Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Rapamycin Rescues Vascular, Metabolic And Learning Deficits In Apolipoprotein E4 Transgenic Mice With Pre-Symptomatic Alzheimer’S Disease, Ai-Ling Lin, Jordan B. Jahrling, Wei Zhang, Nicholas Derosa, Vikas Bakshi, Peter Romero, Veronica Galvan, Arlan Richardson

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Apolipoprotein E ɛ4 allele is a common susceptibility gene for late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Brain vascular and metabolic deficits can occur in cognitively normal apolipoprotein E ɛ4 carriers decades before the onset of Alzheimer's disease. The goal of this study was to determine whether early intervention using rapamycin could restore neurovascular and neurometabolic functions, and thus impede pathological progression of Alzheimer's disease-like symptoms in pre-symptomatic Apolipoprotein E ɛ4 transgenic mice. Using in vivo, multimodal neuroimaging, we found that apolipoprotein E ɛ4 mice treated with rapamycin had restored cerebral blood flow, blood–brain barrier integrity and glucose metabolism, compared …

Research News. Publications, 2015. Volume 2, University Of Mississippi. School Of Pharmacy, Soumyajit Majumdar

Publications (2015-)

Publications that appeared during the period July 1 through December 15, 2015

Research News. Grants, 2015. Volume 2, University Of Mississippi. School Of Pharmacy, Soumyajit Majumdar

Grants (2015-)

Grants and contracts awarded during May-December 2015

Prescription For Critical Thinking: A Discussion Of Psychotropic Medication And Counseling, Barton W. Biggs

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

This paper examines questions about the safety and efficacy of psychotropic medication, and looks at how these questions should impact the field of counseling. The paper first looks at increasing rates of use of psychotropic medication, and establishes that nearly every clinical mental health counselor will work with clients who are taking or considering taking such medication. The paper next examines the scientific literature and establishes that there is a legitimate basis for questions to be raised about the safety and efficacy of these medications. The paper goes on to establish that there is a foundation in ethical codes and …

An Online Approach To Interprofessional Education, E. Adel Herge, Otd, Otr/L, Faota, Amber E. King, Pharmd, Bcps

Collaborative Healthcare: Interprofessional Practice, Education and Evaluation (JCIPE)

Despite increasing interest in providing interprofessional education (IPE) opportunities for health profession students, the logistics of scheduling and integrating diverse curriculums remain challenging. Several models to address these potential barriers have been proposed and utilized (Blue et al, 2010). Faculty from three colleges within Thomas Jefferson University developed an asynchronous online interprofessional course as one solution to overcome logistical barriers to IPE.

Interprofessional Grand Rounds is offered to third year pharmacy students and second year occupational therapy (OT) students in the fall semester. The course utilizes a variety of learning activities to evaluate the influence of current public health and …

Examining Health Mentors’ Perceptions Of Student Teamwork, Deirdre Yarosh, Bs, Ma, Pharmd Student, Elena M. Umland, Pharmd

Collaborative Healthcare: Interprofessional Practice, Education and Evaluation (JCIPE)

Statement of Issue:

With the increasing emphasis on interprofessional teamwork in healthcare, the need to train future health care professionals to work together as a functional team to provide patient-centered care is clear. Limited information exists regarding education of health care students and teamwork training.1,2 This research evaluates student team performance.

Background:

Thomas Jefferson University (TJU) offers a unique, two-year program emphasizing delivery of patient-centered care and providing valuable skill development by pairing interprofessional student teams with a Health Mentor (HM). The HM is an adult community volunteer with one or more chronic health condition(s). Student teams include representatives from …

Biodegradable Hybrid Nanogels For Combination Chemotherapy, Swapnil Desale

Theses & Dissertations

Combination chemotherapy is commonly used to treat cancer, because such a therapy regimens usually involve sequential administration of multiple drugs and allow targeting different cell signaling pathway. The co-delivery of drug combination at a controlled ratio via the same vehicle is offering the advantages such as spatial-temporal synchronization of drug exposure, synergistic therapeutic effects and suppression of drug resistance. Undoubtedly, there are several molecular and pharmacological factors that determine the effectiveness of drug combinations. A rationally designed drug combination is required since certain drug ratios and the definitive exposure to the targets of interest can only be synergistic while others …

Antiviral Peptide Nanocomplexes As Potential Therapeutics For The Treatment Of Infectious Diseases, Jinjin Zhang

Theses & Dissertations

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is recognized as a major burden in global public health, which can be further exacerbated by several cofactors such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Currently, there is no vaccine for HCV. The emergence of potent and highly specific direct-acting antivirals (DAA) has marked a new era in HCV therapy, however, the remaining issues like affordability, genotype dependency, and potential resistance still necessitate the development of additional therapeutic approaches to be used instead or in combination with DAA.

