Volume 66 (2019): Issue 1 (June 2019)

Hypomethylating agent decitabine is being used in the treatment of certain types of leukaemia in combination with other anticancer drugs. Aberrant DNA methylation has been suggested to occur in pathological states including depression. Scarce data in male rats suggest antidepressant effects of decitabine. The main aim of our studies is to test the hypothesis that the inhibition of DNA methylation results in antidepressant effects in female rats. Before doing so, we decided to verify the effects of decitabine on DNA methylation in females. The findings demonstrate that the treatment with decitabine at the dose shown previously to inhibit DNA methylation in males, had no effect on total DNA methylation in two brain regions, namely the hippocampus and frontal cortex of female rats. In conclusion, the present study allows us to suggest that the effect of decitabine on DNA methylation in the brain is sex dependent.

The question of drug availability is a key requirement for each country. Their deficiency can cause fatal consequences for the health of the population. For this reason, the production and distribution of medicines represents the economic potential of the state, which is also protected and regulated in the Slovak Republic. Drug distribution is also part of every market economy as it is the primary form of business-to-customer (B2C) offering. At first glance, the promotion of drugs might seem to be just marketing. But this area is under the scrutiny of the Slovak legislations. From the point of view of the systemic nature of law, advertising of medicinal products is regulated both in public law and private law. This is particularly the area of administrative law, commercial law and civil or criminal law, which must respect the often complicated penetration of European law into national law. The issue of ad management and the associated availability of medicines, in our terms, is at the centre of public interest. The main aim of the authors in this paper is to examine not only the European but especially the national legal regulation of the advertising of medicines in the context of the decision-making activity of the Slovak authorities supervising compliance with the legal restrictions on the promotion of pharmaceutical products. Another goal is to identify the problems in application practice and to propose ways to eliminate identified shortcomings by specific procedures. The authors, through scientific and doctrinal interpretation, examine selected statutes of the Law on Advertising and related legislation pertaining to the issue of drug advertising. Through expert literature, jurisprudence and the decision-making processes of the administrative authorities, they seek answers to practical application problems. At the end of the contribution, they critically analyse the identified shortcomings and propose appropriate measures to eliminate them.

Introduction A gentamicin dose, which the physicians select, frequently does not take any pharmacokinetic parameters into consideration.

Aim To analyse the results of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of gentamicin for those patients who have not had the gentamicin dose adjusted at the beginning of therapy (first group) and for those patients who had the gentamicin dose adjusted at the beginning of therapy (second group).

Methods We acquired the basic data about patients from the requests for laboratory examination of levels of gentamicin. We measured all the gentamicin concentrations mentioned in this work using the FPIA method.

Results The monitored set included 379 hospitalized patients during a 4-year period. We divided the monitored set into 2 groups. First group was composed of patients without dose adjustment of gentamicin at the beginning of therapy, and the second group was composed of patients with dose adjustment of gentamicin by the clinical pharmacist at the beginning of therapy. In addition, the patients in each group were divided according to the body mass index (BMI). In the first group of patients, a low percentage of patients had both optimal levels (trough, peak levels). As for patients with BMI > 25 m²/kg, there were only 17 % such cases, and the patients with BMI ≤ 25 m²/kg were only 18.8 %. In the second group, the patients had all trough and peak levels in optimal therapeutic range at obese patients, overweight patients and also at patients with normal weight (p < 0.001).

Conclusion Adjustment of dosage regimens immediately at the beginning of therapy will provide for administering sufficient doses of antibiotics at the beginning of therapy, which is a pre-condition for a successful anti-infective therapy. Therapeutic monitoring of levels allows for administration of sufficient dose of gentamicin without fear of any undesirable effects.

Background: Homeopathy is being increasingly practiced within different medical areas of use. Homeopathic medicines are sold in German pharmacies, whereas the assortment of Swedish pharmacies does not include homeopathic medicines. Despite differences between Sweden and Germany, homeopathic medicines are classified as drugs in both countries.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the pharmacy employees’ self-rated knowledge, use and attitudes toward homeopathy in Sweden and Germany.

Methods: A quantitative web-survey was sent to 30 pharmacies in Sweden and 30 pharmacies in Germany, which were selected by using a multi-stage clustering sampling. The questionnaire contained closed-ended rating scales. To compare the self-rated knowledge, use and attitudes toward homeopathy of Swedish and German pharmacy employees, chi-square tests and Mann-Whitney tests were performed in SPSS.

Results: A total of 209 pharmacy employees answered the survey (108 in Sweden and 101 in Germany). German participants estimated their knowledge higher than the Swedish participants (p < 0.01). In both countries, most participants thought that pharmacy employees should have knowledge about homeopathy. Although most Swedish participants stated that they receive questions about homeopathy, the German pharmacy employees receive questions about homeopathy more frequently (p < 0.01). Swedish participants reported less experience of own use of homeopathic medicines and less belief in their effectiveness as compared to the German participants (p < 0.01). However, in both countries, most participants stated that homeopathic medicines should be sold in pharmacies.

Conclusion: As pharmacy employees should act professionally to advice customers on all drugs, increased homeopathic knowledge in pharmacy employees could potentially improve pharmaceutical practice.

Peppermint belongs to one of most popular medicinal plants in pharmacy as well as in the food industry.

Aim: For the conventional usage, the aerial part, especially leaves, is used. This investigation was aimed at the determination of phenolic compound in peppermint rhizomes infusion and the comparison with the phenolics in leaves infusions.

Methods: For the separation and identification of the phenolic compounds, the Sykam HPLC-DAD connected with Microsaic 4500MiD^®, a single quadrupole mass spectrometer, was used.

Results: Three compounds in rhizomes and eight compounds in leaves were identified and quantified. In rhizomes, rosmarinic acid was determined as the main secondary metabolite, but its content was three times lower than that in leaves. Infusion of peppermint leaves was richer in flavonoids content with eriocitrin as a major phenolic compound.

Conclusion: Rhizomes of peppermint may also be used as a potential source of rosmarinic acid and caffeic acid derivatives.

The aim of our study was to evaluate the possibility of influencing the risk factors of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and metabolic cognitive syndrome. As a model of MetS, we used high-fat-fructose diet (HFFD) fed hypertriacylglycerolemic (HTG) rats. Control group included HTG rats fed with HFFD during 8 weeks (HFFD8). Furthermore, we tested the effect of pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies. Non-pharmacological therapy, which we chose, was a change in diet from HFFD (5 weeks) to standard one (3 weeks) and thus caloric restriction (HFFD5+3). The drug we used was rosmarinic acid (RA; 100mg/kg), which we administered to rats after 5 weeks of HFFD once a day for consecutive 3 weeks with current change in diet to standard one (HFFD5+3+RA) or during lasting last 3 weeks of HFFD (HFFD8+RA). After 8 weeks of experiment, lipid peroxidation markers, lipid profile of blood serum, and neuronal transmission and synaptic plasticity (long-term potentiation [LTP]) in hippocampal sections were evaluated in vitro. We observed a significant effect of dietary change in lipid profile (decreased total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol [LDL-cholesterol] and increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol [HDL-cholesterol]). The combination of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments caused a decrease in total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and lipid peroxidation in blood serum. Change in HFFD to standard diet without treatment resulted in slight improvement in neuronal transmission in the hippocampus and caloric restriction alone also had positive effect on LTP maintenance. Our results suggest that combination of pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches had better impact on the biochemical parameters of MetS in blood serum, but weak impact on neuronal functions in the hippocampus, where the expected positive effect was achieved only by caloric restriction.