Current Pharmacology Reports

Purpose of Review: In the last month of 2019, i.e., December, COVID-19 hit Wuhan city in China. Since then, it has infected more than 210 countries and nearly about 33.4 million people with one million deaths globally. It is a viral disease with flu-like symptoms; hence, prevention and management is the best option to be adopted for its cure. Recent Findings: Many healthcare systems, scientists, and researchers are fighting for the cure of this pandemic. Ayurvedic and allopathic treatments have been studied extensively and approached for the cure of COVID-19...

PURPOSE OF COMMENTARY: Acquiring knowledge on drug disposition and action in infant is challenging because of the problem of sparse and unbalanced data obtained for each individual infant due to the limited blood volume as well as the issue of extensive inter-subject and intra-subject variability in drug exposure and response due to the fast growth and dynamic maturation changes in infants. This commentary highlights the importance of using population-based pharmacometric models to improve knowledge on drug disposition and action in infants...

Purpose of Review: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is identified from Wuhan, China, and has spread almost worldwide. Recently, the newly identified SARS-CoV-2 has been confirmed to kill millions of people worldwide and is dangerous to society health, survival, and livelihood. The people with cardiovascular problems are noticed as most common patients of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). There is a greater risk of mortality and morbidity in these patients than other patients of COVID-19...

Purpose of Review: The rapid spread of virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has turned out to be a global emergency. Symptoms of this viral infection, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), include mild infections of the upper respiratory tract, viral pneumonia, respiratory failure, multiple organ failure and death. Till date, no drugs have been discovered to treat COVID-19 patients, and therefore, a considerable amount of interest has been shown in repurposing the existing drugs...

Purpose of Review: In December 2019, there was an outbreak of viral disease in Wuhan, China which raised the concern across the whole world. The viral disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or novel coronavirus or COVID-19 (CoV-19) is known as a pandemic. After SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-related CoV, COVID-19 is the third most pathogenic virus, hazardous to humans which have raised worries concerning the capacity of current security measures and the human services framework to deal with such danger...

The emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), responsible for causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), marked the third time in the twenty-first century when a new, highly pathogenic human coronavirus outbreak has led to an epidemic. The COVID-19 epidemic has emerged in late December 2019 in Wuhan city of China and spread rapidly to other parts of the world. This quick spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection to many states across the globe affecting many people has led WHO to declare it a pandemic on March 12, 2020...

Purpose of Review: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, is a pandemic causing havoc globally. Currently, there are no Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs to treat COVID-19. In the absence of effective treatment, off-label drug use, in lieu of evidence from published randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials, is common in COVID-19. Although it is vital to treat affected patients with antiviral drugs, there is a knowledge gap regarding the use of anti-inflammatory drugs in these patients...

Purpose of Review: This article provides an overview of simulation as an effective and evolving tool for teaching clinical pharmacology within the health professions. Further, opportunities for positioning this methodology to meet current educational challenges are presented. Recent Findings: Clinical pharmacology is an essential core competency for all health professionals, correlating with ability to appropriately and safely prescribe, administer, or optimize medication regimens...

Purpose of Review: An unprecedented outbreak of the novel coronavirus in China (COVID-19) occurred in December 2019, and then engulfed the entire world, presenting a significant and urgent threat to global health. Many research institutes have been involved in the development of drugs and vaccines against COVID-19. Recent Findings: At present, the strategy of new use of old drugs is mainly used to screen candidate drugs against the novel coronavirus (later termed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)) and inhibit excessive immune response...

The purpose of this review was to assess the advancement of applications for physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling in various therapeutic areas. We conducted a PubMed search, and 166 articles published between 2012 and 2018 on FDA-approved drug products were selected for further review. Qualifying publications were summarized according to therapeutic area, medication(s) studied, pharmacokinetic model type utilized, simulator program used, and the applications of that modeling. The results showed a 13-fold increase in the number of papers published from 2012 to 2018, with the largest proportion of articles dedicated to the areas of infectious diseases, oncology, and neurology, and application extensions including prediction of drug-drug interactions due to metabolism and/or transporter-mediated effects and understanding drug kinetics in special populations...

The recent pandemic outbreak of COVID-19 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; SARS-CoV-2) worldwide caught the health care systems in every country around the world by storm and without a proper defense mechanism to cope and control such a pandemic. In this special Theme issue, we would like to discuss the latest treatment modalities available around the world in tackling this dreadful disease.

