Therapeutics Commons^™

Botulinum Toxin Type A Injections For Refractory Abdominal Dystonia: A Case Report, William J. Naber Ii, Jodi M. Wilhelm, Kurt A. Kuhlman, Gabriel Howard

Graduate Medical Education Research Journal

Background: A 58-year-old male with chronic bilateral treatment resistant abdominal spasms secondary complications of ascites/ alcoholic cirrhosis. Spasms would occur 4-5 times/day, lasting minutes to hours despite a 2-year course of therapeutic and pharmacological interventions. Due to treatment refraction, 6 uniformly spaced botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) injections were placed per side, using electromyography for audible intramuscular syringe placement confirmation, while visual confirmation was made via ultrasound. During the initial trial, 6 evenly spaced injections were performed bilaterally, uniformly distributing 80U/side. Injections began bilaterally just medial to the junction of the inferior rib cage border/ anterior axillary line and progressed …

Medication-Assisted Therapy And First Episode Psychosis: Evaluating Treatment And Readmission Rates: A Scoping Review, Whitney Nichole Trotter Ms, Bsn, Rdn/Ldn, Rn, Margaret Carrie Harvey Phd, Aprn, Acnp-Bc, Chfn

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Purpose/Background:

There is limited research aimed at addressing the reoccurrence of admission rates for first-episode psychosis. Research shows that early interventions for first-episode psychosis lead to remissions and prevention of relapses. Research also estimates that approximately one-half of first-episode clients have a history of cannabis abuse or dependence and one-third have a current cannabis use disorder (Wisdom et al., 2011). This study looks to determine whether Medication-assisted therapy (MAT) impacts readmission rates for patients who have substance use disorder and first-episode psychosis within six months of discharge.

Methods:

A comprehensive literature search was conducted using several electronic databases, including PubMed, …

Social Determinants May Limit The Success Of Pcsk9 Inhibitors, An Effective Treatment For Hyperlipidemia In Statin-Intolerant Patients, Abigail C. Kuplicki

Clinical Research in Practice: The Journal of Team Hippocrates

A clinical decision report using:

Moriarty PM, Thompson PD, Cannon CP, et al. Efficacy and safety of alirocumab vs ezetimibe in statin-intolerant patients, with a statin rechallenge arm: The ODYSSEY ALTERNATIVE randomized trial. J. Clin. Lipidol. 2015;9(6):758-769. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacl.2015.08.006

for a statin-intolerant patient with hyperlipidemia.

Serotonin Reduction In Post-Acute Sequelae Of Viral Infection, Andrea Wong, Ashwarya Devason, Iboro Umana, Timothy Cox, Lenka Dohnalová, Lev Litichevskiy, Jonathan Perla, Patrick Lundgren, Zienab Etwebi, Luke Izzo, Jihee Kim, Monika Tetlak, Hélène Descamps, Simone Park, Stephen Wisser, Aaron Mcknight, Ryan Pardy, Junwon Kim, Niklas Blank, Shaan Patel, Katharina Thum, Sydney Mason, Jean-Christophe Beltra, Michaël Michieletto, Shin Foong Ngiow, Brittany Miller, Megan Liou, Bhoomi Madhu, Oxana Dmitrieva-Posocco, Alex Huber, Peter Hewins, Christopher Petucci, Candice Chu, Gwen Baraniecki-Zwil, Leila Giron, Amy Baxter, Allison Greenplate, Charlotte Kearns, Kathleen Montone, Leslie Litzky, Michael Feldman, Jorge Henao-Mejia, Boris Striepen, Holly Ramage, Kellie Jurado, Kathryn Wellen, Una O'Doherty, Mohamed Abdel-Mohsen, Alan L Landay, Ali Keshavarzian, Timothy Henrich, Steven Deeks, Michael Peluso, Nuala Meyer, E. John Wherry, Benjamin Abramoff, Sara Cherry, Christoph Thaiss, Maayan Levy

Department of Microbiology and Immunology Faculty Papers

Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC, "Long COVID") pose a significant global health challenge. The pathophysiology is unknown, and no effective treatments have been found to date. Several hypotheses have been formulated to explain the etiology of PASC, including viral persistence, chronic inflammation, hypercoagulability, and autonomic dysfunction. Here, we propose a mechanism that links all four hypotheses in a single pathway and provides actionable insights for therapeutic interventions. We find that PASC are associated with serotonin reduction. Viral infection and type I interferon-driven inflammation reduce serotonin through three mechanisms: diminished intestinal absorption of the serotonin precursor tryptophan; platelet hyperactivation and thrombocytopenia, …

