Journal of pharmaceutical sciences
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Paracetamol has an extensive first-pass metabolism that highly affects its bioavailability (BA); thus, dose may be repeated several times a day in order to have longer efficacy. However, hepatotoxicity may arise because of paracetamol metabolism. Therefore, this project aimed to increase paracetamol BA in rats by glucosamine (GlcN). ⋯ Finally, serum ALT and AST levels of rats-administered high doses of paracetamol were significantly reduced when rats were prefed with GlcN (p < 0.01). In conclusion, GlcN can increase the relative BA of paracetamol through reducing its metabolism. This phenomenon is associated with reduction in hepatocytes injury following ingestion of high doses of paracetamol.
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Patients with burn wounds are susceptible to wound infection and sepsis. This research introduces a novel burn wound dressing that contains silver nanoparticles (SNPs) to treat infection in a 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid sodium salt (AMPS-Na(+) ) hydrogel. Silver nitrate was dissolved in AMPS-Na(+) solution and then exposed to gamma irradiation to form SNP-infused hydrogels. ⋯ The silver-loaded hydrogels had good inhibitory action against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Results from a pilot study on a porcine burn model showed that the 5-mM silver hydrogel was efficient at preventing bacterial colonization of wounds, and the results were comparable to the commercially available silver dressings (Acticoat(TM) , PolyMem Silver(®) ). These results support its use as a potential burn wound dressing.
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Granules prepared by the high shear wet granulation (HSWG) process commonly exhibit the problem of overgranulation, a phenomenon characterized by a severe loss of the ability to form adequately strong tablet. We hypothesize that the incorporation of brittle excipients promotes brittle fracture of granules during compaction, thereby improving tablet mechanical strength by increasing bonding area. On this basis, we have examined the effectiveness of incorporating a brittle excipient into a plastic matrix in addressing the overgranulation problem. ⋯ The incorporation of a brittle excipient, either lactose or dibasic calcium phosphate (Dical) into the MCC matrix leads to improved tabletability in a concentration-dependent manner, with higher amount of brittle excipient being more effective. For each mixture, tablet tensile strength goes through a minimum as the granulating water increases, for example, 1.4 MPa for the mixture containing 80% of lactose and 2.1 MPa for the mixture containing 80% Dical. These results, along with scanning electron microscope evidence, show that the addition of brittle excipients to an otherwise plastic powder is an effective formulation strategy to address the overgranulation problem in HSWG.
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Editorial Historical Article
The Ebert Prize was established in 1873 and it is the oldest pharmacy award in existence in the United States.
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Local anesthetics play an important role in postoperative pain management in orthopedic joint procedures. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of an intraoperative extra-articular injection of poly(DL-lactic acid co castor oil 3:7), p(DLLA:CO) 3:7 loaded with 15% bupivacaine, for postoperative analgesia following knee arthroplasty. Prolonged release local anesthetic formulation was synthesized by mixing p(DLLA:CO) 3:7 with bupivacaine base. ⋯ The vocalizations during the hyperalgesia test increased compared with the control at 24 h. At 48 h, 3.667 ± 0.5138, p = 0.0076 vocalizations were recorded for the plain bupivacaine group versus 1.417 ± 0.5138, p < 0.0001 in the 15% polymer-bupivacaine formulation. Bupivacaine encapsulated in p(DLLA:CO) 3:7 extended the duration of the analgesia compared with plain drug in rats and could represent effective postoperative analgesic in orthopedic joint procedures.