Search

Anan S Jarab,1– 3 Razan Z Mansour,3 Suhaib Muflih,3 Walid Al-Qerem,4 Shrouq R Abu Heshmeh,3 Karem H Alzoubi,5,6 Yazid N Al Hamarneh,7 Salah Aburuz,8 Enaam M Al Momany9 1College of Pharmacy, Al Ain University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; 2AAU Health and Biomedical Research Center, Al Ain University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; 3Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, 22110, Jordan; 4Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Amman, 11733, Jordan; 5Department of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacotherapeutics, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; 6Faculty of Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan; 7Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada; 8Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates; 9Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, JordanCorrespondence: Karem H Alzoubi, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3030, Irbid, 22110, Jordan, Email khalzoubi@just.edu.jo; kelzoubi@sharjah.ac.aeBackground: The health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of patients with myocardial infarction (MI) is suboptimal because of the disease’s life-threatening nature, the requirement for long-term lifestyle modifications, and the treatment regimens following MI. This study aimed to evaluate HRQOL and its associated factors in MI patients.Material and Methods: This study was conducted on patients with MI who attended the outpatient cardiology clinic at a major teaching hospital in Jordan. The EQ-5D-3L questionnaire was used to assess HRQOL of the study participants. Quantile regression analysis was conducted to identify the variables associated with HRQOL.Results: The study included 333 patients with a history of MI, with a median age of 58 (57– 60). The median of the total EQ-5D score was 0.65 (0.216– 0.805). Regression results revealed that male patients (Coefficient= 0.110, 95%Cl (0.022– 0.197), P=0.014) and not being diagnosed with diabetes (Coefficient= 0.154, 95%Cl (0.042– 0.266), P=0.007) were associated with increased HRQOL. On the other hand, low income (Coefficient= − 0.115, 95%Cl (− 0.203 - − 0.026), P=0.011), not receiving DPP-4 (Dipeptidyl Peptidase − 4) inhibitors (Coefficient= − 0.321 95%Cl (− 0.462 - − 0.180), P< 0.001), and having low (Coefficient= − 0.271, 95%Cl (− 0.395 - − 0.147), P< 0.001) or moderate (Coefficient= − 0.123, 95%Cl (− 0.202 - − 0.044), P=0.002) medication adherence was associated with decreased HRQOL.Conclusion: The current study demonstrated diminished HRQOL among patients with MI, highlighting the necessity of tailoring interventions to tackle medication adherence barriers in this population. Personalized interventions such as educational programs, counseling, and reminders that consider each patient’s needs and circumstances can greatly enhance medication adherence and, thus, the HRQOL of MI patients. Individuals with lower income levels, female patients, and those with diabetes should be the specific targets of these interventions.Keywords: health-related quality of life, myocardial infarction, EQ-5D, factor, Jordan

Anan S Jarab,1– 3 Walid Al-Qerem,4 Karem H Alzoubi,5,6 Nadeen Almomani,1 Shrouq Riad Abu Heshmeh,1 Tareq L Mukattash,1 Yazid N Al Hamarneh,7 Enaam M Al Momany8 1Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan; 2College of Pharmacy, Al Ain University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; 3AAU Health and Biomedical Research Center, Al Ain University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; 4Department of Pharmacy, Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan; 5Department of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacotherapeutics, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; 6Faculty of Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan; 7Department of Pharmacology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada; 8Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, JordanCorrespondence: Enaam M Al Momany, Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan, Email enaam@hu.edu.joPurpose: To investigate knowledge, attitude, and practice of asthma management counseling and the perceived barriers by community pharmacists.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 416 community pharmacists using an online-based questionnaire. The questionnaire included five parts that assessed socio-demographics and medical references used to seek drug-related information, pharmacists’ knowledge (7 items), attitudes (5 items), practice (22 items) and the barriers for the provision of asthma management counseling (10 items). Binary logistic regression was conducted to find the variables that were significantly and independently associated with knowledge, attitude and asthma management counseling practice.Results: Increased years of experience was associated with decreased knowledge (OR = 0.918, 95% Cl (0.869:0.970), P = 0.002) and less positive attitude toward asthma management (OR = 0.876, 95% Cl. (0.821:0.935), P < 0.001), while working in independent community pharmacy (OR = 2.097, 95% Cl. (1.273:3.454), P = 0.004) and increased awareness of asthma management guidelines (OR = 1.60, 95% CI. (1.044:2.453), P = 0.031) increased the odds of being in the high knowledge group. In contrast, increasing the daily number of pharmacy visitors OR = 1.009, 