A Follow up Study Among Patients on Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) in Terms of Relapse Rate, Factors Affecting Relapse Rate and HCV Incidence

Background: Many countries are facing a serious problem with opioid dependence. Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) is prescribed to dependent opioid users to diminish the use and effects of illicitly acquired opioids. The high relapse rate has been affecting the effectiveness of anti-drug work all over the world.Material & Methods:In this study, 200 patients were taken by simple random sampling technique. 100 patient on Buprenorphine substitution therapy and 100 on Methadone maintenance treatment were studied. Patients diagnosed as cases of Opioid dependence as per ICD-10 were selected within the first 3 months and followed up to 1 year at 3, 6 and 9 months. The study was conducted after approval from the institutional ethics and thesis committee. A 14-item questionnaire based on a four-point scale describing the number of times certain events had occurred in the previous week for relapse was used to find factors affecting relapse.Results:The relapse rate among patients in the BPN group at 3, 6 and 9 months relapse was 29.33%, 20.34% and 19.51% while in the Methadone group, it was 24.05%, 15.87% and 12% respectively. The overall HCV Incidence was 75% among patients on Opioid Substitution Therapy. Conclusion:The findings of the study highlight the role of multiple determinants in opioid dependence and relapse. The obtained results showed that HCV infection was an alarming problem among IV opiate drug users in Punjab.

Effects of Aconitum Injection on COMP ，p53 Protein and BMP- 2 in Knee Osteoarthritis Model Rabbits / 中国药房

OBJECTIVE：To investigate the effects of Aconitum injection on cartilage oligomeric matrix protein （COMP）， encoded protein by tumor suppressor gene p53（p53 protein）and bone morphogenetic protein 2（BMP-2）in knee osteoarthritis （KOA）model rabbit ，so as to explore the mechanism of the injection in the treatment of KOA. METHODS ：Totally 24 rabbits were randomly divided into blank group ，model group ，Sodium hyaluronate group and Aconitum injection group ，with 6 rabbits in each group. KOA model was established by injecting 2％ papain-0.03 mol/L L-cysteine solution into the articular cavity of rabbits in model group ，sodium hyaluronate group and Aconitum injection group at the 1st，4th and 7th day ，respectively，except the blank group. At the 1st，4th and 7th day after modeling succeeded ，0.1 mL/kg of normal saline ，Sodium hyaluronate injection and Aconitum injection were injected into the articular cavity of rabbits ，respectively. The cartilage tissue of knee joint was taken from above 4 groups，and the contents of COMP and p 53 protein were detected by ELISA. The cartilage morphology of rabbit knee joint was observed by naked eye. The cartilage of the knee joint was collected and stained by HE staining ，and then the histomorphology changes were observed by light microscope ；Mankin scoring was conducted. The two-step method of PV was used to make the immunohistochemical specimens of knee joint cartilage ，and the relative expression of BMP- 2 was detected. RESULTS ：Compared with blank group ，the edge of cartilage was damaged and the cartilage surface was damaged in the model group. The results of histomorphology observation showed that the joint tissue structure was obviously irregular ，the distribution of chondrocytes was disordered with morphological changes ，and the Mankin score was significantly increased （P＜0.05）；the contents of COMP and cancer cells by indirect inhibition of RAD 51-mediated re - . Suppression of ERCC 1 and RAD51 expression through ERK 1/2 inactivation is essen - tial in emodin-mediated cytotoxicity in human non-small 。E-mail： cell lung cancer cells. p53 protein in knee joint fluid were increased significantly ，while the relative expression of BMP- 2 in knee joint tissue decreased significantly （P＜0.05）. Compared with model group ，the appearance ，histomorphology changes of knee joint cartilage in administration groups were improved，Mankin scores were significantly decreased （P＜0.05）；the contents of COMP and p 53 protein in the knee joint fluid were decreased significantly ，and the relative expression of BMP- 2 in the knee joint tissue were increased significantly （P＜0.05），but there was no significant difference between Aconitum group and Sodium hyaluronate group （P＞0.05）. CONCLUSIONS ：Aconitum injection can improve synovitis inflammation ，delay articular cartilage degeneration ， promote cartilage repair and protect joints of KOA model rabbits. The mechanism may be related to inhibiting COMP secretion ， decreasing p 53 protein expression and promoting BMP- 2 release.