Recently, the antiviral peptide C5A (in our studies designated as p1) and its cationic derivative p41 have been identified …

A Pilot Chemical And Physical Stability Study Of Extemporaneously Compounded Levetiracetam Intravenous Solution, Chenzira D. Raphael, Fang Zhao, Susan E. Hughes, Katherine Juba

Doctoral External Publications

Levetiracetam is a commonly used antiepileptic medication for tumor-related epilepsy. However, the 100 mL intravenous (IV) infusion volume can be burdensome to imminently dying hospice patients. A reduced infusion volume would improve patient tolerability. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the stability of 1000 mg/25 mL (40 mg/mL) levetiracetam IV solution in sodium chloride 0.9%. We prepared levetiracetam 40 mg/mL IV solution and added it to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) bags, polyolefin bags, and polypropylene syringes. Triplicate samples of each product were stored at refrigeration (2–8°C) and analyzed on days 0, 1, 4, 7, and 14. Samples were subjected …

Effects Of Repeated Quetiapine Treatment On Conditioned Avoidance Responding In Rats, Jun Gao, Min Feng, Natashia Swalve, Collin Davis, Nan Sui, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present study characterized the behavioral mechanisms of avoidance–disruptive effect of quetiapine in the conditioned avoidance response test under two behavioral testing (2 warning signals vs. 1 warning signal) and two drug administration conditions (subcutaneous vs. intravenous). In Experiments 1 and 2, well-trained adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were tested under the subcutaneous (s.c.) quetiapine treatment (5.0, 15.0, 25.0, 50.0 mg/kg) for 7 days in a novel procedure consisting of two conditioned stimuli (CS) (white noise serving as CS1 and pure tone as CS2). Only the highest dose (50.0 mg/kg) produced a persistent suppression of the avoidance response without impairing the …

Using A Cost Benefit Analysis To Support The Development Of A Comprehensive Business Model For A Pre-Filled, Pre-Labeled, Pre-Diluted, Sterilely Packaged, Ready-To-Use, Syringe-Based Anesthesia Delivery System, Lance B. Kennedy

Doctoral Projects

The foundation of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists’ (CRNAs) entire profession is built on the ability to provide anesthetic services using a variety of medications in the safest, most efficient, cost-effective way possible. The purpose of this capstone is to address, via a comprehensive cost benefit analysis, whether pre-filled syringe drug trays are a more cost-effective way to address problems as compared to vial-filled drug trays and to implement the necessary transitions in order to improve outcomes. There are a number of identifiable problems related to anesthesia medication delivery via vial-filled medication, including increased cost of healthcare, decreased patient safety to …

Phenylephrine Versus Ephedrine: Safest Vasopressor For The Neonate During Caesarean Section, James S. Hale Jr.

Doctoral Projects

One of the most common side effects of spinal anesthesia is the development of hypotension. Data collected has determined that 80% of parturients that undergo spinal anesthesia for this mode of delivery experience hypotension (Chestnut et al., 2014).

Hypotension, if sustained and severe, can lead to fetal hypoxia, neonatal depression or injury, and decreased uteroplacental perfusion. Hypotension can also cause severe health issues for the parturient including apnea, altered level of consciousness, cardiac arrest, and pulmonary aspiration. This systematic review of the literature was conducted to determine whether the administration of phenylephrine or ephedrine was safer for the neonate to …

High-Activity Mutants Of Butyrylcholinesterase For Cocaine Hydrolysis And Method Of Generating The Same, Chang-Guo Zhan, Hoon Cho, Hsin-Hsiung Tai

