Green Tea Catechins as Perpetrators of Drug Pharmacokinetic Interactions.

Green tea (Camellia sinensis) is a commonly consumed beverage or dietary supplement. As a natural product with a myriad of proposed health benefits, patients are likely to consume green tea while taking their medications unaware of its potential to interact with drugs and influence drug efficacy and safety. Catechins are the abundant polyphenolic compounds in green tea (e.

DREAM: an adaptive, randomised, placebo-controlled trial of duloxetine for reducing leg pain in people with chronic sciatica-trial protocol.

Introduction: Sciatica is a debilitating condition that often becomes chronic, and for which there are few effective treatment options. Treatments such as the anti-depressant duloxetine have shown promise, but the evidence is inconclusive. We are describing a high quality, definitive trial to investigate the efficacy, safety and cost-effectiveness of duloxetine in chronic sciatica.

Computational study of the impact of nasal vestibule anatomy on nasal drug administration with nasal spray.

The nasal airway comprises a complex network of passages and chambers and plays an important role in regulating the respiratory system's functions. The nasal vestibule is the first chamber of the nasal airway. While variations in nasal vestibule geometries are known to exist between humans, details of their implications on how they may affect the efficacy of nasal drug delivery devices are less clear.

A high seizure burden increases brain concentrations of specialized pro-resolving mediators in the Scn1a mouse model of Dravet syndrome.

Objective: Dravet syndrome is a severe, intractable epilepsy in which 80 % of patients have a de novo mutation in the gene SCN1A. We recently reported that a high seizure burden increased hippocampal concentrations of an array of pro-inflammatory prostaglandins in the Scn1a mouse model of Dravet syndrome. This raised the possibility that a high seizure burden might also trigger the accumulation of specialized pro-resolving mediators that facilitate the resolution of neuroinflammation and brain repair.

Trends in e-cigarette exposures reported to an Australian poisons information centre between 2017 and 2023 with a reflection on legislative changes in 2021.

Background: Australians' use of e-cigarettes has increased dramatically in the last few years, following trends worldwide. The Australian Federal government introduced legislation on October 1st, 2021, which reclassified nicotine e-cigarettes as prescription only medicine in an attempt to curb their rapid uptake, especially amongst adolescents.

Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of e-cigarette exposure cases reported to the Victorian Poisons Information Centre between January 1st, 2017, and September 30th, 2023.

Relative Forgiveness of Different Allopurinol Implementation Patterns in People with Gout and their Impact on Clinical Outcomes: a Simulation Study.

Background And Objective: Adherence to urate-lowering therapy among people with gout is poor, so it is important to understand which day-to-day medication-taking ('implementation') patterns are most likely to lead to suboptimal serum urate concentrations and worsen clinical outcomes. This study aimed to (1) determine the relative forgiveness (RF) of allopurinol with hypothetical and real-life implementation patterns in people with gout, (2) explore the use of RF as a means of identifying suboptimal implementation patterns, (3) assess the impact of suboptimal implementation patterns on clinical outcomes.

Methods: A simulation study was conducted using a pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic model for allopurinol and serum urate to determine the RF of allopurinol implementation patterns.

The design and evaluation of a bone health teaching module for secondary school students in NSW, Australia.

Issue Addressed: The growing prevalence of osteoporosis requires preventative management starting from an early age as peak bone mass is typically reached by age 30. However, current Australian adolescents are not adequately addressing key osteoprotective factors. Alarmingly, around 17% have insufficient vitamin D levels, 55% consume insufficient dietary calcium, and 79% are insufficiently active.

Sweetening the deal: an infodemiological study of worldwide interest in semaglutide using Google Trends extended for health application programming interface.

Background: Off-label use of semaglutide for non-diabetic weight loss (which regulators have linked to social media promotion) created worldwide supply shortages. We evaluated worldwide semaglutide interest measured by online search behavior to gauge social media and conventional print media reporting's effect on search interest.

Methods: Using Google Trends Extended for Health (GTEH) multiple sampling, we retrieved regional online interest (ROI) for all countries and extracted timelines and top search queries for January 2021-August 2023 for countries with median ROI ≥ 20 using the "semaglutide" topic.

Disentangling faculty development: A scoping review towards a rich description of the concept and its practice.

Background: There is wide variation in how faculty development (FD) is practiced globally and described in the literature. This scoping review aims to clarify how FD is conceptualised and practiced in health professions education.

Methodology: Using a systematic search strategy, 418 papers, published between 2015-2023, were included for full text review.