A new isolate of thermophilic and organic solvent tolerant bacteria for lipase production using basal medium of palm kernel cake 80-87

@#Aims: This research focused on the selection of potential strains especially bacteria that can grow effectively in palm kernel cake (PKC) and produce high amount of thermostable and solvent tolerant (TS-OST) lipase. The work involved the exploration of renewable PKC as potential fermentation medium for discovery to novel TS-OST lipase that would have excellent tolerance and activity in presence of organic solvents with high temperatures for industrial applications.Methodology and results: Using palm kernel cake (PKC) as source of thermophilic bacteria, 53 bacterial strains were found survived at temperature 65 °C. However, after subcultured several times, only 17 strains were found as pure thermophilic strains. Preliminary screening both qualitative and quantitative was performed to all 17 potential thermophilic bacterial strains and showed that only 11 purified thermophilic strains are lipase producer. Strain PKC-P1 produced highest enzyme activity (11.13 U/g), followed by PKC-P13 and PKC-C9. The lowest enzymeactivity was lipase produced byPKC-C10 (0.76U/g). Strain PKC-P1 has been classified as Gram negative bacteria and identified as Bacillus smithiistrain PKC_P1.Conclusion, significance and impact of study: PKC as a by-product of oil palm industry consistsof many nutrients that can give benefits towards industry and can be utilized in order to produce enzymes like lipases. From these results, it could be concluded that this lipase stable at temperature 65 °C and pH 7 and may be a potential candidate to be used in a variety of biotechnological applications. This finding revealed that a bacterial strain obtained from oil-rich environment which is PKC through isolation process has potential as a source of more economical enzyme to be applied in biotechnology industr

Oral Strip Technology: A review.

Over the recent past, many of the research groups are focusing their research on this technology. Amongst Oral drug delivery system Oral Strip Technology (OST) is gaining much attention. The advantages of OST are the administration to pediatric and geriatric patient population where the difficulty of swallowing larger oral dosage forms is eliminated. This technology has been used for local action, rapid release products and for buccoadhesive systems that are retained in the oral cavity to release drug in controlled fashion. OST offers an alternate platform for molecules that undergo first pass metabolism and for delivery of peptides. An ideal OST should have the following properties: high stability, transportability, ease of handling and administration, no special packaging material and/or processing requirements, no water necessary for application, and a pleasant taste. All these requirement are fulfilled by the oral films. The OST is a good tool for product life cycle management for increasing the patent life of existing molecules or products. Compared to some of the complicated and expensive process (like lyophilization) used to manufacture ODTs(Orally Disintegrating Tablets), the OST is relatively easy to fabricate,thus reducing the overall cost of the therapy. One of the reasons is that the buccal mucosa is less permeable and is thus not able to elicit a rapid onset of absorption and hence better suited for formulations that are intended for sustained release action. Further, the buccal mucosa being relatively immobile mucosa and readily accessible, it makes it more advantageous for retentive systems used for oral trans mucosal drug delivery. The primary disadvantage associated with buccal delivery route is the low flux that in turn results in low drug bioavailability. To overcome this hurdle, various buccal penetration enhancers have been studied which improve the absorption pattern of the molecules. The article shows OST encompassing materials used in OST, method of preparation, evaluation, applications, commercial technologies and future Business prospects of this technology.

Osteoporosis and its relation with hip fracture in the aged / 中华骨科杂志

Objective To observe the difference of bone mineral den sity(BMD )between the young and the aged people,old healthy people and old patients with hip fra cture;the incidence of hip frac-ture in the aged was also observed in order t o find out the relationship of hip fracture with osteoporosis in the aged.Met hods BMDof lumbar(L 2~4 ),femoral neck,Wards triangle and trochanteric area was measured in the healthy males(63case)and fe males(58cases)with in the age range of 20t o35years,and the BMD was evalu ated in the healthy male and female over60y ears with hip fractures.The445cases of hip fracture were reviewed from19 91to2000,of them218were males and226females with the average age o f 73.6years in males and71.9years in fe males.Results Allof quantitati ve data was analysed sta tistically.There was sig nificant difference in BMD between the young and the aged people(P