amirreza dowlati beirami

Supporting domestic production, by assuming its effect on the increase of accessibility, has been acknowledged as one of the main pharmaceutical policies from two dimensions of better provision of the drugs in the market and the increase of affordability by reducing prices. Therefore, it is expected from the domestic industries to produce pharmaceutical products that, in addition to increasing access and a sustainable supply of drugs, have competitive prices compared to the rival imported products, and reduce the medical costs imposed on patients and the health system. In this study the price of domestically produced drugs were compared with the price of the similar generic ones in India.

In this study, first, India was selected for comparison due to reasons such as low price, good quality, and the possibility of commerce despite sanctions. Then, from the Iranian pharmaceutical statistics, drugs which were only produced in Iran and were highly consumed with respect to the number of sales were included in the study. Prices of Iranian and Indian medicines were extracted from related valid websites. Finally, the price of 110 drugs were compared to determine the success rate of the domestic production industry in offering a reasonable price in the absence of foreign competitors.

 According to the findings from 57 % of the drugs under study, the median consumer price of these drugs in India was lower than the Iranian consumer price. If this comparison was made with the minimum price of the Indian medicine, this percentage would reach 88.

According to the findings mentioned above, it can be concluded that reducing the drugs prices and costs does not occur in all cases of domestic production, and this alone cannot be a good justification for a complete support of the domestic production of drugs; however, it should be noted that reducing costs is not the only reason to support domestic production of these products, and policy makers may act with regard to other factors in line with supportive policies; thus,  the reasons regarding each case should be clearly defined for the health system.

The process of matrix clean-up and extraction of analytes has a significant influence on the detection and determination of the analyte, especially in trace amounts. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are solid particles that can absorb specific molecules regarding the template molecule used in the synthesis process of each type of MIP. As a result, they can be used in more effective and more specific solid-phase extraction processes. On the others hand, mycotoxins are second metabolites of molds and fungus which are potentially cytotoxic and/or genotoxic even in trace amounts, and due to extensive consumption of cereals and the great concern of public health, several methods were developed and currently are in the process of development to detect and determine the presence and the amounts of mycotoxins in cereals. This review is aimed to investigate the application and efficacy of MIPs in detecting and determination of mycotoxins in cereals.

Currently, liver transplantation (LT) is considered as the only option for the treatment of patients with various causes of liver failure, including patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections. Overall, patients with HBV who undergo LT are at increased risk of hepatitis B infection recurrence. Although the current knowledge regarding the pathophysiology of this infection has been dramatically increased over the past few decades, it is still considered a complex disease process with varying degrees of clinical characteristics and changing patterns over time. There are various treatment strategies for preventing HBV recurrence in the LT setting. Generally, these regimens include oral nucleoside/ nucleotide analogues (NAs), hepatitis B immune globulin (HBIG), and vaccines or the combination of these drugs. The treatment strategy of choice should be based on costeffectiveness, along with other patients underlying conditions. In this case, studies indicate that potent NAs are more cost-effective than HBIG in most case scenarios. In this article, we aimed to review the general medications used in the prophylaxis of the recurrence of HBV infection after LT

Umbelliprenin, a prenylated coumarin from different species of Ferula, has demonstrated anti-cancer effects in various types of cancer cells, but the potential molecular mechanisms for the anti-angiogenic activity of umbelliprenin in breast cancer cells have not yet been studied.  In this study, we investigated the possible molecular pathways involved in the anti-angiogenic effect of umbelliprenin in EGF and CoCl2 stimulated SKBR-3 breast cancer cells.

Effects of umbelliprenin on the changes in EGFR signaling genes (EGFR, PI3K, AKT, mTOR, S6K, 4EBP1, ERK1/2, HIF-1α, HIF-1β, VEGF, VEGFR) and proteins (VEGF/HIF-1α) expression were assayed in SKBR-3 via Quantitative PCR and Western blotting assays.

Umbelliprenin dramatically decreased the living cells in a concentration related manner (IC50=103.9 µM) and non- toxic doses of umbelliprenin IC5 and IC10 (10 and 20 µM, respectively) were used for evaluating in vitro anti-angiogenic effects. Umbelliprenin significantly reduced pro-angiogenic AKT, ERK1, ERK2, mTOR, S6K, HIF-1α, HIF-1b, VEGF and VEGFR mRNAs in EGF-treated, and  AKT, ERK2, S6K, HIF-1α, HIF-1b, VEGF and VEGFR mRNAs in CoCl2-treated cells. Umbelliprenin significantly increased anti-angiogenic 4EBP1 mRNA in EGF / CoCl2-treated cells. It significantly decreased the levels of HIF-1α and VEGF proteins, in CoCl2-treated cells.

Our findings showed that umbelliprenin exhibits anti-angiogenic effects by decreasing the expression of AKT/mTOR/MAPK angiogenesis pathways in EGF or CoCl2 treated SKBR-3 breast cancer cells.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global health emergency caused by SARS-CoV-2. Unfortunately, no effective drugs have been found to date. There is also a major need for new therapies to treat this disease. The main protease is an attractive drug target among coronaviruses due to its important role in the processing of viral RNA-translated polyproteins. Objective of This study was conducted to screen data-bases of herbal compounds for potential main protease inhibitors.

Natural products from 3 database banks were first tested and filtered by ADME / toxicity, then their molecular energy was minimized, and finally, they were docked into the SARS-CoV-2 main protease and compared with indinavir.

The binding energies of 6570 molecules from different herbal compounds comprising databases were tested and five of the molecules with the highest binding energies for SARS-CoV-2 main protease docking were selected and key interactions were studied.

In conclusion, five herbal compounds including Sodwanone B, Cyclo-mulberrin, and a glycosylated derivative of kaempferol had lower docking energy com-pared to indinavir and were suggested for further research.

Primary sclerosing cholangitis is a chronic cholestatic liver disease defined by strictures of the biliary tree which could ultimately lead to liver cirrhosis and cholangiocarcinoma. Although the exact underlying etiology of this disorder is not fully understood, the pathology is believed to be caused by immune mediated mechanisms. Growing body of evidence suggests several treatment modalities mainly focusing on the inflammation aspect of this disorder. However, there is still no consensus regarding the best treatment option for these patients. Thus, the present study aimed to review the current treatment options for patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis.