METHODS: A systematic search using predetermined keywords on electronic databases (MEDLINE, Cochrane Library Central, LILACS, and Web of Science) and grey literature was conducted. Relevant clinical and preclinical studies were identified, screened, and analysed to present an overall safety profile of C. papaya leaf consumption.
RESULTS: A total of 41 articles were included (23 clinical, 5 ongoing trials, and 13 preclinical) for descriptive analysis on study characteristics, adverse reactions, toxicity findings, and herb-drug interactions, from which 13 randomised controlled and quasiexperimental trials were further assessed for risk of bias and reporting quality. Overall, C. papaya leaf consumption (in the form of juice and standardised aqueous extract) was well tolerated by adult humans for short durations (
Methods: A qualitative study was conducted among 33 women attending Maternal and Child Health (MCH) clinics in Kuala Lumpur. Data were obtained through a face-to-face semi-structured interview and analysed using framework analysis.
Results: The women considered PND as a personal and temporary issue. Therefore, professional care was deemed unnecessary for them. Additionally, all Malay women considered religious approach as their primary coping strategy for PND. However, this was not the case for most Indian and Chinese women.
Conclusion: The findings of this study indicated that women did not acknowledge the roles of Healthcare Practitioners (HCPs) in alleviating their emotional distress.Also, they perceived PND as a personal problem and less serious emotional condition. It is due to this perception that the women adopted self-help care as their primary coping strategy for PND. However, the coping strategy varied between different cultures. These findings underscore the importance of HCPs' proactive action to detect and alleviate PND symptoms as their attitude towards PND may influence Women's help-seeking behaviour.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this proof-of-concept study was to evaluate whether combining population pharmacokinetic and machine learning approaches could provide a more accurate prediction of the clearance of renally eliminated drugs in individual neonates.
METHODS: Six drugs that are primarily eliminated by the kidneys were selected (vancomycin, latamoxef, cefepime, azlocillin, ceftazidime, and amoxicillin) as 'proof of concept' compounds. Individual estimates of clearance obtained from population pharmacokinetic models were used as reference clearances, and diverse machine learning methods and nested cross-validation were adopted and evaluated against these reference clearances. The predictive performance of these combined methods was compared with the performance of two other predictive methods: a covariate-based maturation model and a postmenstrual age and body weight scaling model. Relative error was used to evaluate the different methods.
RESULTS: The extra tree regressor was selected as the best-fit machine learning method. Using the combined method, more than 95% of predictions for all six drugs had a relative error of < 50% and the mean relative error was reduced by an average of 44.3% and 71.3% compared with the other two predictive methods.
CONCLUSION: A combined population pharmacokinetic and machine learning approach provided improved predictions of individual clearances of renally cleared drugs in neonates. For a new patient treated in clinical practice, individual clearance can be predicted a priori using our model code combined with demographic data.
INTRODUCTION: Cyclooligopeptides and depsipeptides, particularly cyanobacteria-derived thiazoline-based polypeptides (CTBCs), exhibit a wide array of pharmacological activities due to their unique structural features and interesting bioactions, which furnish them as promising leads for drug discovery.
METHODS: In the present study, we comprehensively review the natural sources, distinguishing chemistries, and pertinent bioprofiles of CTBCs. We analyze their structural peculiarities counting the mode of actions for biological portrayals which render CTBCs as indispensable sources for emergence of prospective peptide-based therapeutics. In this milieu, metal organic frameworks and their biomedical applications are also briefly discussed. To boot, the challenges, approaches, and clinical status of peptide-based therapeutics are conferred.
RESULTS: Based on these analyses, CTBCs can be appraised as ideal drug targets that have always remained a challenge for traditional small molecules, like those involved in protein- protein interactions or to be developed as potential cancer-targeting nanomaterials. Cyclization-induced reduced conformational freedom of these cyclooligopeptides contribute to improved metabolic stability and binding affinity to their molecular targets. Clinical success of several cyclic peptides provokes the large library-screening and synthesis of natural product-like cyclic peptides to address the unmet medical needs.
CONCLUSION: CTBCs can be considered as the most promising lead compounds for drug discovery. Adopting the amalgamation of advanced biological and biopharmaceutical strategies might endure these cyclopeptides to be prospective biomolecules for futuristic therapeutic applications in the coming times.
METHODS: This animal protocol has been approved by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Animal Ethical Committee. The TEHB scaffold prepared from hydroxyapatite using gel casting method. A total of six adolescent female sheep were chosen for this study. Later, all the sheep were euthanized in a proper manner and the bone harvested for biomechanical study. Bone marrow was collected from iliac crest of the sheep and bone marrow stem cells (BMSCs) isolated and cultured. BMSCs then cultured in osteogenic medium for osteoprogenitor cells development and the plasma collected was seeded with osteoprogenitor cells mixed with calcium chloride. Bone defect of 3 cm length of tibia bone created from each sheep leg and implanted with autologous and TEHB scaffold in 2 different groups of sheep. Wound site was monitored weekly until the wound completely healed and conventional X-ray performed at week 1 and 24. Shear test was conducted to determine the shear force on the autologous bone and TEHB scaffold after implantation for 24 weeks.
RESULTS: All of the sheep survived without any complications during the study period and radiograph showed new bone formation. Later, the bone harvested was for biomechanical study. The highest shear force for the autologous group was 13 MPa and the lowest was 5 MPa while for the scaffold group, the highest was 10 MPa and the lowest was 3 MPa. Although, proximal and distal interface of autologous bone graft shows higher shear strength compared to the TEHB scaffold but there is no significant difference in both groups, p value > 0.05. Histologically in both proximal and distal interface in both arms shows bone healing and woven bone formation.
CONCLUSION: TEHB scaffold impregnated with osteoprogenitor cells has the potential to be developed as a bone substitute in view of its strength and capability to promote bone regeneration.