bacterial strain was found to produce antimicrobial agent antagonistic to E. coli ATCC 10536. The isolated soil bacterium was identified as Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032. The soil isolate was characterized and results suggest that 30°C temperature and pH 7.0 were the optimum growth parameters and soybean casein digest broth was the best fermentation medium, whereas the highest production of antimicrobial agent was at 35°C temperature, pH 7.0, shaking at 150-220 rpm and at 60th h of incubation. The maximum yield of antimicrobial agent was obtained at 60% of (NH 4) 2SO 4. The results of characterization of antimicrobial agent suggest that the maximum and minimum antimicrobial activities were at pH 3.0 and 8.0, respectively, whereas antimicrobial activity was unaffected by temperature. The antimicrobial agent was highly stable at varying range of temperature 50-120°C. Minimum inhibitory concentration of antimicrobial agent was found to be 64 μg mL -1. CONCLUSION In conclusion, this study might be a great endeavor for the healthcare industry in order to treatment of different infections caused by E. coli and that warrants further investigations to fully standardized and establish the antimicrobial profile of effect(s) of this isolate.

Role of Pharmacists in Pharmacogenomics

Volume 5 • Issue 3 • 1000e170 J Pharmacovigil, an open access journal ISSN: 2329-6887 Pharmacists’ roles in pharmacogenetics have remained as poorly defined, and have a little or negligible role to play in their own field and is expected to continue like this in the future as well. However, in actual clinical set up, practitioners whose training and practices involve clinical monitoring of drug treatment, pharmacists are in a valuable position to help them define the role of pharmacogenetics in the eventual outcome of the pharmacotherapy.

Evaluation of Drug Affordability in Khartoum State, Sudan

Introduction: Medicine prices are often high and unaffordable not only for the majority of people in low- and middleincome countries, but also for significant number of the population without social protection or insurance in high income countries. As a result, the lack of access to essential medicines due to unaffordability in developing countries is one of the most pressing global health problems. Objective: To provide comparable, evidence-based information for policy makers. Method: A cross sectional descriptive survey study was applied. Results and discussion: It seems that despite of the affordability was shown for many studied conditions, but still affordability of medicines remains a major problem for Sudan. Conclusion: It could be concluded that absence of standard treatment guidelines that are of sound scientific bases and cost-effectiveness resulting in low quality prescribing and dispensing practices which had led to wide variations in the prescribing patterns for the assessed acute and chronic conditions.

Preparation and In Vitro Characterization of Artemisinin Freeze-Dried Powders with Various Carriers

The present study was conducted to investigate the enhancing effect of different polymeric carriers on solubility and hence oral bioavailability of artemisinin, a poorly water-soluble drug. Freeze-dried powder preparations of artemisinin and various carriers (polyvinyl pyrrolidone K-25 (PVP K-25), Hydroxypropyl Cellulose (HPC) and dextrin) were obtained by dissolving different carriers (PVP K-25, HPC and dextrin) in water, followed by the addition of artemisinin at a ratio of 1:4. The resultant products were evaluated using solubility and dissolution studies, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Scanning Electron microscopy (SEM). These in vitro studies showed that the aqueous solubility of artemisinin was significantly increased for the preparation containing artemisinindextrin at a ratio of 1:4. Further, the effect of incorporation of different co-carriers (citric acid or mannitol) to artemisinin-dextrin freeze-dried powder at different ratios was evaluated. A significant increase in the solubility and dissolution rate of artemisinin was obtained with the artemisinin-dextrin-citric acid freeze-dried powder at a ratio of 1:3:1.