The current pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has presented unprecedented challenges to the healthcare systems in almost every country around the world. Currently, there are no proven effective vaccines or therapeutic agents against the virus. Current clinical management includes infection prevention and control measures and supportive care including supplemental oxygen and mechanical ventilatory support. Evolving research and clinical data regarding the virologic SARS-CoV-2 suggest a potential list of repurposed drugs with appropriate pharmacological effects and therapeutic efficacies in treating COVID-19 patients...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Concerning adverse neuromuscular effects, there are quite a few reports about the incidence and prevalence of chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) myopathy. Given the above, I decided to explore the relationships of these drugs with skeletal muscle in an attempt to clarify how they affect the muscle now and in the future, as millions of people are using CQ and HCQ. RECENT FINDINGS: The literature review identified 28 publications about CQ/HCQ myopathy, totaling 56 patients, from 1963 to 2020...

Host cytochrome P450s (P450s) play important roles in the bioactivation and detoxification of numerous therapeutic drugs, environmental toxicants, dietary factors, as well as endogenous compounds. Gut microbiome is increasingly recognized as our "second genome" that contributes to the xenobiotic biotransformation of the host, and the first pass metabolism of many orally exposed chemicals is a joint effort between host drug metabolizing enzymes including P450s and gut microbiome. Gut microbiome contributes to the drug metabolism via two distinct mechanisms: direct mechanism refers to the metabolism of drugs by microbial enzymes, among which reduction and hydrolysis (or deconjugation) are among the most important reactions; whereas indirect mechanism refers to the influence of host receptors and signaling pathways by microbial metabolites...

Purpose of Review: Arsenic exposure is a public health concern of global proportions with a high degree of interindividual variability in pathologic outcomes. Arsenic metabolism is a key factor underlying toxicity, and the primary purpose of this review is to summarize recent discoveries concerning the influence of the human gut microbiome on the metabolism, bioavailability, and toxicity of ingested arsenic. We review and discuss the current state of knowledge along with relevant methodologies for studying these phenomena...

Purpose of Review: Prior to human studies, knowledge of drug disposition in the body is useful to inform decisions on drug safety and efficacy, first in human dosing, and dosing regimen design. It is therefore of interest to develop predictive models for primary pharmacokinetic parameters, clearance, and volume of distribution. The volume of distribution of a drug is determined by the physiological properties of the body and physiochemical properties of the drug, and is used to determine secondary parameters, including the half-life...

Purpose of the review: In this review, we discuss the roles of the gut microbiota, dietary phytochemicals in improving human health. Recent studies have reported that the human gut microbiota can be altered by dietary phytochemicals including phenolics, carotenoids, and dietary fibers. In addition, both pathogenic and nonpathogenic bacteria show regulatory effects with phytochemicals, suggesting potential synergistic effects in the improvement of human gut health and prevention of chronic diseases...

Purpose of Review: The supplementation of dietary additives into processed foods has exponentially increased in the past few decades. Similarly, the incidence rates of various diseases, including metabolic syndrome, gut dysbiosis and hepatocarcinogenesis, have been elevating. Current research reveals that there is a positive association between food additives and these pathophysiological diseases. This review highlights the research published within the past 5 years that elucidate and update the effects of dietary supplements on liver and intestinal health...

The pharmacological activity of Acacia nilotica 's phytochemical constituents was confirmed with evidence-based studies, but the determination of exact targets that they bind and the mechanism of action were not done; consequently, we aim to identify the exact targets that are responsible for the pharmacological activity via the computational methods. Furthermore, we aim to predict the pharmacokinetics (ADME) properties and the safety profile in order to identify the best drug candidates. To achieve those goals, various computational methods were used including the ligand-based virtual screening and molecular docking...

Purpose of Review: The goal of this review is to summarize our current knowledge regarding how ABL family kinases are activated in solid tumors and impact on solid tumor development/progression, with a focus on recent advances in the field. Recent Findings: Although ABL kinases are known drivers of human leukemia, emerging data also implicates the kinases in a large number of solid tumor types where they promote diverse processes such as proliferation, survival, cytoskeletal reorganization, cellular polarity, EMT (epithelial-mesenchymal-transition), metabolic reprogramming, migration, invasion and metastasis via unique signaling pathways...