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Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science... May 2024The importance of food quality and safety lies in ensuring the best product quality to meet consumer demands and public health. Advanced technologies play a crucial role... (Review)
Review
The importance of food quality and safety lies in ensuring the best product quality to meet consumer demands and public health. Advanced technologies play a crucial role in minimizing the risk of foodborne illnesses, contamination, drug residue, and other potential hazards in food. Significant materials and technological advancements have been made throughout the food supply chain. Among them, quantum dots (QDs), as a class of advanced nanomaterials with unique physicochemical properties, are progressively demonstrating their value in the field of food quality and safety. This review aims to explore cutting-edge research on the different applications of QDs in food quality and safety, including encapsulation of bioactive compounds, detection of food analytes, food preservation and packaging, and intelligent food freshness indicators. Moreover, the modification strategies and potential toxicities of diverse QDs are outlined, which can affect performance and hinder applications in the food industry. The findings suggested that QDs are mainly used in analyte detection and active/intelligent food packaging. Various food analytes can be detected using QD-based sensors, including heavy metal ions, pesticides, antibiotics, microorganisms, additives, and functional components. Moreover, QD incorporation aided in improving the antibacterial and antioxidant activities of film/coatings, resulting in extended shelf life for packaged food. Finally, the perspectives and critical challenges for the productivity, toxicity, and practical application of QDs are also summarized. By consolidating these essential aspects into this review, the way for developing high-performance QD-based nanomaterials is presented for researchers and food technologists to better capitalize upon this technology in food applications.
Topics: Food Contamination; Food Microbiology; Food Packaging; Food Quality; Quantum Dots
PubMed: 38578165
DOI: 10.1111/1541-4337.13339 -
JMIR Public Health and Surveillance Jan 2024Drug-induced suicide (DIS) is a severe adverse drug reaction (ADR). Although clinical trials have provided evidence on DIS, limited investigations have been performed on... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Drug-induced suicide (DIS) is a severe adverse drug reaction (ADR). Although clinical trials have provided evidence on DIS, limited investigations have been performed on rare ADRs, such as suicide.
OBJECTIVE
We aimed to systematically review case reports on DIS to provide evidence-based drug information.
METHODS
We searched PubMed to obtain case reports regarding DIS published until July 2021. Cases resulting from drugs that are no longer used or are nonapproved, substance use, and suicidal intentions were excluded. The quality of each case report was assessed using the CASE (Case Reports) checklist. We extracted data regarding demographics, medication history, suicide symptoms, and symptom improvement and evaluated the causality of DIS using the Naranjo score. Furthermore, to identify the potential suicidal risk of the unknown drugs, we compared the results of the causality assessment with those of the approved drug labels.
RESULTS
In 83 articles, we identified 152 cases involving 61 drugs. Antidepressants were reported as the most frequent causative drugs of DIS followed by immunostimulants. The causality assessment revealed 61 cases having possible, 89 cases having probable, and 2 cases having definite relationships with DIS. For approximately 85% of suspected drugs, the risk of suicidal ADRs was indicated on the approved label; however, the approved labels for 9 drugs, including lumacaftor/ivacaftor, doxycycline, clozapine, dextromethorphan, adalimumab, infliximab, piroxicam, paclitaxel, and formoterol, did not provide information about these risks.
CONCLUSIONS
We found several case reports involving drugs without suicide risk information on the drug label. Our findings might provide valuable insights into drugs that may cause suicidal ADRs.
Topics: Humans; Doxycycline; Drug Labeling; Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions; Suicidal Ideation; Suicide; Case Reports as Topic
PubMed: 38289650
DOI: 10.2196/49755 -
PloS One 2024Globally, millions of people have been affected by fraudulent pharmaceutical products, particularly those in developing countries. Although the problem of falsified and...
BACKGROUND
Globally, millions of people have been affected by fraudulent pharmaceutical products, particularly those in developing countries. Although the problem of falsified and substandard drugs is acknowledged, the extent of the issue is ever-changing, has a dynamic nature, and should be quantified and captured in a recent snapshot.
OBJECTIVE
This systematic review seeks to examine the data that can quantify and provide a current snapshot of the prevalence of SF antimicrobials in selected east Africa countries.
METHODS
Scientific studies on antimicrobial quality were searched in PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Google Scholar from 2017 to February 2023. The search strategy focused on scientific articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals written in English and the studies exclusively done in any of the selected countries of east Africa. The articles were carefully reviewed by two individuals for inclusion independently, first by title followed by abstract and the full-text retrieval. To minimize bias associated with the methodology used for data collection, the quality of the studies was assessed for quality according to the Medicine Quality Assessment Reporting Guidelines (MEDQUARG). The reporting of this systematic review was done following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA).