Tolfenamic Acid Derivatives: A New Class Of Transcriptional Modulators With Potential Therapeutic Applications For Alzheimer’S Disease And Related Disorders, Juanetta Hill, Karim E. Shalaby, Syed W. Bihaqi, Bothaina H. Alansi, Benjamin Barlock, Keykavous Parang, Richard Thompson, Khalid Ourarhni, Nasser H. Zawia

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

The field of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has witnessed recent breakthroughs in the development of disease-modifying biologics and diagnostic markers. While immunotherapeutic interventions have provided much-awaited solutions, nucleic acid-based tools represent other avenues of intervention; however, these approaches are costly and invasive, and they have serious side effects. Previously, we have shown in AD animal models that tolfenamic acid (TA) can lower the expression of AD-related genes and their products and subsequently reduce pathological burden and improve cognition. Using TA as a scaffold and the zinc finger domain of SP1 as a pharmacophore, we developed safer and more potent brain-penetrating analogs …

Improving Pharmacist-Led Pediatric Patient Education On Oral Chemotherapy At Home, Anika Patel, Christopher M. Nguyen, Kristin Willins, Elsabella Y. Wang, Grace Magedman, Sun Yang

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Oral chemotherapy (OC) has been increasingly used in pediatric patients diagnosed with cancer, which is primarily managed in the outpatient setting. Different from adults, pediatric patients face unique challenges in administering these hazardous medications at home. Because of the complexity of pediatric pharmaceutical care and the hazardous nature of chemotherapy agents, comprehensive patient education is imperative to mitigate the potential safety risks associated with OC administration at home. Pharmacists play a vital role in patient education and medication consultations. However, the lack of practice guidelines and limited resources supporting OC counseling are noted. Additional barriers include insufficient knowledge and training …

Dosimetric Study For Mastectomy Carcinoma Left Breast Cases With Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (Vmat), Jyoti Bisht, Meenu Gupta, Ravi Kant, Vipul Nautiyal, Viney Kumar, Rishabh Dobhal, Mushtaq Ahmad, Sunil Saini

Research Symposium

Background: Radiation therapy for breast cancer has evolved from conventional to 3-dimentional radiation therapy (3-DCRT) and through more precise IMRT and VMAT. 3-DCRT is preferred for ca breast treatment as it reduces low dose area in contra lateral lung but with the advances in radiotherapy image guided techniques can deliver precise and lower doses to OARs with better coverage. This study is aimed to evaluate the doses of PTV, heart and ipsi-lateral lung with contra lateral lung doses delivered by VMAT technique.

Method and material: Total 10 patients of carcinoma left breast with mastectomy were selected for VMAT planning with …

A Causal Inference Study: The Impact Of The Combined Administration Of Donepezil And Memantine On Decreasing Hospital And Emergency Department Visits Of Alzheimer’S Disease Patients, Ehsan Yaghmaei, Albert Pierce, Hongxia Lu, Yesha M. Patel, Louis Ehwerhemuepha, Ahmad Rezaie, Seyed Ahmad Sajjadi, Cyril Rakovski

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia that currently affects over 6.5 million people in the U.S. Currently there is no cure and the existing drug therapies attempt to delay the mental decline and improve cognitive abilities. Two of the most commonly prescribed such drugs are Donepezil and Memantine. We formally tested and confirmed the presence of a beneficial drug-drug interaction of Donepezil and Memantine using a causal inference analysis. We applied doubly robust estimators to one of the largest and high-quality medical databases to estimate the effect of two commonly prescribed Alzheimer’s disease (AD) medications, Donepezil and …

Anti-Inflammatory And Antioxidant Effects Of Sea Urchin Spine Extract, Dina Magdy El Gamal

The Undergraduate Research Journal

Diadema savignyi spine extract in an experimental setup using L929 cell line in vitro. The cell metabolic activity of L929 cells is tested through an MTT assay. The sea urchin spine extract is applied to the cells in two concentrations: 100 μg/ml (136% viability) and 200 μg/ml (95% viability). The bioactive components of the sea urchin spine are identified via GC-MS, and the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities are evaluated using catalase assay (CAT), glutathione (GSH), and nitric oxide (NO) tests. Results show that the GC-MS identified bioactive components including the anti-inflammatory and anti-irritant bisabolol oxide and the pro-inflammatory oleic acid. …

Astrocytes In Stroke-Induced Neurodegeneration: A Timeline, Eileen Collyer, Elena Blanco-Suarez

