• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.30-40
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• 2012

In Korea, elderly population aged 65 and older are about 5.0% and 10.7% in 1990 and 2009, respectively. Since elderly people may experience physiologic changes with aging and their pharmacodynamic and pharmcokinetic parameters also have been undergone changes, several adverse drug reactions can occur more frequently than young people. Especially, neuropsychiatric adverse drug reactions such as delirium and drowsiness endanger elderly patients more. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the outpatient prescriptions using drug causing delirium and drowsiness in elderly patients aged 65 and older. We retrospectively reviewed prescriptions for elderly patients collected from four community pharmacies from January 2nd to February 1st, 2010. One pharmacy was located closed to a general hospital, and others were located closed to a internal medicine or an ENT clinic. The each number of the collected prescriptions was followings; Group A (n=496) from internal medicine department of a general hospital; Group B (n=44) from ENT department of general hospital; Group C (n=144) from internal medicine clinic; Group D (n=110) from ENT clinic. In result, in Group A, the average number of prescribed drugs causing delirium or drowsiness per Rx was 2.38 In Group B, the average number of prescribed drugs causing delirium or drowsiness per Rx was 2.09 In Group C, the average number of prescribed drugs causing delirium or drowsiness per Rx was 2.51. In Group D, the average number of prescribed drugs causing delirium or drowsiness per Rx was 2.72. Especially, in Group D, the percentage of prescription that drugs causing delirium or drowsiness per Rx prescribed more than 3 is 52.73% In all the 4 groups, over the 60% of drugs causing delirium and/or drowsiness per prescription of elderly patients were prescribed. It means elderly patients take 2 drugs causing delirium and/or drowsiness among 3 drugs, which is very serious. Frequently prescribed drugs causing delirium and/or drowsiness were followings; GI agents, antitussives & expectorants, histamine H1 antagonist, analgesics, antibiotics. Among these drugs, GI agents was high raking in all the 4 groups, and pharmacists should caution elderly patients when counseling. In the internal medicine groups (Group A,C), drugs concerning chronic diseases were prescribed frequently. In conclusion, pharmacist's role is important. Pharmacists are well informed of the drugs causing delirium or drowsiness and it is important to explain about ADRs slowly and easily to the elderly patients that receive drugs causing delirium or drowsiness. And institutional device is needed. For example, when doctors prescribe drugs for the elderly patients, message is needed that supply some informations about drugs causing delirium or drowsiness.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.7-15
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• 2016

Objectives: Malaria has been a major global health problem in recent times with increasing mortality. Current treatment methods include parasiticidal drugs and vaccinations. However, resistance among malarial parasites to the existing drugs has emerged as a significant area of concern in anti-malarial drug design. Researchers are now desperately looking for new targets to develop anti-malarials drug which is more target specific. Malarial parasites harbor a plastid-like organelle known as the 'apicoplast', which is thought to provide an exciting new outlook for the development of drugs to be used against the parasite. This review elaborates on the current state of development of novel compounds targeted againstemerging malaria parasites. Methods: The apicoplast, originates by an endosymbiotic process, contains a range of metabolic pathways and housekeeping processes that differ from the host body and thereby presents ideal strategies for anti-malarial drug therapy. Drugs are designed by targeting the unique mechanism of the apicoplasts genetic machinery. Several anabolic and catabolic processes, like fatty acid, isopenetyl diphosphate and heme synthess in this organelle, have also been targeted by drugs. Results: Apicoplasts offer exciting opportunities for the development of malarial treatment specific drugs have been found to act by disrupting this organelle's function, which wouldimpede the survival of the parasite. Conclusion: Recent advanced drugs, their modes of action, and their advantages in the treatment of malaria by using apicoplasts as a target are discussed in this review which thought to be very useful in desigining anti-malarial drugs. Targetting the genetic machinery of apicoplast shows a great advantange regarding anti-malarial drug design. Critical knowledge of these new drugs would give a healthier understanding for deciphering the mechanism of action of anti-malarial drugs when targeting apicoplasts to overcome drug resistance.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 1972