95% Cl. (1.001:1.016), P = 0.024) and having a pharmacy degree (OR = 2.330, 95% Cl. (1.256:4.326), P = 0.007) increased the odds of having a positive attitude. Male pharmacists (OR = 0.553, 95% Cl. (0.350:0.873), P = 0.011) and having bachelor in pharmacy (OR = 0.354, 95% Cl. (0.179:0.700), P = 0.003) decreased the odds of being in the high practice group. On the other hand, increased awareness of asthma management guidelines tripled the odds of being in the high practice group (OR = 3.067, 95% Cl. (1.964:4.787), P < 0.001).Conclusion: The current study findings offer valuable insights into the gaps in knowledge, attitude, and practice of asthma management counseling among community pharmacists, as well as the barriers and factors that impede the provision of these services. These insights serve as a guide for developing future strategies aimed at enhancing the role of pharmacists in asthma care.Keywords: pharmacist, asthma, knowledge, attitude, counseling, practice

Background: Carbamazepine is one of the most widely used antiepileptic drugs. Carbamazepine has been shown to be toxic to cells. Cilostazol, an antiplatelet agent, has known antioxidant, antiproliferative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-tumor effects., Objective: This study aimed to explore whether carbamazepine and cilostazol exert genotoxic and/or cytotoxic effects in human cultured blood lymphocytes and the impact of combining both drugs on such effects., Methods: Genotoxicity was examined using sister chromatid exchange (SCE) assay, while cytotoxicity was evaluated by cell kinetic assays (mitotic and proliferative indices)., Results: Study findings have revealed that carbamazepine markedly increased SCEs (p<0.01), while cilostazol significantly decreased their frequencies (p<0.01). In addition, the frequency of SCEs of the combination of both drugs was similar to that of the control group (p>0.05). Carbamazepine increased the cell proliferative index (p<0.01) while cilostazol decreased it (p<0.01). The proliferative index was normalized to the control level when both drugs were combined., Conclusion: We suggest that cilostazol has the potential to protect human lymphocytes from carbamazepine-induced toxic effects., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Background: The misuse of antibiotics leads to a global increase in antibiotic resistance. Therefore, it is imperative to search for alternative compounds to conventional antibiotics. ZnO nanoparticles (Zn NP) are one of these alternatives because they are an effective option to overcome biofilm bacterial cells and a novel way to overcome multidrug resistance in bacteria. The current research study aims to characterize the efficacy of ZnO nanoparticles alone and in combination with other antibacterial drugs against bacterial biofilms., Methods: ZnO NPs were prepared by co-precipitation method, and their anti-biofilm and antibacterial activities alone or combined with four types of broad-spectrum antibacterial (Norfloxacin, Colistin, Doxycycline, and Ampicillin) were evaluated against E. coli and S. aureus bacterial strains. Finally, the cytotoxicity and the hemolytic activity were evaluated., Results: ZnO NPs were prepared, and results showed that their size was around 10 nm with a spherical shape and a zeta potential of -21.9. In addition, ZnO NPs were found to have a strong antibacterial effect against Gram-positive and Gram-negative microorganisms, with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 62.5 and 125 μg/mL, respectively. Additionally, they could eradicate biofilmforming microorganisms at a concentration of 125 μg/m. ZnO NPs were found to be non-toxic to erythrocyte cells. Still, some toxicity was observed for Vero cells at effective concentration ranges needed to inhibit bacterial growth and eradicate biofilm-forming organisms. When combined with different antibacterial, ZnO NP demonstrated synergistic and additive effects with colistin, and the MIC and MBEC of the combination decreased significantly to 0.976 μg/mL against planktonic and biofilm strains of MDR Gram-positive bacteria, resulting in significantly reduced toxicity., Conclusion: The findings of this study encourage the development of alternative therapies with high efficacy and low toxicity. ZnO nanoparticles have demonstrated promising results in overcoming multi-drug resistant bacteria and biofilms, and their combination with colistin has shown a significant reduction in toxicity. Further studies are needed to investigate the potential of ZnO nanoparticles as a viable alternative to conventional antibiotics., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Background: Cisplatin is an effective synthetic chemotherapeutic drug used for cancer treatment. Vitamin B12 has been shown to possess anti-genotoxic activity. This study aimed to investigate the effect of vitamin B12 on chromosomal damage induced by cisplatin., Methods: The level of sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs) and chromosomal aberrations (CAs) were measured in cultured human blood lymphocytes treated with cisplatin and/or vitamin B12., Results: The results showed a significantly elevated frequency of CAs and SCEs of cisplatin-treated cultures compared to the control (P < 0.05). The CAs and SCEs induced by cisplatin were significantly lowered by pretreatment of cell cultures with vitamin B12. In addition, cisplatin caused a slight reduction in the mitotic index (MI), while vitamin B12 did not modulate the effect of cisplatin on MI., Conclusion: Vitamin B12 can protect human lymphocytes against genotoxicity associated with cisplatin., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Background: Antibiotic resistance is one of the main concerns of public health, and the whole world is trying to overcome such a challenge by finding novel therapeutic modalities and approaches. This study has applied the sequence hybridization approach to the original sequence of two cathelicidin natural parent peptides (BMAP-28 and LL-37) to design a novel HLM peptide with broad antimicrobial activity., Methods: The physicochemical characteristics of the newly designed peptide were determined. As well, the new peptide's antimicrobial activity (Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC), Minimum Bacterial Eradication Concentration (MBEC), and antibiofilm activity) was tested on two control ( Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922) and two resistant (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) ATCC BAA41, New Delhi metallo-beta- lactamase-1 Escherichia coli ATCC BAA-2452) bacterial strains. Furthermore, synergistic studies have been applied to HLM-hybridized peptides with five conventional antibiotics by checkerboard assays. Also, the toxicity of HLM-hybridized peptide was studied on Vero cell lines to obtain the IC 50 value. Besides the percentage of hemolysis action, the peptide was tested in freshly heparinized blood., Results: The MIC values for the HLM peptide were obtained as 20, 10, 20, and 20 μM, respectively. Also, the results showed no hemolysis action, with low to slightly moderate toxicity action against mammalian cells, with an IC 50 value of 10.06. The Biomatik corporate labs, where HLM was manufactured, determined the stability results of the product by Mass Spectrophotometry (MS) and High-performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) methods. The HLM-hybridized peptide exhibited a range of synergistic to additive antimicrobial activities upon combination with five commercially available different antibiotics. It has demonstrated the biofilm-killing effects in the same concentration required to eradicate the control strains., Conclusion: The results indicated that HLM-hybridized peptide displayed a broad-spectrum activity toward different bacterial strains in planktonic and biofilm forms. It showed synergistic or additive antimicrobial activity upon combining with commercially available different antibiotics., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Kainate receptors (KARs) are key regulators of neuronal excitability and synaptic transmission. KAR surface expression is tightly controlled in part by post-translational modifications (PTMs) of the GluK2 subunit. We have shown previously that agonist activation of GluK2-containing KARs leads to phosphorylation of GluK2 at S868, which promotes subsequent SUMOylation at K886 and receptor endocytosis. Furthermore, GluK2 has been shown to be palmitoylated. However, how the interplay between palmitoylation, phosphorylation and SUMOylation orchestrate KAR trafficking remains unclear. Here, we used a library of site-specific GluK2 mutants to investigate the interrelationship between GluK2 PTMs, and their impact on KAR surface expression. We show that GluK2 is basally palmitoylated and that this is decreased by kainate (KA) stimulation. Moreover, a non-palmitoylatable GluK2 mutant (C858/C871A) shows enhanced S868 phosphorylation and K886 SUMOylation under basal conditions and is insensitive to KA-induced internalisation. These results indicate that GluK2 palmitoylation contributes to stabilising KAR surface expression and that dynamic depalmitoylation promotes downstream phosphorylation and SUMOylation to mediate activity-dependent KAR endocytosis., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2023 Yucel, Al Momany, Evans, Seager, Wilkinson and Henley.)

Review of literature revealed no studies about the predominant causes and risk factors of acute renal failure in Jordan. This study identifies the most common causes of acute renal failure and the possible risk factors among hospitalized Jordanian population. A total of 111 patients were admitted to both King Abdullah University Hospital and Princess Basmah Teaching Hospital from December 2005 to April 2006 with a diagnosis of acute renal failure or developed acute renal failure in hospital during their stay. A written form was filled from the patients and their files. Results showed that 31.5% of patients were diabetic, 44.1% were hypertensive, and 40.5% had preexisting chronic renal failure. On admission, creatinine blood levels were high in 97 patients (87.4%), while at discharge, they were high in 61 patients (55%). Urgent dialysis was done for 20 patients (18%). In all, 95 patients (85.6%) were discharged home, and 16 patients (14.4%) died in hospital. Causes of acute renal failure included dehydration, diuretics, sepsis, contrast media, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, glomerulonephritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, stones, and others. In conclusion, one-third of the causes of acute renal failure in this sample of hospitalized Jordanian patients were due to drugs, which makes this problem preventable. Mortality was affected by the age of patients and the duration of hospitalization.