Medicine
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The transmission of tuberculosis has been declared as an important occupational hazard for health care workers of tuberculosis dispensary. Here, we evaluated the filtration efficiency and respiratory resistance of different respirators along with the increase of wear time. Filter efficiency and breathing resistance were tested to determine the performance of different types of respirators, and the N95 respirator were simulatively worn by volunteers to determine the optimal time for N95 respirator as a tuberculosis control measure. ⋯ In addition, there were no significant differences in the exhalation resistance of N95 respirator, ranging from 13.8 ± 0.9 mmH2O of 0 day to 11.6 ± 0.9 mmH2O of 14 days. Our results demonstrate that only N95 respirator provides promising protective efficiency for health care workers against tuberculosis. In addition, N95 respirator could produce adequate protective efficacy after 3-day wear time.
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Atorvastatin and aspirin have been used in treating different forms of epilepsy. However, their effect on post-stroke epilepsy (PSE) still needs to be validated by large-scale clinical studies. In addition, their impact on the use of the antiepileptic drug levetiracetam for post-stroke epilepsy remains to be explored. Thus, the aim of this study was to further evaluate the effect of atorvastatin and aspirin on PSE and their effect on the usage of the antiepileptic drug levetiracetam in PSE patients. ⋯ Atorvastatin and aspirin co-treatment with levetiracetam can reduce epilepsy in PSE patients and reduce the dosage of levetiracetam required for effective control of PSE.
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To screen and identify ideal leading compounds from a drug library (ZINC15 database) with potential inhibition effect against c-Myc to contribute to medication design and development. A series of computer-aided virtual screening techniques were performed to identify potential inhibitors of c-Myc. LibDock from the software Discovery Studio was used to do a structure-based screening after ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion) and toxicity prediction. ⋯ Furthermore, we prove that those compounds are stable and can exist in natural conditions. This study demonstrates that the compounds are potential therapeutic inhibitors for c-Myc. These compounds are safe and stable for drug candidates and may play a critical role in c-Myc inhibitor development.
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Observational Study
Medication utilization evaluation of androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer in Taiwan.
Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancer in males. Both the incidence and the mortality rates of prostate cancer show an increasing trend. Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is the standard treatment for metastatic prostate cancer. ⋯ Bicalutamide was the second most used drug from 2008 to 2015, but its utilization was not different for different stages. The incidence rate of prostate cancer increased in the study period and medical expenditure also increased in ADT treatment. Health insurance benefits for various ADT drugs should be further evaluated.
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This is a study on the potential therapeutic targets and pharmacological mechanism of Tripterygium wilfordii (TW) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) based on network pharmacology. Active components of TW were obtained by network pharmacology through oral bioavailability, drug-likeness filtration. Comparative analysis was used to investigate the overlapping genes between active ingredient's targets and AML treatment-related targets. ⋯ Survival analysis of overlapping genes indicated that some targets possessed a significant influence on patients' survival and prognosis. The enrichment analysis showed that the main pathways of targets were Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, NF-kappa B signaling pathway, and HIF-1 signaling pathway. This study, using a network pharmacologic approach, provides another strategy that can help us to understand the mechanisms by which TW treats AML comprehensively.