The International journal of risk & safety in medicine
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Pharmacists by their training have the competences and skills to promote safe use of medicines which is an essential component of patient safety. This study explored the perceptions of hospital pharmacists' role in medication safety in Ghana, identified their attendant challenges and ways of enhancing such roles in the future. ⋯ Pharmacists undertake many medication safety activities routinely that they perceive to have impact on patient care outcomes. Restructuring of their managerial roles will contribute to freeing time for pharmacists to engage more in those activities.
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Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors are widely used in medicine for pharmacological correction of cholinergic neurotransmission pathologies such as myasthenia gravis (MG) and Alzheimer's disease [1, 2]. The efficacy of anti-AChE drugs is based on their ability to potentiate the effects of acetylcholine (ACh) due to a decrease in the rate of AChE-catalyzed hydrolysis of ACh. Crystallographic studies showed that the active site of AChE is located at the bottom of a deep gorge [3]. It was shown that, in addition to its catalytic center, AChE has other sites that are crucial for the proper functioning of the enzyme. In particular, the so-called peripheral anionic site (PAS) located at the entrance of the active site gorge is responsible for: 1) allosteric modulation of the catalytic center; 2) enzyme inhibition at high substrate concentration; 3) and non-catalytic functions such as enhancement of cell adhesion and neurite outgrowth. ⋯ In conclusion, it can be stated that pyrimidinophanes are promising lead scaffold structures for further design of specific ligands for the PAS of AChE. Also AChE inhibitors with a 6-methyluracil moiety may be considered as potential drugs for the treatment of pathological muscle weakness syndromes.