Objective: The objective of the present study was to formulate and evaluate polymeric nanoparticles of Felodipine by Nano precipitation technique using EudragitL100 and EudragitS100 as a polymers. The nanoparticles were characterized for particle size, poly-dispersity index, entrapment efficiency (EE), zeta potential, solubility, morphological study, invitro study, Ex vivo intestinal permeability studies and stability studies. Infrared studies showed that there was no drug excipients interaction. Negative values of zetapotential indicated the good stabilization of the prepared nanoparticles. Solubility measurement studies revealed that the solubility of nanoparticles was increased to ten times than the pure drug. The entrapment efficiency was found in between 29.72 ± 3.27% – 63.95 ± 3.50%. The in-vitro drug release was extended maximum up to 12 hrs with Eudragit L100. The curve fitting data shows that the drug release followed first order kinetics, Higuchi’s plots stated non-fickian diffusion controlled. The intestinal permeability of formulated nanoparticles were found to be more than pure drug. SEM shows that nanoparticles were found spherical in structure without aggregation and uniform distribution of the drug within the nanoparticles. Accelerated stability studies were also carried out following ICH Guidelines.

Chromium (VI) is a thoughtful and common environmental chemical. In nature, chromium can be found both as chromium (VI) or as chromium (III).Chromium (III) is less lethal and definitely adsorbed ins oils and waters, whereas chromium (VI), which is the most toxic form, is not eagerly adsorbed and maximum of its salts are soluble. Numerous bacteria have been noticeable that can change extremely water-soluble and toxic Cr(VI) to unsolvable and rather non-toxic Cr(III), bacterial bioremediation of Cr(VI) contamination is controlled by a number of difficulties, in precise chromium poisonousness to the remediating cells. Cr (VI) is a lethal, resolvable environmental contaminant. Bacteria can decrease chromate to the unsolvable and less poisonous Cr (III). The Hexavalent form of chromium is the most toxic and cancer-causing and produces health dangerous effect. Hexavalent chromium is of specific environmental worry due to its toxicity and flexibility and is thought-provoking to remove from industrial waste water. Reducing Cr (VI) to Cr (III) makes simpler its removal from effluent and also reduces its poisonousness and mobility. So, we can apply the modern biotechnology for the elimination of numerous toxic complexes.

Background: Sexual dysfunction as a result of the inability to achieve or maintain an erection is a common problem that increases with age. Vardenafil has shown results as an efficacious and safe therapeutic agent for treatment of erectile dysfunction. AIM: Development of a bio-analytical method for rapid quantification of vardenafil in biological fluids and its application in pharmacokinetics and bioavailability studies, clinical trials, and monitor its therapeutic levels to help attaining effective clinical results in treating erectile dysfunction. Methods: Vardenafil was extracted from plasma samples and chromatographed with eluting solvent consisting of 10mM Ammonium Acetate: Methanol (30:70) v/v at flow rate of 0.55ml/min, ESI positive mode, and m/z 489  151, 475  100 for vardenafil and sildenafil as internal standard respectively. As an application of the validated developed bioanalytical method, a comparative bioavailability study of vardenafil 20mg tablets generic product versus reference product was conducted in a randomized open label crossover design invovlving 24 volunteers. The criteria used to assess bioequivalence of the two products were Cmax, AUC 0-t, AUC 0-inf, and Tmax. Results: The average recovery of vardenafil from human plasma was 95.104 % with limit of quantitation of 0.05 ng/ml and the correlation coefficient (r2) obtained was 0.9998, moreover, statistical analysis (ANOVA) of the measured parameters showed that there was no significance between the two products. Conclusion: The developed bioanalytical LC/MS/MS method was valid for vardenafil quantification in human plasma and is suitable for application in pharmacokinetic studies and therapeutic monitoring of vardenafil in treating erectile dysfunction to ensure effective therapeutic drug levels and avoid potential undesired adverse events.