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Patents

A novel computational method and generation of mutant butyrylcholinesterase for cocaine hydrolysis is provided. The method includes molecular modeling a possible BChE mutant and conducting molecular dynamics simulations and hybrid quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical calculations thereby providing a screening method of possible BChE mutants by predicting which mutant will lead to a more stable transition state for a rate determining step. Site-directed mutagenesis, protein expression, and protein activity is conducted for mutants determined computationally as being good candidates for possible BChE mutants, i.e., ones predicted to have higher catalytic efficiency as compared with wild-type BChE. In addition, mutants A199S/A328W/Y332G, A199S/F227A/A328W/Y332G, A199S/S287G/A328W/Y332G, …

Retrospective Study To Evaluate Nausea, Vomiting, And Hypersensitivity Reactions In Patients Receiving Folfox For Colorectal Cancer At An Infusion Center Not Routinely Administering Prophylactic Dexamethasone, Marissa Csovelak Pharmd, Melissa Kratz Rn, Msn, Aocn, Janine Barnaby Rph, Bcop

Department of Pharmacy

No abstract provided.

Daptomycin Non-Susceptible Mrsa Bacteremia: A Case Report, Jaclyn Cusumano, Pharmd, Anna Marie Morlino, Pharmd, Andrew Moyer, Pharmd

College of Pharmacy Posters

Background

Staphylococcus aureus^{1, 2, 3}

• One of the most common pathogens causing community-acquired and nosocomial infections
• Has rapidly developed resistance to many antibiotics:

Daptomycin ²

• Bactericidal cyclic lipopeptide antibiotic
• Possesses negative charge which attracts calcium to form cationic complex
• Interacts with negatively charged phospholipid heads on bacterial cell membranes, leading to membrane depolarization and cell death

Daptomycin non-susceptible (DNS) S. aureus ^{2, 4, 5}

• Extremely rare - About 60 clinical cases reported
• Defined by an MIC greater than 1 mcg/mL
• Potential mechanisms include:

– Changes in cell membrane and cell wall structure alter daptomycin’s permeability²

• Overexpression and dysregulation …

Comparison Of Pediatric Outpatient Antibiotic Prescribing Patterns For Specified Indications In Primary Care Practices, Samantha Spishock Pharmd, Kristen Held Wheatley Pharmd, Bcop, Tibisay Villalobos Md, Faap

Department of Pharmacy

No abstract provided.

Predicting Human Drug Toxicity And Safety Via Animal Tests: Can Any One Species Predict Drug Toxicity In Any Other, And Do Monkeys Help?, Jarrod Bailey, Michelle Thew, Michael Balls

Laboratory Experiments Collection

Animals are still widely used in drug development and safety tests, despite evidence for their lack of predictive value. In this regard, we recently showed, by producing Likelihood Ratios (LRs) for an extensive data set of over 3,000 drugs with both animal and human data, that the absence of toxicity in animals provides little or virtually no evidential weight that adverse drug reactions will also be absent in humans. While our analyses suggest that the presence of toxicity in one species may sometimes add evidential weight for risk of toxicity in another, the LRs are extremely inconsistent, varying substantially for …

Anti-Cocaine Compositions And Treatment, Donald Landry, Chang-Guo Zhan, James H. Woods, Roger Sunahara, Diwahar L. Narasimhan, Joanne Macdonald, Victor Yang, Mei-Chuan Holden Ko, Shi-Xian Deng, John J. Tesmer, Tien-Yi Lee, Young Min Kwon, Daquan Gao

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Patents

Embodiments of the invention disclosed herein generally relate to anti-cocaine therapeutics. Specifically, some embodiments of the invention relate to highly efficient, thermostable, and long-lasting cocaine esterase (CocE) mutants that can protect against the toxic and reinforcing effects of cocaine in subjects. Provided herein are mutant CocE polypeptides displaying thermostable esterase activity. Also provided are methods of treating cocaine-induced conditions in a subject in need via administration of mutant CocE as well as methods for high-throughput screening of candidate esterase polypeptides.

Evaluating The Impact Of Pharmacist Health Education On The Perceptions Of The Pharmacist’S Role Among Women Living In A Homeless Shelter, Laura V. Tsu, Kelsey Buckley, Sarah Nguyen, Jennifer Kohn

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Objectives: To determine the impact of pharmacist-provided educational seminars on the participant’s perception of the pharmacist’s role in providing women’s health education. Secondary objectives include the participant’s level of perceived benefit from the information provided during each presentation, as well as determining characteristics of participants who are interested in attending seminars.

