Pharmacy students' perspective on remote flipped classrooms in Malaysia: a qualitative study.

Purpose: This study aimed to explore pharmacy students' perceptions of remote flipped classrooms in Malaysia, focusing on their learning experiences and identifying areas for potential improvement to inform future educational strategies.

Methods: A qualitative approach was employed, utilizing inductive thematic analysis. Twenty Bachelor of Pharmacy students (18 women, 2 men; age range, 19-24 years) from Monash University participated in 8 focus group discussions over 2 rounds during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic (2020-2021).

Barriers to Healthcare Access for Indigenous Communities: Insights from Healthcare Professionals.

Background: The indigenous people or 'Orang Asli' (OA) in Malaysia is a vulnerable group who lags behind in terms of socioeconomic, education and health. Despite numerous developments, health disparities still exist among the OA, resulting in varying health outcomes. This study aimed to identify barriers to providing healthcare to OA by healthcare professionals (HCPs) in Malaysia.

Work readiness of pharmacy graduates: An exploratory study.

Introduction: The recent global pandemic of Covid-19 caused various disruptions. Among them were face-to-face teaching and learning activities being switched to virtual sessions in accordance with health authorities recommendations. The impact of these changes on work readiness of pharmacy graduates is unknown.

Remote extemporaneous compounding lab practical for pharmacy students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background And Purpose: Due to COVID-19 movement restrictions, institutes of higher learning had to deliver pharmacy curricula remotely. One major challenge was teaching practical lab skills, such as extemporaneous compounding, remotely due to the need for hands-on learning and its associated logistical requirements.

Educational Activity And Setting: We present the approach to remote extemporaneous compounding teaching taken by three pharmacy schools: Monash University Malaysia, University of Michigan, and University of Maryland.

Cultural adaptation and validation of instruments for measuring the flipped classroom experience.

Introduction: In 2017, a revamped bachelor of pharmacy program was introduced at Monash University and incorporated a predominantly flipped classroom-based pedagogy. The attitudes and preferences of students towards this program had yet to be assessed using a reliable instrument. Since no instrument was readily available, the objective of this study was to identify, contextualize, and validate a suitable instrument.

Versatile Tool for the Analysis of Metal-Protein Interactions Reveals the Promiscuity of Metallodrug-Protein Interactions.

Metallodrug-protein interactions contribute to their therapeutic effect (even when DNA is the dominant target), side-effects and are implicit in drug resistance. Here, we provide mass spectrometric-based evidence to show that metallodrug interactions with proteins are considerably more complex than current literature would suggest. Using native-like incubation and electrospray conditions together with an automated tool we designed for exhaustive mass spectra matching, the promiscuity of binding of cisplatin to ubiquitin is revealed, with 14 different binding sites observed.

Differences in cisplatin distribution in sensitive and resistant ovarian cancer cells: a TEM/NanoSIMS study.

Cisplatin is a widely used anti-cancer drug, but its effect is often limited by acquired resistance to the compound during treatment. Here, we use a combination of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and nanoscale-secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS) to reveal differences between cisplatin uptake in human ovarian cancers cells, which are known to be susceptible to acquired resistance to cisplatin. Both cisplatin sensitive and resistant cell lines were studied, revealing markedly less cisplatin in the resistant cell line.

The Differential Distribution of RAPTA-T in Non-Invasive and Invasive Breast Cancer Cells Correlates with Its Anti-Invasive and Anti-Metastatic Effects.

Nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS) combined with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) can be a powerful approach to visualize the exact distribution of drugs at the sub-cellular level. In this work, we exploit this approach to identify the distribution and localisation of the organometallic ruthenium(II)-arene drug Ru(η⁶-C₆H₅Me)(pta)Cl₂, termed RAPTA-T, in MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. These cell lines have been chosen because the former cell lines are highly invasive and resistant to most chemotherapeutic agents and the latter ones are very sensitive to hormonal-based therapies.

Biochemical and biophysical characterization of ruthenation of BRCA1 RING protein by RAPTA complexes and its E3 ubiquitin ligase activity.

RAPTA compounds, ([Ru(η-arene)(PTA)Cl], PTA = 1,3,5-triaza-7-phosphaadamantane), have been reported to overcome drug resistance in cisplatin resistant cells. However, the exact mechanism of these complexes is still largely unexplored. In this study, the interaction of some RAPTA compounds with the N-terminal fragment of the BRCA1 RING domain protein was investigated.

Expression proteomics study to determine metallodrug targets and optimal drug combinations.

The emerging technique termed functional identification of target by expression proteomics (FITExP) has been shown to identify the key protein targets of anti-cancer drugs. Here, we use this approach to elucidate the proteins involved in the mechanism of action of two ruthenium(II)-based anti-cancer compounds, RAPTA-T and RAPTA-EA in breast cancer cells, revealing significant differences in the proteins upregulated. RAPTA-T causes upregulation of multiple proteins suggesting a broad mechanism of action involving suppression of both metastasis and tumorigenicity.

Application of imaging mass spectrometry approaches to facilitate metal-based anticancer drug research.

Mass spectrometry imaging is being increasingly used in metal-based anticancer drug development to study elemental and/or molecular drug distributions in different biological systems. The main analytical tools employed are SIMS (especially nanoSIMS), LA-ICP-MSI and MALDI-MSI as well as a combination of complementary imaging techniques. Main challenges are appropriate sample preparation methods, reliable and validated quantification strategies and a trade-off between sensitivity and spatial resolution.

Correction: NanoSIMS analysis of an isotopically labelled organometallic ruthenium(II) drug to probe its distribution and state in vitro.

Correction for 'NanoSIMS analysis of an isotopically labelled organometallic ruthenium(II) drug to probe its distribution and state in vitro' by Ronald F. S. Lee et al.

NanoSIMS analysis of an isotopically labelled organometallic ruthenium(II) drug to probe its distribution and state in vitro.

The in vitro inter- and intra-cellular distribution of an isotopically labelled ruthenium(II)-arene (RAPTA) anti-metastatic compound in human ovarian cancer cells was imaged using nano-scale secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS). Ultra-high resolution isotopic images of (13)C, (15)N, and Ru indicate that the phosphine ligand remains coordinated to the ruthenium(II) ion whereas the arene detaches. The complex localizes mainly on the membrane or at the interface between cells which correlates with its anti-metastatic effects.

Lyophilization of cholesterol-free PEGylated liposomes and its impact on drug loading by passive equilibration.

The obstacles in translating liposome formulations into marketable products could be attributed to their physical instabilities upon long-term storage as aqueous dispersions. Lyophilization is the most commonly used technique to improve physical stability of liposomes. The development of stable, lyophilized liposomes is focused primarily on the cholesterol-containing liposomes or pure phosphatidylcholine-based liposomes, with minimal studies on cholesterol-free, pegylated (CF-PEG) liposomes which have emerged as an important class of liposome drug carriers.