Natural Polysaccharides have been considered to be the most promising materials in recent years because of their numerous advantages including their accessibility, non-toxic, biocompatible, biodegradable, and ease of modification.Natural substanceswith pharmacotherapy potential are currently viewed as a promising future alternative to conventional therapy.With the rapid development of analytical techniquesandbiotechnologies,a large number of methods for identifying and quantifying polysaccharides without causing adverse effects have been created, resulting in the use of natural substances with established safety. Some bioactive polysaccharides obtained from natural sources have received a lot of attention in the field of biochemistry and pharmacology in recent years.Natural polysaccharides have been found in studies to boost innate immunity by activating upstream immune cells, hence regulating adaptive immunological pathways such as T cells and improving the efficacy of immunotherapy, implying that polysaccharides have a promising future in immunotherapy. As there is no targeted therapy available but these natural polysaccharides have been shown to possess complex, important and multifaceted biological activities including antitumor, anticoagulant, antioxidant, antiviral, immunomodulatory and antihyperlipidemic activities. Their properties are mainly due to their structural characteristics and are useful for combating various diseases as well improving immunity. Thus, polysaccharides can be used as an activating agent of immune system, minimising the damage caused by infectious agents such as SARS-CoV-2. Finally, these biopolymers can still be exploited to produce new treatments and vaccines.The present paper summarizes an overview of natural polysaccharides with immune boosting properties.

The study aimed at evaluating the alpha-glucosidase inhibitory potential of extracts of endophytic bacteria isolated from Ludwigia octovalvis (Jacq.) P. H. Raven (Onagraceae). Isolation of endophytic bacteria was done on supplemented and non-supplemented nutrient agar. The extracts of these endophytes were obtained after fermentation in Mueller-Hinton Broth (MHB). The inhibitory effect on the alpha-glucosidase enzyme of the extracts of endophytic bacteria was determined in the presence of starch and sucrose at 6 mg/mL at 37°C and by measuring the absorbance at 517 nm. Nineteen endophytic bacteria were isolated from the leaves, stems, roots, flowers, fruits and twigs of L. octovalvis. The extracts obtained from these endophytic bacteria all showed an alpha-glucosidase inhibitory effect. The S4155 extract showed less than 50% enzyme inhibitory activity with an IC50 of 163.98 μg/mL. Endophyte bacteria associated with L. octovalvis provided a source of bioactive compounds that can prevent or reduce the prevalence of diabetes.

Viruses are the group of infectious particles and some of them possess the more complex structures due to which their growth proliferated at the extreme level as compared to the bacterial infections. Pharmacokinetics of some drugs needed to further more in order to explore them in the medical events or sometimes drug research increase the chances of treatment of infectious disease during the course of replicating cycle. Among them, coronaviruses are appearing on different form of variants. These are Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and each type have different sequence of the amino acids. Due to colonization of the virus particles in the particular tissues, many of the immune cells show response against variety of viral proteins. Severity of viruses attack to the cardiovascular systems causing the borne of different cardiovascular diseases. Different traditional methods for molecular diagnosis of infectious particles but not reliable, but through molecular sequencing of certain mutation associated with lungs tissues may evoke the viral spikes proteins. Due to severe attack on the lung tissues, blood rushes and flow increases in the form of infectious particles. Vaccinations and antibodies are used for control their growth but some of the necessary measures in order to control the viral infections.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is an unprecedented situation. Mass vaccination is a considered a promising solution to combat this global health crisis. Different vaccine have used to control transmission of the disease. Some complications of this vaccine were reported including rare cases of vasculitis. We report a case of leucocytoclastic vasculitis following BNT162b2 corona virus vaccine. Case Presentation: A 42 year old man with no medical history or drug intake presented 3 days after the third dose of BNT162b2 vaccine an infiltrated purpura at the lower extremities, fever, asthenia and myalgia. At physical examination, multiple palpable indurated purpuric papules were present only on the lower extremities. Laboratory tests were normal. The skin biopsy revealed leucocytoclastic vasculitis. The direct immunofluorescence staining detected only fibrinogen deposition. Conclusion: Leucocytoclastic vasculitis is an exceptional vaccine side effect. The resemblance of the vaccine-induced spike proteins with human components is highly likely to produce pathological autoantibodies and vaccine-induced autoimmunity through molecular mimicry.

