Drug disposal

Ketamine is one of the most commonly abused drugs globally, posing a severe risk to social stability and human health, not only it is being used for recreational purposes, but this tasteless, odourless, and colourless drug also facilitates sexual assaults when it is mixed with drinks. Ketamine abuse is a threat for safety, and this misuse is one of the main uses of the drug. The crucial role of ketamine detection is evident in its contributions to forensic investigations, law enforcement, drug control, workplace integrity, and public health...

Pomelo sponge layer (PSL) had been considered as a potential source of soluble dietary fiber (SDF), while they were mostly disposed of as waste. To promote high-value utilization of pomelo wastes, this study extracted SDF from PSL of six varieties of pomelo, and their physicochemical, structural and functional properties were investigated. Results indicated that all PSL-SDFs showed good physicochemical and functional properties. Among them, PSL-SDF from grapefruit (GRSDF) showed better water holding capacity and swelling capacity, whereas Shatian pomelo PSL-SDF and Guanxi pomelo PSL-SDF had the highest thermal stability and oil holding capacity, respectively...

Accumulation of the amyloid β (Aβ) peptide, derived from Aβ precursor protein (APP), is a trait of Down syndrome (DS), as is early development of dementia like Alzheimer's disease (AD). Treatments for AD in DS simply do not exist. New drug therapies for AD, e.g., Lecanemab, are monoclonal antibodies designed to clear amyloid plaques composed of Aβ. The increasingly real ability to target and dispose of Aβ favors the use of these drugs in individuals with DS for AD, perhaps as earlier intervention for cognitive impairment...

BACKGROUND: Community concerns surrounding syringe waste are a common barrier to syringe services program (SSP) implementation. In Kanawha County, West Virginia, community opposition to SSPs resulted in the closure of needs-based SSPs prior to and during an HIV outbreak among persons who inject drugs (PWID). This qualitative analysis examines views of PWID and community partners on syringe waste and disposal associated with needs-based SSPs. METHODS: Qualitative interviews with 26 PWID and 45 community partners (medical and social service providers, law enforcement personnel, policymakers, and religious leaders) were conducted...

Complement is an important component of innate immune defence against pathogens and crucial for efficient immune complex disposal. These core protective activities are dependent in large part on properly regulated complement-mediated inflammation. Dysregulated complement activation, often driven by persistence of activating triggers, is a cause of pathological inflammation in numerous diseases, including neurological diseases. Increasingly, this has become apparent not only in well-recognized neuroinflammatory diseases like multiple sclerosis but also in neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases where inflammation was previously either ignored or dismissed as a secondary event...

Cholesterol-lowering drugs, antidiabetics, antiarrhythmics, antidepressants, and antibiotics belong to the most prescribed drugs worldwide. Because of the manufacture, excretion, and improper disposal of leftover drugs, the drugs enter waste waters and, subsequently, surface waters. They have been detected in surface waters all over the world, from concentrations of ng/l to concentrations several orders of magnitude higher. Since pharmaceuticals are designed to be both biologically and chemically stable, photochemical degradation by sun radiation represents a way of transformation in the natural environment...

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic prompted our team to develop new solutions for performing cardiac surgery without intravenous anesthetics due to a shortage of these drugs. We utilized an anesthetic conserving device (Sedaconda-ACD) to administer total inhaled anesthesia because specific vaporizers were unavailable for administering inhaled agents during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) in our center. We documented our experience and postoperative cardiovascular outcomes. The primary outcome was the peak level of troponin, with secondary outcomes encompassing other cardiovascular complications...

BACKGROUND: China has implemented policies to make rare diseases more affordable. While previous studies evaluated overall affordability, few have examined affordability differences across regions and disease types. Given the vastness of China and varying medical policies across cities, this study assesses the affordability of rare diseases based on China's First List of Rare Diseases (CFLRD), National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL), and outpatient chronic and special disease policies in each prefecture...

In this study, the electrochemical properties of etofenamate, an active ingredient belonging to the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug group, were investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and square wave voltammetry (SW) techniques on a disposable pencil graphite electrode (PGE). With the CV technique, reversible voltammetric waves of around +0.470 V and irreversible voltammetric waves of around +1.02 V were produced on the PGE. An environmentally friendly, selective and highly sensitive SW voltammetric method was developed using disposable PGE...

Biopharmaceutical manufacture is transitioning from batch to integrated and continuous biomanufacturing (ICB). The common framework for most ICB, potentially enables a global biomanufacturing ecosystem utilizing modular and multi-function manufacturing equipment. Integrating unit operation hardware and software from multiple suppliers, complex supply chains enabled by multiple customized single-use flow paths, and large volume buffer production/storage make this ICB vision difficult to achieve with commercially available manufacturing equipment...