RESULTS
Fifteen studies that estimated the prevalence of poor-quality antimicrobial medicines in selected four east African countries were included. The overall percentage of samples of antimicrobials that failed at least one quality test was 22.6% (151/669) with each class's prevalence of 17% in antibiotics (73/432), 24% in antimalarial (41/171), and 56% in anthelmintics (37/66). Quality control parameters of API content were the most commonly examined in the included studies, accounting for 14/15 (93%) studies. Fifty (33.1%) of the failing samples failed assay API- content determination, while 26.5% (n = 40) failed the visual inspection and packaging analysis; 19.2% (29) failed dissolution; 14% (n = 21) flawed hardness or friability; 4%(n = 6) failed uniformity, as well as 3.2% (n = 5) failed disintegration test of the quality control parameter.
CONCLUSION
It was found that this review was general in these selected east African countries and was a catalyst for combating the menace of poor-quality medications that affect millions of lives.
Topics: Africa, Eastern; Antimalarials; Counterfeit Drugs; Substandard Drugs; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Anthelmintics
PubMed: 38277385
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295956 -
Journal For Immunotherapy of Cancer Jan 2024Increased understanding of how the immune system regulates tumor growth has innovated the use of immunotherapeutics to treat various cancers. The impact of such...
BACKGROUND
Increased understanding of how the immune system regulates tumor growth has innovated the use of immunotherapeutics to treat various cancers. The impact of such therapies, including programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) inhibitors, on the production of antidrug antibodies (ADAs) and their impact on outcomes, is poorly understood. This study aims to evaluate the clinical trial evidence on ADA incidence associated with PD-1, PD-L1, and CTLA-4 inhibitors in the treatment of cancer and to assess associations between treatment administered, ADA incidence, and treatment outcomes.
METHODS
Embase, Medline, and EBM Reviews were searched via the OVID platform on February 15, 2022. Conference proceedings, clinical trial registries, and global regulatory and reimbursement body websites were also searched. Eligible publications included clinical trials enrolling patients receiving cancer treatment with either PD-1, PD-L1, or CTLA-4 reporting outcomes including incidence or prevalence of ADAs and the impact of immunogenicity on treatment safety and efficacy. Reference lists of eligible publications were also searched. The review was conducted and reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and evidence quality assessment was conducted using the appropriate Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal tool.
RESULTS
After screening 4160 records and reviewing 97 full publications, a total of 34 publications reporting on 68 trials were included. A further 41 relevant clinical trials were identified on ClinicalTrials.gov and a further 32 from searches of packaging inserts. In total, 141 relevant trials covering 15 different checkpoint inhibitors and 16 different tumor types were included. Across the included trials, atezolizumab was associated with the highest incidence of ADAs (29.6% of 639 patients), followed by nivolumab (11.2% of 2,085 patients). Combination checkpoint inhibitor treatment appeared to increase the rate of ADAs versus monotherapy. Only 17 trials reported on the impact of ADAs on treatment outcomes with mixed results for the impact of ADAs on treatment efficacy, safety, and pharmacokinetics.
CONCLUSIONS
Checkpoint inhibitors for the treatment of cancer are immunogenic, with the incidence of treatment-emergent ADAs varying between individual therapies. It remains unclear what impact ADAs have on treatment outcomes.
Topics: Humans; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors; CTLA-4 Antigen; B7-H1 Antigen; Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor; Immunotherapy; Neoplasms
PubMed: 38238030
DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2023-008266 -
Research in Social & Administrative... Feb 2024Written instructive information for the patient is key in pharmaceutical care. However, the preexisting literature agrees on the discordance between the readability of...
INTRODUCTION
Written instructive information for the patient is key in pharmaceutical care. However, the preexisting literature agrees on the discordance between the readability of written medication messages intended for patients. The aim of our work was to systematically review the available evidence on the effect of pharmaceutical pictograms as elements that facilitate understanding of the text in primary or secondary medication packaging.
METHODS
A parallel systematic search was conducted of the literature covering evidence of the effect of including pictograms in primary or secondary packaging on comprehension by potential users or caregivers up to April 9, 2023. The databases consulted were Scopus, MEDLINE and Web of Science. Only randomized controlled studies, whose main outcome measure was comprehension, were included.
RESULTS
Only 8 papers met our search criteria. In most of the included studies, the intervention of including pictograms improved participants' performance in comprehending instructions. A debatable methodological quality, and differences in the target population, textual complexity of the materials or the cultural affinity of the pictograms with the target population in each study, could have had a decisive influence on the results.
CONCLUSION
The heterogeneity in the design of each study poses a significant barrier to establishing commonalities and generalizing the results. This heterogeneity also prevented us from conclusively confirming the usefulness of pictograms complementary to instructional text in improving the comprehension of instructions for the rational use of medicines.
Topics: Humans; Comprehension; Drug Labeling; Drug Packaging; Health Literacy; Pharmaceutical Preparations
PubMed: 38030546
DOI: 10.1016/j.sapharm.2023.11.007