Journal of medical toxicology

BACKGROUND: Caustic ingestions are relatively uncommon, but remain a significant source of morbidity. Patients with caustic injury often undergo an urgent EGD, although it is not clear if an EGD is routinely needed in an asymptomatic patient. The study has two primary objectives; 1) to determine the utility of routine EGD in asymptomatic suicidal caustic ingestions; 2) to determine if asymptomatic unintentional acidic ingestions can be managed with observation alone, similar to basic ingestions...

Ciprofloxacin (CIP) is a commonly used antibiotic in the fluoroquinolone group and is widely used in medical and veterinary medicine disciplines to treat bacterial infections. When CIP is discharged into the sewage system, it cannot be removed by a conventional wastewater treatment plant because of its recalcitrant characteristics. In this study, boron-doped diamond anode and persulfate were used to degrade CIP in an aquatic solution by creating an electrochemically activated persulfate (EAP) process. Iron was added to the system as a coactivator and the process was called EAP+Fe...

INTRODUCTION: On-treatment excursions of liver laboratory test values in clinical trials involving subjects with underlying liver disease are relevant for the efficacy and safety assessment of drug products and biologics. Existing visualization and analysis tools do not efficiently provide an integrated view of these excursions when baseline liver tests are abnormal. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to develop a composite plot that enables visualization of on-treatment changes in liver test results both as multiples of the upper limit of normal defined by each laboratory's reference population (×ULN) and multiples of the subjects' baseline (×BLN) values...

Mitophagy is a selective cellular process critical for the removal of damaged mitochondria. It is essential in regulating mitochondrial number, ensuring mitochondrial functionality, and maintaining cellular equilibrium, ultimately influencing cell destiny. Numerous pathologies, such as neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular disorders, cancers, and various other conditions, are associated with mitochondrial dysfunctions. Thus, a detailed exploration of the regulatory mechanisms of mitophagy is pivotal for enhancing our understanding and for the discovery of novel preventive and therapeutic options for these diseases...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), characterized by prostate enlargement due to cell proliferation, is a common urinary disorder in men over 50, manifesting as lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). Currently, several therapeutic options are accessible for treating BPH, including medication therapy, surgery and watchful waiting. Conventional drugs such as finasteride and dutasteride are used as 5α-reductase inhibitors for the treatment of BPH. However long-term use of these drugs is restricted due to their unpleasant side effects...

The cosmopolitan ectoparasite human head louse, Pediculus humanus capitis (De Geer)(Phthiraptera:Pediculidae), affects mostly school-aged children, with infestations reported every year mainly due to louse resistance to pyrethroids. One of the main resistance mechanisms of pyrethroids is the target site insensitivity (kdr), which is caused by single-nucleotide point mutations (SNPs) located in the voltage-sensitive sodium channel gene. In this study, we analyzed individual head lice toxicologically via the description of their susceptibility profile to permethrin and genetically through the genotypification of their kdr alleles as well as nuclear microsatellite loci...

A novel analytical method was developed for the simultaneous quantification of the R/S-enantiomers of amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDA and MDMA in hair samples using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS). This method involved a straightforward derivatization step with dansyl chloride and the use of a chiral column, enabling the separation and quantification of all eight enantiomers in a single analysis. The method exhibited excellent linearity across a concentration range of 0.03-3.00 ng/mg for each enantiomer...

Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most prevalent malignancy worldwide, characterized by poor prognosis. Apoptosis is interacted with hypoxia in tumorigenesis. This study attempted to delineate potential value of apoptosis and hypoxia-related genes (AHRGs) in prognosis of gastric cancer. Differential expression analysis was performed on GC transcriptomic data from TCGA. Apoptosis-related genes (ARGs) and hypoxia-related genes (HRGs) were obtained from MSigDB, followed by intersecting them with differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in GC...

The present study explored that the effects and its possible mechanisms of ring finger protein 20 (RNF20) in Postoperative survival rate of liver cancer in clinical. All the serum samples were collected from our hospital. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and microarray analysis, and RNA pull down assay were used in this study. We found that the serum RNF20 mRNA expression level in patients with liver cancer were down-regulated. Postoperative survival rate of RNF20 high expression was higher than that of RNF20 low expression...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly lethal liver cancer with significant heterogeneity, which poses challenges in predicting prognosis and treatment outcomes. The impact of iron metabolism and immune-related genes (IMRGs) on HCC patient prognoses remains elusive. We utilized The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset to obtain mRNA expression data and clinical information from HCC patients. Through the application of LASSO regression and univariate/multivariate Cox regression analyses, we identified five IMRGs significantly associated with survival of HCC patients...