Background: Antibiotic stewardship aims to optimise restricted antibiotic use and thereby prevent the emergence of antibiotic resistance and improve treatment outcome. Resistance to conventional antimicrobial’s is a major reason why restricted antibiotics are prescribed. Aim: To assess the prescribing pattern of restricted antibiotics, the indications for which restricted antibiotics were prescribed, the drug related problems associated and the sensitivity pattern of the isolated organisms. Results: Out of 340 patients included in the study, majority of patients was in the age group of 58-67(60.06 ±14.90) in both genders. There was a male (64.12%) dominance observed in the study populace and the minimum and maximum age observed was 18 and 93 years respectively. Most commonly prescribed antibiotic was Piperacillin tazobactum (31%) followed by Linezolid (16.06%). Empirically the most prescribed antibiotic was Piperacillin tazobactum (27.37%) while in definitive therapy it was Cefepime tazobactum (10.63%). The most common indication for which restricted antibiotics prescribed were for respiratory tract infection (n=116), followed by infection prophylaxis (n=114). Mean days of restricted antibiotic therapy was found to be 8.85 days ± 8.11. The maximum duration of antibiotic treatment was 62 days and minimum was 1 day. In 47% of cases IV to oral conversion was possible. When analysed retrospectively, in majority of the patients the duration of restricted antibiotic treatment was inappropriate (69.71%) while the inappropriateness in frequency and dose were 7.05% and 3.23% respectively. The total number of cultures collected were 292 in that 120 cultures were urine and found growth in 50.83%, followed by 84 cultures in sputum which accounted for 67.85% growth. The most common organism isolated was Klebsiella pneumoniae 39.73% cases followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa 17.46% and Acinetobacter baumannii15.41. There was clinical cure in 91.47% of cases. Conclusion: When analysed retrospectively majority of the restricted antibiotics showed inappropriateness. This higher amount of inappropriateness could have been avoided to a certain extent, by the timely interventions of a clinical pharmacist. By implementing an effective antimicrobial stewardship program we could improve the rational use of restricted antibiotics and thereby prevent the future resistance and improve clinical outcome.

Antimicrobial resistance is a major public health problem all over the globe. A cross sectional study in different zones of Hyderabad city was conducted with the aim of evaluating community pharmacists’ knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) on antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. A self-administered questionnaire was developed as data collection tool. Responses were recorded and scored using 5-Point Likert Scale. Descriptive statistics, frequencies, percentages and statistical tests were used to analyse the data. Data was collected from 40 community pharmacists. Results showed that the community pharmacist had poor knowledge on antibiotics and poor antibiotic dispensing practice. About 31(78%) pharmacists never heard about the term antimicrobial resistance. Our study highlighted that there were only 15 pharmacists who considered antimicrobial resistance as a serious issue. Most of the pharmacists (n=20) agreed that antibiotics can be dispensed without prescription. Around 26 pharmacists dispense antibiotics to treat minor ailments without a prescription. The most common reason given by community pharmacists for dispensing antibiotics without prescription was, request for antibiotics by the patients. The study highlights that there is a need for the community pharmacists to update their knowledge and improve their awareness on antibiotic resistance. Short term, intensive training programs are needed to improve their knowledge and practice regarding antibiotic use and resistance.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively influenced gastrointestinal endoscopy practice worldwide. We aimed to evaluate its impact on the ERCP practice. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to analyze all ERCPs performed during 2020 in our unit by comparing the first trimester of the year or the pre-pandemic period with the rest of the year or the pandemic period. Results: We performed 149 ERCPs with 65 ERCPs (43.6%) during the pre-pandemic period and 84 ERCPs (56.4%) during the pandemic period. ERCPs volumes decreased by 57% during the pandemic period in comparison with the pre-pandemic period. The most ERCP indications were common bile duct stones and malignant biliary strictures with an increase in numbers of acute cholangitis during the pandemic period (p=0.035). There was no difference regarding cannulation methods and technical success between the two periods. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically affected the ERCP practice in our unit with a significant decrease in the ERCP volumes with an increase in the urgent ERCP indications.