Protective Effect and Mechanisms of Eckol on Chronic Ulcerative Colitis Induced by Dextran Sulfate Sodium in Mice.

The use of functional foods and their bioactive components is receiving increasing attention as a complementary and alternative therapy for chronic ulcerative colitis (UC). This study explored the protective effect and mechanisms of Eckol, a seaweed-derived bioactive phlorotannin, on the dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced chronic UC in mice. Eckol (0.

In vitro evaluation for estrogenic mechanisms of the disinfectant benzalkonium chloride as an emerging contaminant.

This study aimed to evaluate in vitro the possible mechanisms underlying the estrogenic potential of benzalkonium chloride (BAC) as a disinfectant emerging contaminant. Effects of BAC at the environmentally-relevant concentrations on estrogen synthesis and estrogen receptor (ER) signaling were assessed using the H295R steroidogenesis assay and the MCF-7 proliferation assay, respectively. Results showed that exposure to BAC at concentrations of 1.

Pharmacy from the perspectives of other health professions: An intervention to foster professional identity among freshmen pharmacy students.

Background: Professional identity is crucial for the development of pharmacy students' professional confidence, learning motivation and future career choices. However, how to develop students' professional identity in pharmacy education is an underdeveloped field of research. The critical component of professional identity has been considered formed as a result of stepwise socialization.

Knowledge, attitudes and practice regarding environmental friendly disinfectants for household use among residents of China in the post-pandemic period.

Background: A sharp rise in household consumption of disinfectants triggered by COVID-19 pandemic has generated tremendous environmental burden and risks of disinfectant emissions in the post-pandemic period. To address this emerging challenge, replacing highly hazardous disinfectants with more environmental friendly alternatives has been accepted as an inherently effective solution to environment issues posed by disinfectant emerging contaminants. However, no study has yet been done to explore the potential customers' attitudes and the market prospect of environmental friendly disinfectants until now.

Comparison of attitudes toward the medical student-led community health education service to support chronic disease self-management among students, faculty and patients.

Background: Shortage of health professionals is one of the most important barriers for community health centers to provide quality primary care for chronic disease patients especially after the outbreak of COVID-19. Under such condition, medical students have been well-accepted as a force multiplier for community-based health service. Community service learning (CSL) based on medical student-led community health education service to support chronic disease self-management might be a valuable interactive learning tool in medical education.

Attitudes and opinions about ecopharmacovigilance from multi-disciplinary perspectives: a cross-sectional survey among academic researchers in China.

As a promising upstream strategy to reduce the environmental loads of pharmaceutical emerging contaminants (PECs) through source control, ecopharmacovigilance (EPV) is concerned with the set of activities to identify, evaluate, understand, and prevent against diverse PEC-related problems, and has been accepted as a multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder system. This cross-sectional observational survey aimed to assess the attitudes and opinions about EPV from multi-disciplinary perspectives among Chinese academic professors from four main EPV-related disciplines including pharmacy, management, clinical medicine, and environmental and ecological science based on a self-developed questionnaire. Forty-two usable survey instruments were acquired.

Tumour-Derived Reg3A Educates Dendritic Cells to Promote Pancreatic Cancer Progression.

As a pancreatic inflammatory marker, regenerating islet-derived protein 3A (Reg3A) plays a key role in inflammation-associated pancreatic carcinogenesis by promoting cell proliferation, inhibiting apoptosis, and regulating cancer cell migration and invasion. This study aimed to reveal a novel immuno-regulatory mechanism by which Reg3A modulates tumour-promoting responses during pancreatic cancer (PC) progression. In an Transwell system that allowed the direct co-culture of human peripheral blood-derived dendritic cells (DCs) and Reg3A-overexpressing/ silenced human PC cells, PC cell-derived Reg3A was found to downregulate CD80, CD83 and CD86 expression on educated DCs, increase DC endocytic function, inhibit DC-induced T lymphocyte proliferation, reduce IL-12p70 production, and enhance IL-23 production by DCs.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on household disinfectant consumption behaviors and related environmental concerns: A questionnaire-based survey in China.

Considering the potential hazardous effects of disinfectant residues on environment, organisms and biodiversity, the sharp rise in use of disinfectants during COVID-19 pandemic has been considered highly likely to cause worldwide secondary disasters in ecosystems and human health. This questionnaire-based survey investigated the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on household disinfectant product consumption levels and behavior of 3667 Chinese residents. In particular, in the context that no strategy is currently available to minimize the disinfectant pollution, based on the similarities between disinfectants and pharmaceuticals, we proposed a perspective of ecopharmacovigilance (EPV), which is an effective measure to minimize the environmental risks posed by pharmaceuticals using drug administration protocols, for disinfectant environmental risk management.

The anti-apoptotic, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of curcumin on acrylamide-induced neurotoxicity in rats.

Background: Acrylamide (ACR) formed during heating of tobacco and carbohydrate-rich food as well as widely applied in industries has been known as a well-established neurotoxic pollutant. Although the precise mechanism is unclear, enhanced apoptosis, oxidative stress and inflammation have been demonstrated to contribute to the ACR-induced neurotoxicity. In this study, we assessed the possible anti-apoptotic, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of curcumin, the most active component in a popular spice known as turmeric, on the neurotoxicity caused by ACR in rats.

