Journal of Advances in Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of total methanol leaf-extract of Dialium guineense (Cesalpiniaceae) and its fractions on blood glucose in rat.

The fractions of methanol extract were obtained by chromatography Sephadex LH 20 gel, numbered F1 to F5. Experiments were performed in normoglycemic, glucose tolerance test, and type 2 diabetic rats.

The total methanol leaf-extract (300 mg/kg, per os), induced a significant increase of blood glucose level in normoglycemic rats (2.27±0.12 vs 0.94±0.03 g/L) (p<0.05, n=5). F1 and F2 fractions (100 mg/kg, per os) increased the blood glucose level. Glycaemia respectively varied from 0.90 ± 0.03 to 2. 28 ± 0.22 g/L and 0.91 ± 0.03 to 1.43 ± 0.04 g /L (p<0.05, n=5). However, F5 fraction (300 mg/kg, per os), induced hypoglycemia (0.61 ± 0.01 vs 0. 80 ± 0.03 g/L) (p<0.05, n=5). F5 fraction prevented the pic of hyperglycemia caused by glucose (4 g/kg, per os). In type 2 diabetic rats, the daily oral administration of F5 fraction (300 mg/kg) induced an anti-hyperglycemic effect (1.28 ± 0.15 vs 4.48 ± 0.08 g/L). Fractionation by gel permeation chromatography allowed to highlight the presence of compounds both hyper-and hypoglycemic in total methanol leaf-extract of D. guineense. The lack of hypoglycemic effect in normoglycemic rats of total methanol leaf-extract, could respectively be related to the presence of both hyper- and hypoglycemic compounds in F1 and F5 fractions, which induced opposite effects.

The buccal region of oral cavity is a interesting target for the drug of choice administration. To increase prevent first pass metabolism and bioavailability, Alfuzocin Hydrochloride is embedded in buccal film for a sustained release over a period of 8 hours. The purpose of this study was to develop formulations and systematically evaluate in vitro performances of buccoadhesive films of Alfuzocin hydrochloride using the polymers HPMC K100M, Sodium Alginate and Chitosan. The films were provided with a backing layer of Eudragit RS100 so as to get an unidirectional release pattern. The films were evaluated for their physical characteristics like weight, thickness, content uniformity, folding endurance, bioadhesive strength, surface pH, in vitro drug release, ex vivo buccal permeation and XRD studies. The films, which were prepared by the solvent casting method, were smooth and elegant in appearance; uniform in thickness, weight, and drug content; and showed good folding endurance. The mechanical properties reveal that the formulations were found to be strong but not brittle. The in vitro release data were fit to different equations and kinetic models viz.  zero order, first order, higuchi’s plot and peppas plot. The best mucoadhesive performance and matrix controlled release was exhibited by the formulation A7 (2% HPMC K100 M and 2% Chitosan). The correlation coefficient value (r) indicates, the kinetic of drug release was zero order. Stability study of optimized films was done and it was found that both drug and buccal films were stable. It can be concluded that the present buccal formulation can be an ideal system to improve the bioavailability of the drug by avoiding hepatic first-pass metabolism.

Aims: This research was carried out to evaluate the susceptibility pattern of some enteric bacteria to crude and purified extracts of Annona muricata bark.

Study Design: Experimental design.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Microbiology, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. Between January, 2019 and May, 2019.

Methodology: Extraction of bioactive components of bark was done by maceration and phytochemical screening was carried out on the bark extracts to determine the bioactive components present. The bacteria isolates were subjected to antibiotic sensitivity test using standard methods while the antibacterial activity of the plant extracts on human enteric bacteria was determined using agar well dilution method. A. muricata bark extracts were purified using column chromatography method. The minimum inhibitory and minimum bactericidal concentrations (MIC/MBC) of the extracts were performed using tube dilution technique.