Methods: This is a prospective study conducted within a homeless women’s shelter in Phoenix, Arizona. Pharmacists and pharmacy students provided 10 monthly educational seminars on topics related to women’s health. Participants completed a pre- and post-seminar survey regarding their perceptions of the presentations and pharmacists.

Results: …

Utilizing Monte Carlo Simulations To Optimize Institutional Empiric Antipseudomonal Therapy, Sarah J. Tennant, Donna R. Burgess, Jeffrey M. Rybak, Craig A. Martin, David S. Burgess

Pharmacy Practice and Science Faculty Publications

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common pathogen implicated in nosocomial infections with increasing resistance to a limited arsenal of antibiotics. Monte Carlo simulation provides antimicrobial stewardship teams with an additional tool to guide empiric therapy. We modeled empiric therapies with antipseudomonal β-lactam antibiotic regimens to determine which were most likely to achieve probability of target attainment (PTA) of ≥90%. Microbiological data for P. aeruginosa was reviewed for 2012. Antibiotics modeled for intermittent and prolonged infusion were aztreonam, cefepime, meropenem, and piperacillin/tazobactam. Using minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) from institution-specific isolates, and pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters from previously published studies, a 10,000-subject Monte …

Too Many Cooks In The Kitchen? Interdisciplinary Team Discharge Clinic Prevents Hospital Readmissions, Nabila Ahmed-Sarwar, Lauren Decaporale-Ryan, Shaula Woz, Katie Lashway, Karen Mahler, Tracy Lewis, Robbyn Upham

Pharmacy Faculty/Staff Publications

Establishment of Interdisciplinary healthcare teams have shown to improve health outcomes and lower readmission rates in medically complex patients during hospitalization. Exploration of interventions has happened largely during the pre-discharge phase rather than post-discharge. To extend the team based approach, we implemented a pilot study of an interdisciplinary discharge clinic to determine what impact a biopsychosocial approach to care can have on hospital readmission rates. This work was conducted at a large family medicine residency-based practice, and facilitated by a physician, behavioral health clinicians, a clinical pharmacist, nurse care managers, and medical assistant. Patients were seen in the discharge clinic …

Stability Of Extemporaneously Prepared Sodium Benzoate Oral Solution, Andrew S. Decker, Melinda E. Lull, David Hutchinson

Pharmacy Faculty/Staff Publications

Purpose: Sodium benzoate (NaC7H5O2), a common food preservative, is the salt form of benzoic acid. It is used as an alternative treatment in patients with hepatic encephalopathy or urea cycle disorders as it is believed help stimulate ammonia removal via a non-urea cycle based pathway. Despite its use, sodium benzoate is not an FDA approved medication and has no commercially available oral formulations, although an IV formulation is available in combination with sodium phenylacetate (Ammonul®). The objectives of this study were to prepare a sodium benzoate solution and determine the stability of an extemporaneously prepared oral solution over a 90-day …

Synthesis Of Medicinally Relevant Thiazolyl Aryl Ketones Under Mild Conditions, Danielle M. Gardner

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Undergraduate Honors Theses

Purpose: The growing amount of clinical resistance observed in current antifungal drugs and in anti-HIV pharmaceuticals is a concern in the medical community. The purpose of this study is to develop a mild synthetic process for biomedically relevant thiazolyl aryl ketones that can be used to develop antifungal and anti-HIV drugs. We hypothesized that the proposed synthetic technique would be more efficient, produce fewer unwanted byproducts, and be more tolerant of functional groups than existing methods.