Use of profession-role exchange in an interprofessional student team-based community health service-learning experience.

Background: During interprofessional clinical practice, compared to understanding of one's own professional role and function, it might be more difficult to clarify the roles and contributions of the other health-care team members because of the inter-professional barrier. In order to provide students the opportunity for real experience with other professions in team environments and enhance their perceptions of other professions' roles, this study developed a comprehensive and multi-dimension extracurricular interprofessional education (IPE) model through designing and integrating a profession-role exchange component, that was medical students as pharmacists or nurses, pharmacy students as physicians or nurses, and nursing students as physicians or pharmacists in the interprofessional health-care student team, into the service learning experience in a real community setting.

Methods: In this pre/post-intervention study, the effect of integrated profession-role exchange experiences on the students' attitudes towards interprofessional collaboration and their role clarification was evaluated among 60 student volunteers (20 medical students, 20 pharmacy students and 20 nursing students).

Occurrence of caffeine in the freshwater environment: Implications for ecopharmacovigilance.

Owing to the substantial consumption of caffeinated food, beverages, and medicines worldwide, caffeine is considered the most representative pharmaceutically active compound (PhAC) pollutant based on its high abundance in the environment and its suitability as an indicator of the anthropogenic inputs of PhACs in water bodies. This review presents a worldwide analysis of 132 reports of caffeine residues in freshwater environments. The results indicated that more than 70% of the studies reported were from Asia and Europe, which have densely populated and industrially developed areas.

Risks of caffeine residues in the environment: Necessity for a targeted ecopharmacovigilance program.

Due to the huge consumption of caffeinated food, beverages and medicines around the world, caffeine has been considered as a most representative pharmaceutically active compound (PhAC) pollutant based on its high abundance in environment and its indicator property for anthropogenic inputs of PhACs to water bodies. This review analyzed the existing literature about the bioaccumulation and environmental risks of caffeine residues in non-target organisms. There are 6 studies which were published in the last 5 years have reported the distribution of caffeine in tissues of aquatic organisms including fishes, clams, macroalgae and other aquatic plants, suggesting bioaccumulation of caffeine in organisms.

Using a targeted ecopharmacovigilance intervention to control antibiotic pollution in a rural aquatic environment.

The "targeted ecopharmacovigilance (EPV)" strategy emphasizes the control of environmental pollution by high-priority hazardous pharmaceuticals from principal pollution sources especially in areas that are high risk as a result of drug administration. We conducted a prospective empirical study to explore the possibility of using a targeted EPV intervention as an optimized management tool for the control of aquatic pollution by antibiotics, a common type of pharmaceutical residue, in a rural area in China. Because of the notably high levels of ofloxacin in the studied aquatic environment and the well-accepted environmental risks posed by fluoroquinolone residues, ofloxacin was selected as the targeted high-priority antibiotic pollutant.

An in vivo anti-tumor effect of eckol from marine brown algae by improving the immune response.

The anti-cancer activities of brown algae and some active extracts or components from brown algae have been demonstrated. But the anti-tumor activities of eckol, a new natural phlorotannin derived from marine brown algae, are poorly understood. In order to investigate the in vivo anti-tumor effect and its potential mechanisms of eckol in a sarcoma 180 (S180) xenograft-bearing animal model, S180 xenograft-bearing mice were randomly divided into 4 groups: model control, and eckol low-dose (0.

Attitudes and Practice Regarding Disposal for Unwanted Medications among Young Adults and Elderly People in China from an Ecopharmacovigilance Perspective.

Due to the expensive cost and uncertain effectiveness of environmental management options in eliminating pharmaceutical residues, recently, decreasing the emission of pharmaceutical pollutants from a drug administration perspective has been considered a hot area of research. As a kind of drug administration for the environment, ecopharmacovigilance (EPV) emphasizes the source control of pharmaceutical pollutants. Disposal of unwanted medicines has been considered as the easiest target for source control of pharmaceutical contamination.

Knowledge, perceptions, and practice of ecopharmacovigilance among pharmacy professionals in China.

Ecopharmacovigilance (EPV) is now a well-accepted critical component for the control of potential environmental risk posed by pharmaceutical residues. And improving the knowledge and perceptions about EPV, especially among pharmacy professionals, is the first step towards addressing the environmental impact of pharmaceuticals. This cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the knowledge, perceptions, and practice on EPV using a validated self-administered questionnaire delivered to a sample of 120 pharmacy professionals in Hubei Province, China.

Neuroprotective effects of scutellarin on rat neuronal damage induced by cerebral ischemia/reperfusion.

Aim: To investigate the neuroprotective effect and mechanisms of scutellarin, a flavonoid extracted from Erigeron breviscapus Hand Mazz, against neuronal damage following cerebral ischemia/reperfusion.

Methods: Rats were pretreated ig with scutellarin for 7 d and then subjected to cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury induced by a middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). The infarct volume and neurological deficit were determined by TTC staining and Longa's score.