Trends in Pharmaceutical Sciences
Volume:7 Issue: 4, Dec 2021

The pharmaceutical profession has long been recognized as one of the key components of health systems. Pharmacists are playing roles in various aspects of health care, including production, distribution, and rational monitoring of drug use by patients. The training of efficient manpower is one of the most important goals of those in charge of training in this discipline. Because of different challenges that pharmacy education is facing including its inadequacy for professional directing, irrelevancy to future roles, improper position of pharmacists in the health system, and lack of many pharmacy-based services, education professionals agree on the need to revise the curriculum. It is necessary to obtain comprehensive information on the current state of pharmacy education before revision and reform, and act based on shreds of evidence and domestic priorities. In this article, we aim to explain the necessity of revision of pharmacy education and pharmacy curriculum as its core. We try to explain our idea of the corrective plan and the considerations.

In this present study, extracts of two marine red algae (Asparagopsis taxiformis, Hypnea musciformis), harvested from Algerian West Coast (Oran), were investigated for their antimicrobial activity against Human pathogenic bacteria including antibiotic-resistant organisms and three fungi. Their antimicrobial activities from crude methanolic extracts were evaluated by using the paper disc agar diffusion method at different concentrations (0.5 to 2mg/ml). Methanolic extract of A. taxiformis showed highest antibacterial activity compared to that of H.musciformis. This activity was dependent of the used concentration of methanolic extracts. Methanolic extract of A. taxiformis elicited remarkable antimicrobial activity against all Human pathogenic bacteria except Salmonella sp. (Sa10) and Serratia sp (Se11). However, this extract showed moderate antifungal activity against Candida albicans and Penicellium sp. On the other hand, results obtained show that methanolic extract of H. musciformis exhibit a low activity which was effective only at 02 and 1.5 mg/ml. However, for its antifungal activity, a potent activity against C.albicans, Aspergillus sp. and Penicellium sp. was recorded. The present finding confirms that marine algae can be further studied and used as a possible source of antimicrobial compounds in the medical field.

Geopharmaceuticals, specifically minerals were used to treat various diseases from antiquity. Ithmid or kohl stone is one of the most-applied geopharmaceuticals in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. The usage of ithmid for eye make-up caused many concerns about the possible toxicity and lead poisoning, because the concentration of lead content is usually higher than the international standard limit. The goal of this study was mineralogical investigation of ithmid stones (three samples) from Iran using XRD and XRF. Also, traditional applications of ithmid were extracted and reported. X-ray diffractometer and X-ray fluorescence analysis was used to determine the composition of three samples of ithmid stone from Tehran, Shiraz, and Kerman. The indications suggested for ithmid in Traditional Iranian Medicine were extracted from Makhzan al advieh, Qarabadin Salehi, and Qarabadin Kabir. Major phase of ithmid samples were galena (PbS), and the main element was lead with a high concentration in all three samples. Based on traditional books, ithmid was used for ocular injuries, infectious wounds, and visual disorders. It was proved that ithmid has antimicrobial effects against pathogens involved in ocular infections, but regular application of such products is a potential threat for costumer health. Therefore, regular check-out of kohl products by authorities is necessary to avoid the risk of lead toxicity and resultant health issues.

Drug-drug interactions impose several financial and medical burden on medical system and can lead to various health problems. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence of Potential Drug-Drug Interactions (PDDIs) and its related factors in patients admitted to a large university hospital in southern part of Iran. A retrospective observational study was conducted in neurology, infectious and endocrinology wards of a tertiary care teaching hospital, Shiraz, Iran. PDDIs were identified using Lexi-InteractTM Online database. The relationship betweenpatient’s age, gender, comorbidity, number of medications,administration of high risk drugs, physician's university rank and scientific level, type of hospital wardand PDDIs has been studied using logistic regression analysis. Result and Totally 600 patients were evaluated in our study. A total number of 5051 interactions were identified. 89.5% of patients experienced at least one interaction regardless of the severity. The most frequent interaction was reported to be class C (84.63%) interaction. According to our results, number of medications, administration of high risk drugs, and type of hospital ward were reported as significant risk factors for the incidence of PDDIs. This study suggest that the prevalence of PDDIs is still high even in a large university hospital.Using modern medical systems), regular monitoring of patients' medications,and paying special attention to patients who are elderly or have certain diseases could help to minimize drug interactions. Moreover, the role of pharmacist should not be ignored whom are the best professionals for preventing, monitoring and managing drug interactions.