Methods: Prior to each of the ketone reactions, the necessary salt was synthesized by mixing thiazole and 9-bromofluorene neat in a reaction tube heated …

Pamam Dendrimers As Promising Nanocarriers For Rnai Therapeutics, Prashant Kesharwani, Sanjeev Banerjee, Umesh Gupta, Mohd Cairul Iqbal Mohd Amin, Subhash Padhye, Fazlul H. Sarkar, Arun K. Iyer

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Therapeutics based on RNA interference mechanisms are highly promising for the management of several diseases including multi-drug resistant cancers. However, effective delivery of siRNAs and oligonucleotides still remains challenging. In this regard, hyper-branched, PAMAM dendrimers having unique three-dimensional architecture and nanoscale size, with cationic surface charge can potentially serve as siRNA condensing agents as well as robust nano-vectors for targeted delivery. In addition, their surface functionality permits conjugation of drugs and genes or development of hybrid systems for combination therapy. Thus far, in vitro cellular testing of dendrimer-mediated siRNA delivery has revealed great potential, with reports on their in vivo …

Development Of Oral Vaccines Against Lyme Disease, Rita Raquel Dos Anjos De Carvalho E Melo

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Lyme Disease, caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States and Europe. If left untreated, it can lead to permanent damage to the nervous and musculoskeletal systems. In some cases, patients that receive the recommended antibiotic therapy develop a debilitating health condition associated with substantial health care costs. Despite current preventive measures, the incidence and the geographic distribution of Lyme Disease continues to increase. Recent estimates from CDC suggest that the true number of cases of Lyme Disease in the US is approximately 300,000 per year. Yet, there is currently no vaccine …

Optimization Of Lead Spectinamide Compounds As Novel Anti-Tuberculosis Agents With A Pharmacometric Approach, Ashit Rasendu Trivedi

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

In an effort to combat the global Tuberculosis pandemic, Dr.Richard E. Lee and his group at St.Jude Children’s Research Hospital designed a novel series of anti-tuberculosis agents, spectinamides – semi-synthetic analogs of spectinomycin. Spectinamides are a potent inhibitor of mycobacterial ribosomes and overcome efflux mediated drug resistance in M. tb. Spectinamides have shown an excellent in vitro activity, which makes them well suited for further lead optimization and preclinical development. We hypothesized that through pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) model-based dosing optimization studies, we could strategically guide the selection and refinement of more potent and effective anti-TB spectinamides. Biopharmaceutical in …

Development And Evaluation Of Amphotericin B Loaded Iron Oxide Nanoparticles For Targeted Drug Delivery To Systemic Fungal Infections, Pavan Balabathula

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

A targeted nanotheronostic drug delivery system to diagnose and treat life threatening invasive fungal infections (IFIs) such as cryptococcal meningitis was designed, developed, characterized, and evaluated. To address the development processes, first, iron oxide nanoparticles (IONP) (34-40 nm) coated with bovine serum albumin (BSA), loaded and targeted with amphotericin B (AMB) (AMB-IONP) was formulated by applying a layer by layer approach. Several designs (A, B, C, D, & E) of AMB-IONP were developed and their physicochemical properties such as drug loading with HPLC method, particle size, poly dispersity index (PDI), and ζ-potential using dynamic light scattering (DLS) technique, morphology with …

A Combination Approach To Treating Fungal Infections, Sanjib K. Shrestha, Marina Y. Fosso, Sylvie Garneau-Tsodikova

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Azoles are antifungal drugs used to treat fungal infections such as candidiasis in humans. Their extensive use has led to the emergence of drug resistance, complicating antifungal therapy for yeast infections in critically ill patients. Combination therapy has become popular in clinical practice as a potential strategy to fight resistant fungal isolates. Recently, amphiphilic tobramycin analogues, C₁₂ and C₁₄, were shown to display antifungal activities. Herein, the antifungal synergy of C₁₂ and C₁₄ with four azoles, fluconazole (FLC), itraconazole (ITC), posaconazole (POS), and voriconazole (VOR), was examined against seven Candida albicans strains. All tested strains …

Antibiotic Resistance And The White House Forum On Antibiotic Stewardship, Mary Lou Manning Phd, Crnp, Cic, Faan

Population Health Matters (Formerly Health Policy Newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Pharmacists On The Front Lines Of Polypharmacy: The Individualized Medication Assessment And Planning (Imap) Project To Improve Medication Use In Senior Adults With Cancer, Ginah Nightingale Pharmd, Bcop, Laura T. Pizzi Pharmd, Mph, Emily Hajjar Pharmd, Bcps, Bcacp, Cgp, Elizabeth Pigott, Margaret Wang, Shannon Doherty, Kristine Swartz Md, Andrew Chapman Do, Facp

Population Health Matters (Formerly Health Policy Newsletter)

No abstract provided.