Results: The quantitative phytochemical screening for bark extract revealed that glycosides (7.06±0.04, 34.67±0.02 and 19.35±0.01) extracted with aqueous, ethanol and methanol respectively is the most abundant phytochemical constituents. The antibacterial activities of the bark extracts revealed that aqueous showed no inhibition to none while ethanol and methanol inhibited all the test organisms. The highest value of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBC) for both ethanol and methanol bark extracts was 50 mg/ml and 100 mg/ml respectively.

Conclusion: This research revealed that A. muricata bark extracts possesses antibacterial activity against human enteric bacteria isolates used in this study. The purified extracts of A. muricata bark showed higher zones of inhibition which indicates that it can compete well with standard antibiotics and it may also serve as a substitute to the commercially available antibiotics that can be used for the treatment of infections caused by enteric bacteria.

Objective: To determine the relationship between illness perception, medication adherence and health related quality of life in patients living with epilepsy.

Design: A cross-sectional prospective survey among patients living with epilepsy recruited from two tertiary referral centers in Nigeria.

Methods: Patients’ illness perception, adherence to antiepileptic drugs, and health related quality of life were determined using the brief illness perception questionnaire (BIPQ), the eight-item     Morisky medication adherence scale (MMAS-8), and the patient weighted quality of life in     epilepsy instrument (QOLIE-10-P) respectively. Correlation and linear regression analysis were used to test the relationship between the assessment variables. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.

Results: Multivariate linear regression revealed that patients’ medication adherence score was predicted by their illness perception score (B = -0.030; p = 0.033). Also, patients’ QOLIE score was predicted by their illness perception score (B = -0.318; p = 0.0001).

Conclusion: In patients living with epilepsy, illness perception is a predictor of their adherence to antiepileptic drug regimen and their health-related quality of life.

Objective: This study intended to evaluate the toxic effects of Efavirenz-based highly active antiretroviral therapy (EFV_b-HAART) on some antioxidant parameters, and free radical generation in D. melanogaster.

Materials and Methods: The study was carried out at the Centre of Excellence in phytomedicine Research and Development (ACEPRD), University of Jos, Nigeria, in 2019. Sixty (60)                        D. melanogaster (both sexes) 1-4 days old were exposed by ingestion to graded concentrations of EFV_b-HAART (93.11 mg, 46.56 mg, 23.28 mg, 11.64 mg) or 1000 mL distilled water (control) each per 10 g fly food for five days. All concentrations were diluted with 1000 mL distilled water and incorporated in cold fly food in five replicates. Treated flies were anesthetized under ice, homogenized, centrifuged, and the supernatant used to assay for Total protein, Total thiol, Glutathione-S-transferase, Catalase, Superoxide dismutase, and Malondialdehyde levels. Statistical significance was accepted at P< 0.05.

Results: The result showed significantly (P<0.05) increased total protein (1.05±0.0 - 1.34±0.12 Vs. 0.56±0.14 mg/ml) and Malondialdehyde levels (1.63±0.20 – 3.72±0.53 Vs. 0.79±0.10 units/mg protein) in all tested groups versus unexposed. Conversely, Total thiol content (1.96±0.33-0.38±0.10 Vs. 5.31±0.31 units/mg protein) Glutathione-S-transferase (2.20±0.30-1.01±0.27 Vs. 4.31±0.24 units/mg protein), Catalase (171.70±50.13-104.34±9.56 Vs. 368.00±7.56 units/mg protein) and Superoxide dismutase (3.18±0.29-1.44±23 Vs. 5.34±1.35 units/mg protein) activities all decreased significantly (P<0.05) as concentrations increased in all test groups versus unexposed.

Conclusion: Overall, our results suggest that the mechanism of EFV_b-HAART toxicity involves sterile immune response observed as increased protein contents, oxidative stress evidenced by depleted oxidative stress-antioxidant parameters, and possible free radical generation shown by increased malondialdehyde levels. Human-based studies are required for deeper understanding of these EFVb-HAART toxicities.