4- Thursday Pharmacotherapy News – 14th October

1 – Potential of herbal products in prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Literature review

• The COVID-19 epidemic is the greatest pandemic that human kind experienced for decades, with high morbidity and mortality.
• Despite recent development of vaccines there is still many severe cases of COVID-19.
• Unfortunately there is still no standardized therapies and treatment of severe cases is very challenging.
• The aim of this study is to indicate if herbs administered alone or as a complementary therapy could be used as prophylaxis or treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
• Over 85% of patients with COVID-19 in China used Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and a most common herb is Glycyrrhiza glabra, which in vitro inhibits replication of different enveloped viruses, including coronaviruses.
• Glycyrrhizin in vitro connects and changes conformation of ACE2 receptors, which are vital for SARS-CoV-2 penetration into host cells.
• Pelargonium sidoides show immunomodulatory and antiviral properties in clinical and in vitro studies, and it inhibits replication of HCo-229E coronavirus.

Source: ScienceDirect

2 – Optimizing Anticoagulation for Patients Receiving Impella Support

• Anticoagulation of patients treated with the Impella percutaneous mechanical circulatory support (MCS) devices is complex and lacks consistency across centers, potentially increasing the risk of complications.
• In order to optimize safety and efficacy, an expert committee synthesized all available evidence evaluating anticoagulation for patients receiving Impella support in order to provide consensus recommendations for the management of anticoagulation with these devices.
• The evidence synthesis led to the creation of 42 recommendations to improve anticoagulation management related to the use of the Impella devices.

Source: ACCP

3 – Use of oral tetracyclines in the treatment of adult outpatients with skin and skin structure infections: Focus on doxycycline, minocycline, and omadacycline

• Oral tetracyclines have been used in clinical practice for over 60 years.
• One of the most common indications for use of oral tetracyclines is for treatment of adult outpatients with skin and soft infections (SSTIs), including acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSIs).
• The 2014 Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) skin and soft tissue guideline strongly recommends sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, clindamycin, and tetracyclines as oral treatment options for patients with purulent SSTIs, especially when methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is of clinical concern.
• This review summarizes the literature on the use of oral tetracyclines (ie, doxycycline, minocycline, and omadacycline) for the treatment of adult patients with SSTIs.

Source: ACCP

4- Mechanisms and interactions in concomitant use of herbs and warfarin therapy: An updated review

• This review is an updated and expanded version published in this journal in 2016.
• Warfarin pharmacotherapy is extremely complex, since in addition to being a low therapeutic index drug, it does not follow the dose-response pattern and has characteristics that predispose the occurrence of interactions, such as high binding rate to plasma proteins, metabolization by cytochrome P450 enzymes, further to acting in the complex process of blood coagulation, platelet activation, and inflammation.
• For these reasons, warfarin has great potential for interaction with drugs, foods, and herbal medicines.
• Herb-warfarin interactions, however, are still not very well studied; thus, the objective of this update is to present new information on the subject aiming to provide a scientific basis to help health professionals in the clinical management of these interactions.

Source: ScienceDirect

5 – Recent advances in management of COVID-19: A review

• The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused and is still causing significant mortality and economic consequences all over the globe.
• As of today, there are three U.S Food and Drug administration (FDA) approved vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Janssen COVID-19 vaccine.
• Also, the antiviral drug remdesivir and two combinations of monoclonal antibodies are authorized for Emergency use (EUA) in certain patients.
• Furthermore, baricitinib was approved in Japan (April 23, 2021).
• Despite available vaccines and EUA, pharmacological therapy for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 is still highly required.
• There are several ongoing clinical trials investigating the efficacy of clinically available drugs in treating COVID-19.
• In this study, selected novel pharmacological agents for the possible treatment of COVID-19 will be discussed.
• Point of discussion will cover mechanism of action, supporting evidence for safety and efficacy and reached stage in development.

Source: ScienceDirect

6 – An insight into the risk factors of brain tumors and their therapeutic interventions

• Brain tumors are an abnormal growth of cells in the brain, also known as multifactorial groups of neoplasm.
• Incidence rates of brain tumors increase rapidly, and it has become a leading cause of tumor related deaths globally.
• Several factors have potential risks for intracranial neoplasm.
• While the novel strategies may include targeted therapy, electric field treatments and vaccine therapy.
• Inhibition of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors is an attractive tumor mitigation strategy for advanced-stage cancers; in the future, it may prove to be a useful targeted therapy.
• Moreover, nanomedicine has gained a vital role in cancer therapy.
• Nano drug delivery system such as liposomal drug delivery has been widely used in the cancer treatment.

Source: Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy

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