Farber Institute for Neuroscience Faculty Papers

Stroke is a condition characterized by sudden deprivation of blood flow to a brain region and defined by different post-injury phases, which involve various molecular and cellular cascades. At an early stage during the acute phase, fast initial cell death occurs, followed by inflammation and scarring. This is followed by a sub-acute or recovery phase when endogenous plasticity mechanisms may promote spontaneous recovery, depending on various factors that are yet to be completely understood. At later time points, stroke leads to greater neurodegeneration compared to healthy controls in both clinical and preclinical studies, this is evident during the chronic phase …

Maximizing Wound Coverage In Full-Thickness Skin Defects: A Randomized-Controlled Trial Of Autologous Skin Cell Suspension And Widely Meshed Autograft Versus Standard Autografting, Sharon Henry, Steven Mapula, Mark Grevious, Kevin N. Foster, Herbert Phelan, Jeffrey Shupp, Rodney Chan, David Harrington, Neil Mashruwala, David A. Brown, Haaris Mir, George Singer, Alfredo Cordova, Lisa Rae, Theresa Chin, Lourdes Castanon, Derek Bell, William Hughes, Joseph A. Molnar

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND Traumatic insults, infection, and surgical procedures can leave skin defects that are not amenable to primary closure. Split-thickness skin grafting (STSG) is frequently used to achieve closure of these wounds. Although effective, STSG can be associated with donor site morbidity, compounding the burden of illness in patients undergoing soft tissue reconstruction procedures. With an expansion ratio of 1:80, autologous skin cell suspension (ASCS) has been demonstrated to significantly decrease donor skin requirements compared with traditional STSG in burn injuries. We hypothesized that the clinical performance of ASCS would be similar for soft tissue reconstruction of nonburn wounds. METHODS A …

Targeting Breast Cancer: The Familiar, The Emerging, And The Uncharted Territories, Hamidreza Montazeri Aliabadi, Arthur Manda, Riya Sidgal, Co Chung

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Breast cancer became the most diagnosed cancer in the world in 2020. Chemotherapy is still the leading clinical strategy in breast cancer treatment, followed by hormone therapy (mostly used in hormone receptor-positive types). However, with our ever-expanding knowledge of signaling pathways in cancer biology, new molecular targets are identified for potential novel molecularly targeted drugs in breast cancer treatment. While this has resulted in the approval of a few molecularly targeted drugs by the FDA (including drugs targeting immune checkpoints), a wide array of signaling pathways seem to be still underexplored. Also, while combinatorial treatments have become common practice in …

Additive Effects Of Cyclic Peptide [R4w4] When Added Alongside Azithromycin And Rifampicin Against Mycobacterium Avium Infection, Melissa Kelley, Kayvan Sasaninia, Arbi Abnousian, Ali Badaoui, James Owens, Abrianna Beever, Nala Kachour, Rakesh Kumar Tiwari, Vishwanath Venketaraman

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Mycobacterium avium (M. avium), a type of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), poses a risk for pulmonary infections and disseminated infections in immunocompromised individuals. Conventional treatment consists of a 12-month regimen of the first-line antibiotics rifampicin and azithromycin. However, the treatment duration and low antibiotic tolerability present challenges in the treatment of M. avium infection. Furthermore, the emergence of multidrug-resistant mycobacterium strains prompts a need for novel treatments against M. avium infection. This study aims to test the efficacy of a novel antimicrobial peptide, cyclic [R4W4], alongside the first-line antibiotics azithromycin and rifampicin in reducing M. avium survival. Colony-forming unit (CFU) …

Nanoformulations Of Essential Oils Extracted From Pistacia Lentiscus And Boswellia Sacra And Investigation Of Their Anticancer, Antimicrobial, And Antioxidant Activities., Obaydah Abd Alkader Alabrahim

Theses and Dissertations

Essential oils (EOs) obtained from natural sources have shown promising biological and therapeutical properties such as anticancer, antimicrobial, and antioxidant activities, attributing to their high content of a variety of bioactive components. However, EOs’ therapeutic properties are limited by their low stability, poor bioavailability, high volatility, and low targeting ability. Therefore, the encapsulation and nanoformulation of EOs can maximize their therapeutical efficiency and physicochemical properties while overcoming their undesirable side effects and drawbacks. EOs extracted from the resins of Pistacia Lentiscus var. Chia (P.oil) and Boswellia Sacra (B.oil) are two promising EOs that have shown great therapeutic potential. P.oil was …

Design, Synthesis, And Evaluation Of Novel Peptidomimetics As Neurolysin Activators For The Treatment Of Ischemic Stroke., Md. Shafikur Rahman