INTRODUCTION: In alignment with China's national directive for improved drug management in anesthesiology, the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University initiated a quality improvement project, aiming to tackle the prevailing challenges of inefficiencies in drug administration, escalating drug costs, and the notable communication gap between pharmacists and anesthesiologists. METHODS: We employed a Plan-Do-Study-Act methodology to establish a pharmacy team and execute a multidimensional pharmaceutical intervention...

Purpose: Topical antihistamines, such as olopatadine hydrochloride, an H1 receptor antagonist, are commonly prescribed for treating allergic conjunctivitis. Drug delivery via eye drops has many deficiencies including a short residence time due to tear drainage via the nasolacrimal duct, which results in a low bioavailability and potential for side effects. These deficiencies could be mitigated by a drug-eluting contact lens such as the recently approved ACUVUE® THERAVISION™ WITH KETOTIFEN which is a daily disposable etafilcon, a drug-eluting contact lens with ketotifen (19 μg per lens)...

Currently, many environmental and energy-related problems are threatening the future of our planet. In October 2022, the Worldmeter recorded the world population as 7.9 billion people, estimating that there will be an increase of 2 billion by 2057. The rapid growth of the population and the continuous increase in needs are causing worrying conditions, such as pollution, climate change, global warming, waste disposal, and natural resource reduction. Looking for novel and innovative methods to overcome these global troubles is a must for our common welfare...

IMPORTANCE: A substantial number of opioid analgesics dispensed into communities will go unused and be susceptible to diversion for misuse. Convenient, efficient, and environmentally safe mechanisms for disposal are needed to prevent the diversion of unused opioid analgesics. OBJECTIVE: This initiative piloted the feasibility of distributing drug deactivation pouches in a community setting and examined community members' acceptance, intention to use drug deactivation pouches, and their current disposal practices of unused opioid analgesics...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: In response to documented duodenoscope-related infectious outbreaks of multidrug-resistant organisms, the Food and Drug Administration has recommended a transition to duodenoscopes with innovative designs, including duodenoscopes with disposable components or fully disposable duodenoscopes. We aim to characterize the learning curve (LC) for a single-use disposable duodenoscope. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of a prospectively collected database from 31 patients who underwent ERCP by a single, experienced operator using the EXALT Model D® (Boston Scientific, Marlborough) disposable duodenoscope at a single tertiary referral center...

BACKGROUND: Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) remain the most used tobacco product among young people in the United States (US). Given the need for current data on popular e-cigarette products, the current study leverages data from a rapid surveillance survey of young people and examines whether the top e-cigarette brands identified from this source align with US market data. METHODOLOGY: Data were obtained from current e-cigarette users (N = 4145) participating in the Truth Continuous Tracker Online (CTO; a cross-sectional tracking survey of 15-24 year-olds sourced from the national Dynata panel) and NielsenIQ retail scanner data, collected in 2022 and aggregated by quarter (Q1, Q2, and Q3)...

Metformin is an oral biguanides hypoglycaemic agent, which used to lower the blood glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Many analytical techniques have been used to quantify the drug in different pharmaceutical dosage forms; however, most of these methods have limited throughput in the quality control application. A disposable potentiometric microsensor responsive to metformin has recently been reported. For the first time, herein, this method of analysis has been validated according to IUPAC recommendations and successfully applied in the determination of metformin drug in some dosage form...

INTRODUCTION: Medicine plays a crucial role in the field of healthcare as a therapeutically significant pharmaceutical product. By effectively preventing diseases, medicine has the power to save countless lives and improve the quality of life for people worldwide. However, despite hospitals' efforts to provide medical care to patients, a significant issue arises from the substantial amount of drugs that go unused due to expiration dates. This problem is particularly prevalent in resource-limited countries like Ethiopia, where the pharmaceutical supply system fails to adequately address the issue of expired drugs in public hospitals, leading to an unsatisfactory situation...

BACKGROUND: Prior studies have demonstrated that the e-cigarette market contains a large number of brands. Identifying these existing e-cigarette brands is a key element of market surveillance, which will further assist in policy making and compliance checks. OBJECTIVE: To facilitate the surveillance of the diverse product landscape in the e-cigarette market, we constructed a semantic database of e-cigarette brands that have appeared in the US market as of 2020-2022...

Every year, the overprescription, misuse, and improper disposal of antibiotics have led to the rampant development of drug-resistant pathogens and, in turn, a significant increase in the number of patients who die of drug-resistant fungal infections. Recently, researchers have begun investigating the use of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) as next-generation antifungal agents to inhibit the growth of drug-resistant fungi. The antifungal activity of alpha-helical peptides designed using the cationic amino acids containing lysine and arginine and the hydrophobic amino acids containing isoleucine and tryptophan were evaluated using 10 yeast and mold fungi...