A drug fatality involving Kratom.

A 17-year-old white man who showed no obvious signs of trauma was found unresponsive in bed and was pronounced dead at the scene. The decedent had a documented history of heroin abuse and chronic back pain and reportedly self-medicated with Kratom (mitragynine). The autopsy was remarkable only for pulmonary congestion and edema and a distended bladder, both of which are consistent with, though not diagnostic of, opiate use.

Postmortem atropine concentrations in resuscitation cases.

The medications used during resuscitation are often in and of themselves toxic. Several reports have been published regarding toxicities of these drugs, including lidocaine, procainamide, and atropine. But how does a forensic pathologist or toxicologist differentiate a possible intoxication from therapeutic or resuscitory use especially given that the concentrations of such drugs, when used in the setting of resuscitation, have not been studied? Concentrations of a well-known resuscitation medication, atropine, were assessed in cases where it was administered before death during attempted resuscitation in an effort to address this deficiency.

Reduction of drug toxicity using dendrimers based on melamine.

Dendrimers based on melamine can reduce the organ toxicity of solubilized cancer drugs administered by intraperitoneal injection. Methotrexate and 6-mercaptopurine, both FDA approved anticancer drugs, are known hepatotoxins. The solubility of these molecules can be increased by mixing them with a dendrimer based on melamine.

Cytotoxicity, hemolysis, and acute in vivo toxicity of dendrimers based on melamine, candidate vehicles for drug delivery.

A small library of dendrimers was prepared from a common precursor that is available in 5 g scale in five linear steps at 56% overall yield. The precursor is a generation three dendrimer that displays 48 peripheral sites by incorporating AB4 surface groups. Manipulation of these sites provided six dendrimers that vary in the chemistry of the surface group (amine, guanidine, carboxylate, sulfonate, phosphonate, and PEGylated) that were evaluated for hemolytic potential and cytotoxicity.

In vitro and in vivo evaluation of a melamine dendrimer as a vehicle for drug delivery.

Cell-based and acute and subchronic in vivo toxicity profiles of a dendrimer based on melamine reveal that this class of molecules warrants additional study as vehicles for drug delivery. In cell culture, a substantial decrease in viability was observed at 0.1 mg/mL.