College of Pharmacy faculty members Paluri Sai Shantanu Rao, Ph.D. (left) and Timothy Burkart, Pharm. D., have pubished an article on investigational anticoagulants that are coming on the market in the international publication Blood Reviews.
A review article co-authored by Paluri Sai Shantanu Rao, Ph.D., has been accepted for publication in the journal - Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs. This article, titled - Investigational protease inhibitors as antiretroviral therapies, provides a summary of new chemical compounds that have shown promising results against HIV infection in early pre-clinical and clinical evaluations. Based on their potent activity against the HIV virus, these compounds are of high scientific interest and are currently being screened under larger clinical trials for their efficacy and safety compared to existing anti-HIV drugs. Success of these novel compounds in the on-going clinical trials is expected to have a tremendous impact on the management of HIV infections in the future. This review article also provides an expert opinion section by the authors illustrating the significance of these new compounds over existing anti-HIV medications.
1. Rao, P.S.S.*, Ande, A. *, Kumar, A., Kumar, S. (2016). Effects of cigarette smoke condensate on oxidative stress, apoptotic cell death, and HIV replication in human monocytic cells. PLOS One.
Description: Cigarette smoking is highly prevalent amongst the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-infected population. Several studies have demonstrated the deleterious effects of cigarette smoking on the progression of HIV infection. The exact mechanism for cigarette smoking-induced changes in HIV replication, however, have not been investigated in detail. This publication reports the effects of cigarette smoke constituents on HIV replication in human blood cells. The results from this study suggest that cigarette constituents induces a state of oxidative stress in human blood cells by altering the levels of a key enzyme in these cells. This, in turn, provides a favorable environment for HIV to replicate and is the probable cause for the enhanced HIV replication observed in HIV positive smokers compared to HIV patients who are non-smokers. Overall, the results from this study provide a putative therapeutic target for new drug development to inhibit the viral replication in HIV positive smokers.
2. Sari, Y., Toalston, J.E., Rao, P.S.S., Bell, R.L. (2016). Effects of ceftriaxone on ethanol, nicotine or sucrose intake by alcohol-preferring (P) rats and its association with GLT-1 expression. Neuroscience.
Description: Alcohol and tobacco addiction remains a huge concern for our society. In fact, as per the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, alcohol and tobacco are among the top causes of preventable deaths in the United States. Hence, new pathways to block the development of dependence for these substance is desired. Interestingly, commonly used beta lactam antibiotics were found to significantly increase the production of a particular transporter protein in brain regions implicated for the development of drug addiction. To validate the effectiveness of this change by beta lactam antibiotics in reducing the consumption of drugs of abuse, the alcohol-preferring P rats were used as our model system. In this study, the P rats were divided into several groups and were provided free-access to either alcohol solution, nicotine solution, sucrose solution, or no drug (control). Upon development of dependence towards these solutions, the animals were further sub-divided into two groups and were either treated with the beta lactam antibiotic, ceftriaxone, or administered a control solution (no drug). The results from this study demonstrated that a) the consumption of alcohol and nicotine solution was significantly lower in P rats treated with ceftriaxone compared to non-treated animals and b) the production of transporter protein in brain was elevated in ceftriaxone treated rats compared to non-treated animals. Hence, this study suggests that increasing the expression of this specific transporter protein may be an effective strategy to effectively treat drug dependence.
1. Quantification of curcumin in herbal OTC supplements. Doycich, E., Basusarkar A, Pasumarthy S and Sekar MC. JAPhA 56 (2016), e17
General description - Emily Doycich presented a poster on how to quantify curcumin products available over the counter at the American Pharmacist Associations Annual meeting at Baltimore. This project will enable pharmacists to make appropriate recommendation to their patients on product selection.
2. Awareness and impact of international normalized ratio monitoring in ongoing anti coagulation therapy in cardiac patients. Mriganka Pal, Suresh Bandari, M. Chandra Sekar, Scott Gier. ISPOR, May 2016
This is the first abstract with an international partner for the College of Pharmacy at the University of Findlay, This work was presented at the International Society of pharmacy outcomes research in Washington, DC. Goal of this work was to increase awareness on the importance of timely measurement of the coagulation status of the patient to improve patient outcome.
3. Advanced Pharmacy Practice Rotation News item - Dr. Chandra Sekar has currently taken five P6 students from the College of Pharmacy for their advanced pharmacy rotation to India. Students on this trip while learning about health care system in a developing country, also improve their knowledge and understanding of ancient civilization through numerous interactions with students and faculty.