Despite important medical progress, supportive care still plays a central role in cancer therapy. Severe tumour- and therapy-related symptoms not only affect the patient’s quality of life, but can also compromise the therapy outcome. Therefore, an effective supportive care is crucial in cancer therapy. In community pharmacies as well as in hospital pharmacies pharmacists contribute essentially to supportive care through qualified advice and individual support. Case examples within the field of cytotoxic and targeted therapy provide insight into the management of nausea and vomiting, diarrhoea, and papulopustular rash.
{"title":"Supportive care of cancer patients illustrated by case examples.","authors":"Corinna Jansen, Imke Ortland","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Despite important medical progress, supportive care still plays a central role in cancer therapy. Severe tumour- and therapy-related symptoms not only affect the patient’s quality of life, but can also compromise the therapy outcome. Therefore, an effective supportive care is crucial in cancer therapy. In community pharmacies as well as in hospital pharmacies pharmacists contribute essentially to supportive care through qualified advice and individual support. Case examples within the field of cytotoxic and targeted therapy provide insight into the management of nausea and vomiting, diarrhoea, and papulopustular rash.</p>","PeriodicalId":18540,"journal":{"name":"Medizinische Monatsschrift fur Pharmazeuten","volume":"40 2","pages":"67-76"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"36265336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A patient with cardiac insufficiency takes the ACE-Inhibitor Enalapril as well as Spironolactone regularly. In the interaction monographs of the German ABDA-database there is a note that combined use of these substances should be avoided due to an increased risk of hyperkalemia – is there a medication related problem? There is evidence from clinical studies, that combined use of ACE-inhibitors and potassium-sparing agents indeed increases the risk of severe hyperkalemia. The risk seems to be related to the dose of the potassium-sparing agent. However, in patients with cardiac insufficiency NYHA-class II-IV and an ejection fraction of ≤ 35%, the addition of spironolactone to an ACE-inhibitor and betablocking agent reduces mortality and hospitalization for cardiovascular problems. Therefore the combination is indicated in these patients. To minimize the risk for severe adverse events close monitoring of serum potassium and renal function is mandatory. Moreover, additional risk factors for hyperkalemia such as intake of potassium supplements or NSAID should be avoided.
{"title":"Combined use of an ACE-inhibitor and spironolactone in patients with heart insufficiency.","authors":"Jane Schröder, Lisa Goltz, Holger Knoth","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A patient with cardiac insufficiency takes the ACE-Inhibitor Enalapril as well as Spironolactone regularly. In the interaction monographs of the German ABDA-database there is a note that combined use of these substances should be avoided due to an increased risk of hyperkalemia – is there a medication related problem? There is evidence from clinical studies, that combined use of ACE-inhibitors and potassium-sparing agents indeed increases the risk of severe hyperkalemia. The risk seems to be related to the dose of the potassium-sparing agent. However, in patients with cardiac insufficiency NYHA-class II-IV and an ejection fraction of ≤ 35%, the addition of spironolactone to an ACE-inhibitor and betablocking agent reduces mortality and hospitalization for cardiovascular problems. Therefore the combination is indicated in these patients. To minimize the risk for severe adverse events close monitoring of serum potassium and renal function is mandatory. Moreover, additional risk factors for hyperkalemia such as intake of potassium supplements or NSAID should be avoided.</p>","PeriodicalId":18540,"journal":{"name":"Medizinische Monatsschrift fur Pharmazeuten","volume":"40 1","pages":"24-6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"36266772","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The bacterial CRISPR-Cas-system is an adaptive and inheritable immune system for the defense against invasive genetic elements such as viral DNA or plasmids. CRISPR-Cas immunity acts by integrating short sequences of non-self DNA in the cell’s CRISPR locus which allows the cell to recognize, to remember and to destroy the invasive element. In the last years the type-II-system CRISPR-Cas9 was developed as a powerful and universal tool for the sequence-specific modification of the genome also known as genome editing. Type-II-systems rely solely on one single protein, Cas9, and a non-coding, trans-activating RNA that leads the Cas9 protein to its target DNA. The RNA-guided molecular scissor Cas9 is predestinated to correct mutated genes in line with a gene therapy and to heal chronic diseases like HIV infections or virus-induced forms of cancer via deleting viral DNA that is integrated as a provirus in the host’s genome. In addition, catalytically inactive Cas9 variants (dCas9) fused to effector domains can be used to specifically tag genome sections, regulate gene expression and modify epigenetic markers.
{"title":"The adaptive bacterial immune system CRISPR-Cas and its therapeutic potential.","authors":"Larissa Tetsch","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The bacterial CRISPR-Cas-system is an adaptive and inheritable immune system for the defense against invasive genetic elements such as viral DNA or plasmids. CRISPR-Cas immunity acts by integrating short sequences of non-self DNA in the cell’s CRISPR locus which allows the cell to recognize, to remember and to destroy the invasive element. In the last years the type-II-system CRISPR-Cas9 was developed as a powerful and universal tool for the sequence-specific modification of the genome also known as genome editing. Type-II-systems rely solely on one single protein, Cas9, and a non-coding, trans-activating RNA that leads the Cas9 protein to its target DNA. The RNA-guided molecular scissor Cas9 is predestinated to correct mutated genes in line with a gene therapy and to heal chronic diseases like HIV infections or virus-induced forms of cancer via deleting viral DNA that is integrated as a provirus in the host’s genome. In addition, catalytically inactive Cas9 variants (dCas9) fused to effector domains can be used to specifically tag genome sections, regulate gene expression and modify epigenetic markers.</p>","PeriodicalId":18540,"journal":{"name":"Medizinische Monatsschrift fur Pharmazeuten","volume":"40 1","pages":"17-23"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"36266769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}