Currently, the optimal treatment approach for breast benign intraductal papilloma (IDP) diagnosed via biopsy remains uncertain. There is ongoing debate regarding the feasibility of clinical follow-up and the criteria for selective surgical excision. This study aims to conduct a meta-analysis to determine the rate of upgrade from breast benign IDP and identify predictive factors associated with the conversion of benign IDP to high-risk lesions or carcinoma, which could guide healthcare practitioners in selecting the appropriate clinical treatment strategy...

Around 2 million people are diagnosed with lung cancer annually, causing 20,000 deaths. Non-small cell carcinomas account for 80-85% of lung cancer cases. Over the last few decades, there has been an improved understanding of the chromosomal makeup of lung cancer. As a result, the clinical care and treatment of patients with advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have changed. This is possible due to advanced molecular techniques and chromosomal analysis, which have revealed persistent genetic abnormalities...

Protease is the enzyme accountable for the breakdown of proteins i.e., proteolysis. Proteases are reportedly involved in the events of growth, development, progression and metastasis of cancers. If any agent could inhibit/retard the protease enzyme, i.e., protease inhibitor, it would arrest the cancer; thus indicating the significance of exploring protease inhibitors for latest anti-malignant drug discovery. Higher plants are the rich sources of different protease inhibitors that are effective against several types of malignancies both at preclinical and clinical stages...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: During the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, over 34,000 reports of heavy menstrual bleeding following the administration of COVID-19 vaccines originating in the Economic European Area were submitted to EudraVigilance, the European Union database of suspected adverse drug reactions. More than 90% of these reports were sent by consumers while the remaining by healthcare professionals. Public concerns regarding menstruation disorders in COVID-19 vaccinees were also covered by the media...

Enzalutamide is an oral androgen receptor signaling inhibitor utilized in the treatment of men with prostate cancer. It is a moderate inducer of the cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes CYP2C9 and CYP2C19, and a strong inducer of CYP3A4. It was also shown to be a mild inhibitor of the efflux transporter P-glycoprotein in patients with prostate cancer. Enzalutamide is primarily metabolized by CYP3A4 and CYP2C8. The risk of enzalutamide drug interactions arises primarily when it is coadministered with other drugs that interact with these CYPs, including CYP3A4...

Differentiation between granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) limited to the upper airways and cocaine-induced midline destructive lesion (CIMDL) may be particularly difficult because of their common histopathologic features and antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) profiles. We herein present a case involving a young woman with an initial diagnosis of GPA based on upper and lower airway manifestations and constitutional symptoms, histopathologic evidence of granulomas, a positive cytoplasmic ANCA indirect immunofluorescent test result, and proteinase 3 positivity by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)...

CONTEXT: Opioid therapy is a cornerstone for treatment of cancer-related pain, but standardized management practices for patients with cancer and aberrant urine drug test (UDT) results are lacking. OBJECTIVES: To identify the prevalence of UDT ordering (both screening and definitive testing) in the oncology setting and to examine clinician management practices for patients with cancer on opioid therapy with aberrant definitive UDT results. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective chart review of patients with cancer on opioid therapy at an academic cancer center in the United States...

Additional risk minimization strategies may be required to assure a positive benefit-risk balance for some therapeutic products associated with serious adverse drug reactions/risks of use, without which these products may be otherwise unavailable to patients. The goals of risk minimization strategies are often fundamentally to influence the behavior of healthcare professionals (HCPs) and/or patients and can include appropriate patient selection, provision of education and counselling, appropriate medication use, adverse drug reaction monitoring, and adoption of other elements to assure safe use, such as pregnancy prevention...

During the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, observed-to-expected analysis was used by the European Medicines Agency to contextualise data from spontaneous reports to generate real-time evidence on emerging safety concerns that may impact the benefit-risk profile of COVID-19 vaccines. Observed-to-expected analysis compares the number of cases spontaneously reported for an event of interest after vaccination ('observed') to the 'expected' number of cases anticipated to occur in the same number of individuals had they not been vaccinated...