The control and standardization process of herbal products is a critical point in traditional medicine. Many drugs that are being used today are not standardized and also there is no noticeable control over them. Out of all the different pharmaceutical dosage forms mentioned in Traditional Persian Medicine literature, Jawarish-e-Komooni is an effective formulation due to its positive effect on Gastrointestinal disorders. This formulation includes Zingiber officinale, Bunium persicum, Piper nigrum, and also honey. At this time there have been no noticeable and proven control and standardization or any pharmacognosy studies on this formulation. In this study, Jawarish-e-Komooni was prepared from Qarābadin-e-Salehi, one of the Traditional Persian Medicine literature. Then, by using gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS) and HPTLC, the containing of the formulation were assessed. Also for content determination, using Gas chromatography/ flame ionization detector (GC/FID), two of the main ingredients were determined. The HPTLC results showed piperine and gamma-terpinene as the main components of the formulation. In the standardizing process, piperine and gamma-terpinene were respectively proved to be 0.22% and 0.97% of the whole preparation. Also by calculating the standard deviation of the content determination process, we could reach the point where RSD was less than 10%, which is proof of the validity of our method. As mentioned before, standardization is a critical process for all the traditional preparations and it could help us gain repetitive drug responses elsewhere.

Several reports have shown the potential of medicinal plants as vital sources of anti-inflammatory agents and this study is aimed at investigating the anti-inflammatory potential of selected medicinal plants used for the treatment of inflammation in folk medicine. The methanol and acetone extract of Lecaniodiscus cupanioides, Talinum fruticosum, Ocimum gratissimum, Senna occidentalis, Senna alata were subjected to anti-inflammatory assays using membrane stability and inhibition of albumin denaturation methods and absorbance measured at 560 and 660 nm respectively. The mean IC50 and SEM values were determined using normalized response variable through non-linear regression XY analysis on prism graphpad® (7.0). In the membrane stability experiment, the extracts tested showed varying levels of erythrocyte lysis inhibition within the range of (IC50: 89.08 ± 6.339 µg/mL≤IC50≤278.3 ± 5.678 µg/mL) while the standard drug (ibuprofen) has an IC50: 61.93 ± 8.359 µg/mL, Lecaniodiscus cupanioides acetone (IC50 of 89.08 ± 6.339 µg/mL) extract showed to be most active when compared to other extracts. In the inhibition of albumin denaturation experiment, the tested extracts showed different level of activity within the range of (IC50:22.89±5.52 µg/mL≤IC50≤210.6±6.71 µg/mL). The acetone extracts of senna occidentalis (22.89 ± 5.52 µg/mL) and Lecaniodiscus cupanioides (80.9 ± 9.11 µg/mL) showed significant activity with the lowest IC50 compared to other extracts while the standard drug (aspirin) had an IC50 of (4.055±2.72 µg/mL). The findings of this study shows that Lecaniodiscus cupanioides acetone extract has the most significant anti-inflammatory properties, therefore justifying it's traditional use in the treatment of inflammatory injury and tissue damage.

Different prescription entries usually complicate the drug therapy for critically ill patients; therefore, we conducted this prospective study to assess the rates for appropriate renal dosing modifications in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients admitted to the ICU and reported possible related factors of misadjustments.

 We enrolled adult ICU patients who received at least one drug and experienced CKD with the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≤ of 59 ml/min on ICU admission. The latest Lexicomp drug information handbook recommendations were also applied as a standard guide for renal dosing changes.

A total of 701 prescription entries were studied in 97 patients, and 13.8% (97 medications) required renal dose adjustment. Of the 97 drugs, 20.6% (20) had not been prescribed appropriately, according to eGFR. Antibiotics were the most likely medication group to require a dose adjustment and comprised the largest number of inappropriate prescriptions in our study. EGFR and the number of drugs that needed dose modification significantly affected renal dosing adjustment accuracy (p = 0.03 and 0.01, respectively).

These results revealed a high percentage of appropriate renal dose adjustment in ICU compared to other studies that evaluated non-critically ill patients. However, more attention should be paid to patients with a higher number of prescribed medicines for renal dose modification and lower eGFR to reduce medication errors.

large reserves of zeolites has been one of the comparative advantages of the country in this field and provides economic justification for its use in a variety of applications, including medical and pharmaceutical fields such as artificial kidney manufacturing, wound dressing, controlled drug release, and bone tissue engineering. In order to protect the drug folic acid (folate) in digestive system acidic environments, zeolite nano carrier (Fe-Co-V/zeolite) was used. After dissolving in ethanol, a certain amount of this drug was placed on zeolite and extracted at different time periods. The release rate of folic acid in similar conditions of stomach and intestine was measured by placing samples of zeolite containing this compound in aqueous solution with an acidic pH of 5.4 and 8.9. The release rate in acidic medium was 17% more than the release of drug in alkaline medium. SEM test was performed to measure the morphology of the pores and to measure the changes in the acidic grade to evaluate the buffering properties of this material. According to the findings of this study, folic acid is very unstable in acidic conditions and use of zeolite, significantly protected the folic acid. This can be attributed to the nature of automatic control of the acidic degree in the tolerable range of the drug (chemical protection). It is also important to note that the highly porous structure of zeolite can affect the initial absorption as well as the release of desired amount of vitamins in an area of chemical protection.