Journal of Advances in Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Introduction: Natural products have been used in traditional medicines for treatment of infections due to the antimicrobial activity they exhibit. This study therefore evaluates the efficacy of honey, ginger (Zingiber officinale) and garlic (Allium sativum) extracts on microorganisms isolated from throat of patients with throat infection.

Methods: The antibacterial and antifungal efficacy of honey, ginger (Zingiber officinale) and garlic (Allium sativum) extracts was investigated against microorganisms isolated from throats of infected patients at the ENT Department of State Specialist Hospital, Akure, using agar disc diffusion and agar well diffusion technique respectively.

Results: Bacteria isolated from patients with throat infection were Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Proteus mirabilis while the fungal isolates were Candida albicans and Candida tropicalis. The antibacterial and antifungal assay results showed that all bacterial isolates were inhibited by honey, garlic and ginger extract. Honey, ginger and garlic showed highest inhibition against P. mirabilis (19.01±0.31 mm), P. aeruginosa (20.20±0.42 mm) and S. aureus (23.00±0.01 mm) respectively also, antifungal assay results showed that all the extracts had antifungal effect on the fungal isolates. The combination of equal concentrations of honey plus garlic showed the highest inhibitory effect on all the test bacteria followed by honey plus ginger then garlic plus ginger while the combination of honey plus garlic had the highest inhibitory effect on Candida albicans (21.63±0.02 mm) but garlic plus ginger combination showed the highest inhibitory effect on Candida tropicalis (21.68±0.04 mm).

Conclusion: The result of this study therefore showed that the bacteria and fungi isolated from throat of patients with throats infection demonstrated sensitivity towards the tested samples of honey, garlic and ginger and hence, can serve as effective therapeutic agents in the treatment of throat infections.

Free radicals generated in a variety of biological systems have been implicated in mechanisms of aging and age-related pathologies. This study strategically revealed the varying levels of carbonylated proteins in 3 different tissues of 40 wistar rats of varying ages. Their ages include 25-30, 45-50 and 65-70 days. The brain, heart and kidney tissue homogenates were prepared and biochemically analyzed for products of protein oxidation using 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazones and autoantibodies against carbonylated proteins. This study revealed a direct proportional relationship between age and protein carbonylation in brain, heart and kidney tissue homogenates. The level of carbonylated proteins were significantly (P≤0.05) increased in the assayed tissues as all test groups advanced in age. Oxidative modification of proteins in brain and kidney tissues showed similar trend. This age-related biochemical manifestation may be as a result of increased generation of free radicals at mitochondrial level or decreased anti-oxidant defenses as living organisms advance in age.

Background: Progressive increase of the capacity to cure children with cancer makes their rescue from life-threatening infectious complications, such as invasive fungal infections, a compelling challenge. Local outbreak among patients at risk may occur, and the optimal strategy for their management, including prophylactic regimens, is not defined.

Purpose: We describe our experience in the use of micafungin to break a cluster of invasive aspergillosis in children and adolescent with cancer.

Methods: Since study start, all in-patients who had severe neutropenia (<500/mm³) received prophylaxis with micafungin (1 mg/kg; ≤50 mg) daily i.v. until discharge. Serial testing of galactomannan was used as screening test for invasive aspergillosis; lung computed tomography was performed in patients who tested positive at repeated assay.

Results: Among 27 patients enrolled, one was excluded due to breakthrough invasive aspergillosis diagnosed on day 2. The remaining 26 patients were observed for a minimum of 90 days. Four patients had one positive galactomannan test; this was confirmed at second (but not at third) serial assay in a single patient. None of the patients developed invasive aspergillosis. The drug was very well tolerated, with no side effects related to micafungin administration. The total cost of the drug used for this “prophylaxis” in the study patients was €30.451, with a mean cost per patient of €1.133.

Conclusions: “Prophylactic” use of micafungin was safe, feasible and turned out to be associated with breaking the cluster of invasive aspergillosis in neutropenic patients exposed to an environmental risk. The pharmaco-economic evaluation also turned to be highly favorable.

Background: Medication errors are major challenging clinical incidents in health care settings that could jeopardize a patient’s life and well being. These errors could occur at any step of the medication use process from prescribing, prescription verification, dispensing, drug administration to monitoring. This study aims to assess and classify medication errors among doctors and pharmacists.

Methods: A prospective observational study from July to September 2018. Randomly selected prescriptions were screened for errors before and after dispensing of drugs. Errors were assessed and classified according to the National Coordination Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCCMERP) index to determine the level of harm it posed to the patient.

Results: Out of 1529 prescriptions analyzed, 182(11.9%) medication errors were observed; 104(57.1%) and 78 (42.9%) among doctors and pharmacists respectively. Majority of the errors were for female patients, those on first line antiretroviral drug regimen, in the age group 41-50 years and according to the NCCMERP index of the error type D. The most common medication errors among the doctors were omission errors (36.5%) and errors in patient data (21.1%) while unsigned prescriptions (33.3%) and omitting prescribed drugs from dispensed drugs (28.2%) ranked highest among pharmacists’ errors. Doctors and pharmacists (53.3% and 75% respectively) with < 5years HIV care experience had higher error rates.

Conclusion: Medication errors associated with cotrimoxazole therapy were most common for both categories of health workers and this has a potential for poor treatment outcome. There is need for continuous training of health workers in HIV management.

Background: Communicable diseases have always been a threat to mankind since times immemorial. Leishmaniasis, an infectious disease caused by protozoan of various species of leishmania, is a major health problem spreading across 98 countries and about 350 million people stand the risk of this infection worldwide. Medical research has struggled a lot to combat this disease.

Objective: Among the various approaches available for treatment of Leishmaniasis, many are costly so there is a need to develop effective but economical and easily available antileishmanial agents.

Methods: Natural products are important source of various new medicaments and their derivatives can be used for synthetic modification and bioactivity optimization. Therefore, in order to fulfil the need for novel, economical, more effective and safer chemotherapeutic agents, scientists have explored Mother Nature in detail.

Results: A number of plant species possess inhibitory activity against certain types of parasites such as Leishmania major, Leishmania amazonensis, Leishmania aethiopica, Leishmania braziliensis, Leishmania mexicana, Leishmania infantum, Leishmania chagasi and Leishmania donovani. Moreover natural products are economical, safer, more effective and without considerable side effects.

Conclusion: The present review highlights the leishmanicidal activity of various natural products with an insight in to their possible mechanism.