Theses & Dissertations

Stroke is the world's second-leading cause of death and disability. Ischemic stroke (IS), a primary subtype of stroke, has ineffective and limited treatment options, resulting in a significant unmet medical need for novel therapies. Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is the sole FDA-approved medication now in use; however, it has a narrow therapeutic window (3 to 4.5 h). Unfortunately, few individuals have this opportunity to be diagnosed with stroke in time to begin therapy with tPA. Additionally, treatment with tPA can have major adverse effects, such as bleeding, which can exacerbate the consequences of a stroke on the brain. To overcome …

Unknown Rectal Lesions: A Case Of Severe Proctitis Secondary To Mpox In The Setting Of Concomitant Hiv, Syphilis, Hsv, And Chlamydia, Nicole Robertson Mph, James Crosby Do, Cynthia R. Young Md, Msc, Anne E. Sayers Md, Nicholas J. Van Sickles Md

ePublications of Emerging Medical Research Scholars

Introduction:

Mpox emerged as a public health crisis with limited research describing co-occurring HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). We present a case of severe proctitis secondary to Mpox with concomitant HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), syphilis, HSV (Herpes Simplex Virus), and chlamydia and review presentation, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of Mpox with concurrent STIs.

Case Presentation:

34-year-old male living with HIV (LWH) presenting with worsening rectal pain, multiple anal papules, and fever. His laboratory workup revealed simultaneous positive results for orthopoxvirus, chlamydia, and HSV-1 PCR. We initiated tecovirimat due to rectal involvement and uncontrolled pain. He subsequently developed lesions on …

Evidenced-Based Practice Competency Assessment For Competency-Based Orientation Protocol To Improve Competency Level Among Medical-Surgical Nurses, Maryann Ornelas

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: Within a 12-month period, high incidences of severe post-spinal surgical complications resulted in a host of concerns in this clinical site when patients either returned to the operating room for spine revision or increased the length of stay.

PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was: "In Medical Surgical (Med-Surg) nurses (P), how would a Competency-Based Orientation (CBO) protocol with the inclusions of four critical elements of postoperative spinal care [POSC] (I) compared to the usual postoperative practice (C) enhance competency level in Med-Surg nurses when delivering postoperative practice at an inpatient setting (O) over 10 weeks …

Prevention And Reversal Of Elastin-Associated And Phosphate-Dependent Arterial Calcification Using Targeted Nanotherapeutics In Pre-Clinical Models, Fatema Tuj Zohora

All Dissertations

Vascular calcification can be life-threatening, involving calcium phosphate crystal deposits in the blood vessels. The calcification in the intimal layer of the arterial wall is usually associated with atherosclerotic plaque build-up that, in the advanced stage, harbors ‘dispersed’ and ‘spotty’ deposits of calcium phosphate crystals in the necrotic core of the plaque. In contrast, medial arterial calcification (MAC) can form independently of atherosclerosis and appears as ‘Railroad-like’ calcific deposits along degraded elastin lamellae in the medial layer of arteries. The mechanisms of such elastin-associated medial arterial calcification and potential therapies are the key concerns of this dissertation. MAC is common …

Met Alterations In Glioblastoma: Characterization Of Patient-Derived Xenografts And Therapeutic Strategies, Anna Musket

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Glioblastoma is the most commonly diagnosed central nervous system primary malignancy and it is considered a terminal diagnosis with few treatment options available. Glioblastoma tumors frequently develop treatment resistance due in part to their highly heterogenic nature. The heterogeneity of glioblastoma is partially attributed to the presence of glioma stem-like cells (GSC), which are highly invasive and resistant to chemotherapy and irradiation treatments. Signaling of the receptor tyrosine kinase MET is a known regulator of GSC. Glioblastoma patients have an increasingly poor prognosis that corresponds with increasing MET expression. Both GSC and MET are known to contribute to treatment resistance …

Calcium Carbonate As A Potential Intervention To Prevent Labor Dystocia: Narrative Review Of The Literature, Sabahat Raees, Marie Forgie, Rita Mitchell, Emily Malloy

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

Anecdotally, there are attestations from clinicians of calcium carbonate being used successfully for laboring people experiencing labor dystocia. The goal of this narrative review was to provide a synopsis of pertinent literature on calcium use in obstetrics to explore the potential benefit of calcium carbonate as a simple and low-cost intervention for prevention or treatment of labor dystocia. To answer how calcium and carbonate physiologically contribute to myometrium contractility, we conducted a literature search of English-language peer-reviewed articles, with no year limitation, consisting of the keywords “calcium,” “calcium carbonate,” “calcium gluconate,” “pregnancy,” “hemorrhage,” and variations of “smooth muscle contractility” and …