Perspectives of aged care home staff and health care professionals on the Psychotropic medicines use in Residents And Culture: Influencing clinical Excellence (PRACTICE) tool ©.

Introduction: High use of psychotropic medications continues to be common in residential aged care homes despite the risk of harm and limited efficacy in people living with dementia. Research has shown that the organizational culture of aged care homes influences psychotropic medication use in residents with dementia. The Psychotropic medicines use in Residents And Culture: Influencing Clinical Excellence (PRACTICE) tool was developed to evaluate the organizational culture of aged care homes specific to the use of psychotropic medications.

Using X-ray velocimetry to measure lung function and assess the efficacy of a pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteriophage therapy for cystic fibrosis.

Phase contrast x-ray imaging (PCXI) provides high-contrast images of weakly-attenuating structures like the lungs. PCXI, when paired with 4D X-ray Velocimetry (XV), can measure regional lung function and non-invasively assess the efficacy of emerging therapeutics. Bacteriophage therapy is an emerging antimicrobial treatment option for lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis (CF), particularly with increasing rates of multi-drug-resistant infections.

Results of an Australian trial of an automated insulin delivery (AID) system and other studies support likely benefit of AID use for many Australian adults with type 1 diabetes.

Less than 20% of Australians with type 1 diabetes (T1D) meet recommended glucose targets. Technology use is associated with better glycaemia, with the most advanced being automated insulin delivery (AID) systems, which are now recommended as gold-standard T1D care. Our Australian AID trial shows a wide spectrum of adults with T1D can achieve recommended targets.

Consumer and multidisciplinary clinician experiences after implementation of the Drug Burden Index intervention bundle to facilitate deprescribing in older inpatients: A mixed method study.

Rationale: The Drug Burden Index (DBI) measures exposure to anticholinergic and sedative drugs, which are associated with harm in older adults. To facilitate deprescribing in older Australian inpatients, we piloted an intervention bundle integrating the DBI in Electronic Medical Records, clinician deprescribing guides, consumer information leaflets and a stewardship pharmacist.

Objectives: To understand (i) hospital clinician experiences of using the bundle and (ii) consumer (patient and carer) and General Practitioner (GP) experiences of in-hospital deprescribing, following bundle implementation.

4-(Pyrazolyl)benzenesulfonamide Ureas as Carbonic Anhydrases Inhibitors and Hypoxia-Mediated Chemo-Sensitizing Agents in Colorectal Cancer Cells.

Hypoxia in tumors contributes to chemotherapy resistance, worsened by acidosis driven by carbonic anhydrases (CA IX and XII). Targeting these enzymes can mitigate acidosis, thus enhancing tumor sensitivity to cytotoxic drugs. Herein, novel 4-(pyrazolyl)benzenesulfonamide ureas () were developed and evaluated for their inhibitory activity against CA IX and XII.

Cannabinoid-like compounds found in non-cannabis plants exhibit antiseizure activity in genetic mouse models of drug-resistant epilepsy.

Objective: The cannabinoid cannabidiol has established antiseizure effects in drug-resistant epilepsies such as Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. Amorfrutin 2, honokiol, and magnolol are structurally similar to cannabinoids (cannabis-like drugs) but derive from non-cannabis plants. We aimed to study the antiseizure potential of these compounds in various mouse seizure models.

Phage-derived polysaccharide depolymerase potentiates ceftazidime efficacy against Acinetobacter baumannii pneumonia via low-serum-dependent mechanisms.

The emergence of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (MDR-AB), which most commonly manifests as pneumonia, has posed significant clinical challenges and called for novel treatment strategies. Phage depolymerases, which degrade bacterial surface carbohydrates, have emerged as potential antimicrobial agents. However, their preclinical application is limited to systemic infections due to their dependency on serum-mediated bacterial killing.

The effect of prescription and over-the-counter medications on core temperature in adults during heat stress: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Heat stress impacts are an escalating global health concern. Public health bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) warn that certain medications impair thermoregulation, with limited supporting evidence. Our aim was to investigate whether medications listed by the WHO increase core temperature responses during heat stress.

Saliva-based point-of-care assay to measure the concentration of pyrazinamide using a mobile UV spectrophotometer.

Introduction: Pyrazinamide, one of the first-line antituberculosis drugs, displays variability in drug exposure that is associated with treatment response. A simple, low-cost assay may be helpful to optimize treatment. This study aimed to develop and validate a point-of-care assay to quantify the concentration of pyrazinamide in saliva.