One of the characteristics features of Chinese Medicine is recognized as the practical use of combinations of crude drugs in the forms of various prescriptions according to the symptoms of illness. Such crude drugs are mostly dried plant roots, rhizomes, leaves, fruits and seeds, sometimes dried animla organ preparations even fossils or minerals. In the oldest book of Chinese Medicine, Sang Han Ron, 113 prescriptions were described in which about 80 crude drugs were included, and in other old literature, Shin Nong Bon Tcho Keun, 363 crude drugs were recorded. Such drugs, in particular, those included in Sang Han Ron are generally low toxic, and the prescriptions are acting mild with less side effects, but obviously not so easy task to determine the effect of the indivisual drug from the total effects of various prescriptions which are generally consisted of many kinds of crude drugs. About 200 years ago, in the middle of Edo era, a Japanese medical doctor, Yoshimasu Todo wrote a series of books named "Yakucho", in which he described the essential various prescriptions in which the certain drugs plays the main role. This book is very suggestive to evaluate the effects of some Chinese drugs. The actual effects of Chinese medicine and drugs have widely been recognized by the East Asian peoples during their long age experiences, but still it has not been studied sufficiently by modern scientific methods to give generally acceptable evidences. During past some years, my collaborators and I have been engaged to study some well-known Chinese drugs chemically to find out the active principles in determining their chemical structures under the collaboration of pharmacologists, Prof. K. Takagi and his coworkers. In the present lecture, I would like to present two topics from our recent investigations: The studies on the principles of Paeony and Ginseng roots.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 2014

Objective: To evaluate the clinical manifestations and causative drugs of the outpatient adverse drug reactions (ADRs) reported by community pharmacy. Methods: From April 2013 to September 2013, all outpatient ADRs reported by community pharmacy to Regional Pharmacovigilance Center of Korean Pharmaceutical Association were included. The causality of ADRs was assessed by the criteria of WHO-Uppsala Monitoring Centre. The clinical features and the offending drugs were analyzed using the WHO-Adverse Reaction Terminology and the classification of American Hospital Formulary Service Drug Information, respectively. Results: 2,826 (97.0%) of the total 2,912 ADRs had causal relationship. The 1,923 patients with mean age of 55.1 years and female fraction of 66.5% were included in the ADRs. Gastrointestinal (33.6%), nervous system (14.9%), and skin (13.5%) symptoms were common in ADRs. Analgesic drugs (19.7%), gastrointestinal drugs (17.7%), and central nervous system drugs (11.0%) were prevalent offending drugs. The leading causative generic drug was the complex of acetaminophen and tramadol. Among 203 ADRs by the nonprescription drugs, the most common clinical features were skin (37.4%) and gastrointestinal (23.6%) symptoms and the most prevalent offending drugs were analgesic drugs (40.0%) and mucocutaneous system drugs (16.3%). The combination of acetaminophen and chlorzoxazone was the leading causative generic in nonprescription drugs. Conclusion: In this study, gastrointestinal symptom was the most common manifestation and analgesic drug was the most common causative drug in outpatient ADRs reported by community pharmacy.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.60 no.3
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• pp.146-153
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• 2016

Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs refer to medicines that are generally safe when used according to the product label. We aimed to assess and reflect upon changes in perception of health and health-related demands by decades in Korea according to the consumption and sales trends of OTC drugs. This study was conducted by literature search on the production and sale rankings of OTC drug market in Korea. Changes in the OTC drug market were analyzed and organized by decades to evaluate changes in drug demands and the influence of national and societal factors. There was a specific trend in the most popular drugs by decades. In the 1950s, drugs of top necessity were antibiotics and helminthics. In the 1960s, the pharmaceutical industry quickly grew and invigorators, such as Bacchus$^{(R)}$, Alps$^{(R)}$, Aronamin$^{(R)}$, were top manufactured drugs. Popularity of these invigorating drinks and vitamin products continued until the 1990s. In 1990s, sales of topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (Ketotop Plaster$^{(R)}$, Trast Patch$^{(R)}$), and in 2000s, gum disease medicine (Insadol$^{(R)}$) and liver and intestine supplement (Ursa$^{(R)}$) were prominent. However, after the separation of prescribing and dispensing in 2000, the sales of OTC drugs decreased dramatically from 58.7% of the total market share in 1990s to 39.6% in 2000 and this trend has continued. In 2012, thirteen OTC drugs were allowed to be sold in convenience stores, and as the sales of health functional foods have been expanding beyond pharmacies, sales of invigorators and nutritional supplements in pharmacies have continued to decrease. As government's drug expenditure will continue to grow, reclassification of OTC drugs based on established safety information and deliberate team efforts on continued development of OTC drugs to meet the health demands of Koreans are required by the healthcare professionals, pharmaceutical industries, and the government.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.16
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• pp.6831-6839
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• 2015

