ABSTRACT
Background: DPCO (Drugs Prices Control Order) price list is issued by NPPA (National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority) each year to guide the pharmaceuticals companies for controlling the prices in India. Some drugs cost more than the DPCO list. As antihypertensive drugs are taken lifelong once diagnosis is made, price variation and costing above prescribed price cause a huge economic burden on such patients. This study was undertaken to know the number of antihypertensive drugs brands with price above the recommended DPCO price list 2017.Methods: Authors have collected the data from website medguideindia.com, CIMS (current index of medical specialties), Drug Today, and compared the listed antihypertensive drugs of various available brands in India with DPCO price list 2017. Data was entered in Microsoft excel 2010. Percentage of selling price above the DPCO price list was calculated for each drug.Results: The data of 30 formulations of 16 antihypertensive drugs was analysed. The total number of available brands of all formulations was 1365 out of which only 831 (60.88%) brands were found to have price <DPCO recommended list. 534 (39.12%) brands had price more than the recommended limit. The minimum violation of price limit was found in case of metoprolol 25mg (6.66%) and maximum price violation was observed with spironolactone 25mg and sodium nitroprusside inj 10mg/ml.Conclusions: Reassessment and monitoring for implementation of DPCO price list should be done as still large number of brands are not following the regulations and are violating the limit set by NPPA/DPCO.
ABSTRACT
Aim To determine the role of Wnt/β-catenin/TCF7L2 pathway in diabetic cardiomyopathy.Methods A model of type 1 diabetes mellitus was established by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin(STZ)into 7 or 8-week old C57BL/6 mice.After four weeks, the diabetic animals were divided into three groups with seven to eight in each:diabetes mellitus(DM), diabetes injected with β-catenin inhibitor iCRT14(2.5, 5 mg·kg-1).After continuous intrap-eritoneal administration for 8 weeks, heart samples were stained with HE and examined under light microscopy.Expressions and distributions of β-catenin and TCF7L2 in myocardium were detected by immunohistochemistry.Protein levels of β-catenin, Tcf7l2 were detected by Western blot.mRNA levels of β-catenin, Tcf7l2, Nppa and c-Myc were detected by qPCR.Results The myocardial cells in DM were relatively disordered and the size of the nucleus was irregular.Western blot and immunohistochemistry data showed that the expressions of β-catenin and TCF7L2 in heart with DM increased, while those in nucleus of the cardiomyocytes significantly increased.qPCR showed that the mRNA expression of β-catenin downstream target c-Myc and cardiac hypertrophy marker Nppa were up-regulated.After injection of eight weeks with different iCRT14 doses, the cardiomyocytes were relatively regular; the protein levels of β-catenin and TCF7L2 decreased, and their expressions in nucleus decreased as well; the mRNA levels of Nppa and c-Myc markedly decreased.Conclusions Activation of canonical Wnt/β-catenin/TCF7L2 signaling pathway plays a pivotal role in diabetic cardiomyopathy; iCRT14 significantly improves the phenotype of cardiomyopathy in type 1 diabetic mice.