Multidrug resistance is a principal mechanism by which tumors become resistant to structurally and functionally unrelated anticancer drugs. Resistance to chemotherapy has been correlated with overexpression of p-glycoprotein (p-gp), a member of the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) superfamily of membrane transporters. P-gp mediates resistance to a broad-spectrum of anticancer drugs including doxorubicin, taxol, and vinca alkaloids by actively expelling the drugs from cells. Use of specific inhibitors/blocker of p-gp in combination with clinically important anticancer drugs has emerged as a new paradigm for overcoming multidrug resistance. The aim of this paper is to review p-gp regulation by dietary nutraceuticals and to correlate this dietary nutraceutical induced-modulation of p-gp with activity of anticancer drugs.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.102-106
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• 1983

As many crude drugs are used in the oriental medical field problems on the side effects of these drugs come to the front. To conduct delayed-type hypersensitivity we selected 29 kinds of drugs used frequently for therapeutic agents in oriental medical hospitals (Table I). The cell-mediated immune response was evaluated by measuring the foot pad swelling reaction and humoral immune response by measuring the antibody formation to these crude drugs. Mice were given these drugs intraperioneally for sensitization and challenged with same drug as used for sensitization respectively by intral dermal injection on the left and righ hind foot pad 4 days after senstization and then the foot pads were measured with the dial micrometer. The results were as follow; 1) Gentianae Scabrae Radix, Arecae Semen, Corydalis Tuber, and Paeoniae Radix were significant as delayed-type hypersensitivity inducers. 2) None of the crude drugs tested had effect on the induction of humoral immune response.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.1716-1722
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• 2018

Immunosuppressive drugs are used to make the body less likely to reject transplanted organs or to treat autoimmune diseases. In this study, five immunosuppressive drugs including two glucocorticoids (dexamethasone and prednisolone), one calcineurin inhibitor (cyclosporin A), one non-steroid anti-inflammatory drug (aspirin), and one antimetabolite (methotrexate) were tested for their effects on viral proliferation using feline foamy virus (FFV). The five drugs had different cytotoxic effects on the Crandell-Ress feline kidney (CRFK) cells, the natural host cell of FFV. Dexamethasone-pretreated CRFK cells were susceptible to FFV infection, but pretreatment with prednisolone, cyclosporin A, aspirin, and methotrexate showed obvious inhibitory effects on FFV proliferation, by reducing viral production to 29.8-83.8% of that of an untreated control. These results were supported by western blot, which detected viral Gag structural protein in the infected cell lysate. As our results showed a correlation between immunosuppressive drugs and susceptibility to viral infections, it is proposed that immune-compromised individuals who are using immune-suppressive drugs may be especially vulnerable to viral infection originated from pets.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 1998.11a
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• pp.114-117
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• 1998

Chinese traditional drugs have a long history to be used in clinics to treat various diseases and are confirmed to be effective approach through thousands of years of medical practice. Therefore, as a common understanding, the drug development from traditional Chinese medicines could be considered as a “shortcut” way with less blindness and more saving of time and money since development of new Chinese drugs has a different approach from that of western new drugs. Firstly, Chinese new drug development can be simplified as “from men to animal” process rather than “from animal to men” in western medicines. Hence the successful rate would be higher. Secondly, the original drugs or prescriptions from which the new drugs are planned to develop have been known what symptoms they are indicated for. Therefore, the developing procedure is actually a refine process with much less blindness than that of western drugs.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.507-510
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• 2008