Search

Edible swiftlet's nest (ESN) is dried gelatinized saliva secreted by swiftlets during the breeding season. The ESN has been widely consumed as a food and medicine since the ancient dynasty of China, particularly in the practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). As a food with health-promoting effects, this made ESN a potential functional food. Whereby, functional food is food that can be consumed in the daily diet which then enhanced human health through nutritional aspect, but not as the cure of a disease. In this review, we discussed ESN as a potential functional food through the bioactive nutritional components and health benefits of ESN in promoting good health. Scientific evidence has proven that ESN consists of the unique glycoprotein of great value which provides high nutritional and functional properties for human health benefits. These include anti-ageing, anti-hypertension, immunity and neurological enhancement contributed by not only the unique glycoprotein but also sialic acid, epidermal growth factor (EGF) and other bioactive compounds. The ESN appeared to be categorized as a functional food, with various functionality, applications, nutritional composition and therapeutic benefits committed by its components. This review also pronounces recent development of ESN as hydrolysate in the form of bioactive glycopeptide with improvements in terms of solubility, functional and nutritional benefits that broaden its applications in various industries. [Display omitted] • Bioactive nutrients in ESN promotes health beneficial properties for all consumers. • Traditional beliefs and medicinal properties of ESN proven scientifically. • Nutritional and biological health benefits of ESN fulfilled functional food criteria. • Development of ESN hydrolysate with enzyme technology enhanced biological benefits. • Application of ESN as bioactive glycopeptide broaden utilization in many industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Treatment with combined sofosbuvir and velpatasvir has resulted in high sustained virological response rates in patients chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) with genotypes 1-6 in clinical trials and real-world settings, but its efficacy and safety has not been assessed in Asia, a region with diverse HCV genotypes., Methods: In this single-arm, open-label, phase 3 trial, we recruited patients from 38 sites across China, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, and Malaysia, who were chronically infected with HCV genotypes 1-6, and were HCV treatment-naive or treatment-experienced, either without cirrhosis or with compensated cirrhosis. Patients self-administered a combined sofosbuvir (400 mg) and velpatasvir (100 mg) tablet once daily for 12 weeks. The primary efficacy endpoint was sustained virological response, defined as HCV RNA less than 15 IU/mL at 12 weeks after completion of treatment (SVR12), assessed in all patients who received at least one dose of study drug. The primary safety endpoint was the proportion of adverse events leading to premature discontinuation of study drug. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02671500, and is completed., Findings: Between April 14, 2016, and June 30, 2017, 375 patients were enrolled in the study, of whom 374 completed the full treatment course and one discontinued treatment. Overall, 362 (97% [95% CI 94-98]) of 375 patients achieved SVR12. Among 42 patients with HCV genotype 3b, all of whom had baseline resistance-associated substitutions in NS5A, 25 (89% [95% CI 72-98]) of 28 patients without cirrhosis and seven (50% [23-77]) of 14 patients with cirrhosis achieved SVR12. The most common adverse events were upper respiratory tract infection (36 [10%] patients) and headache (18 [5%] patients). There were no discontinuations due to adverse events. Serious adverse events were reported in three (1%) patients, none of which was judged to be related to sofosbuvir-velpatasvir treatment., Interpretation: Consistent with data from other phase 3 studies, single-tablet sofosbuvir-velpatasvir for 12 weeks is an efficacious and safe treatment for Asian patients with chronic HCV infection, but might have lower efficacy in those infected with HCV genotype 3b and with cirrhosis., Funding: Gilead Sciences., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To culturally adapt a Chinese version of the Hepatitis Quality of Life Questionnaire (HQLQ) and assess its suitability for use in Chinese-speaking hepatitis B virus (HBV patients in Singapore., Study: Reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficients and intra-class correlation coefficients. Item-to-scale correlation was assessed using Spearman's rank correlations (rho) between scale scores and their constituent items. Convergent and divergent construct validities were tested in three and two a priori hypotheses, respectively, and the correlations were assessed using Spearman's rank correlation coefficients., Results: When tested in 134 HBV patients, the test-retest reliability was supported with all scales showing acceptable correlation coefficients (i.e., alpha>0.7). Item-to-scale correlations were good with most items highly correlated with their hypothesized scales. Convergent and divergent construct validities were supported by the hypothesized correlations between the HQLQ and the EQ-5D domains., Conclusions: The culturally adapted questionnaire has good validity and reliability for use in Singapore.

The pharmacokinetics of telbivudine were evaluated in adult patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection following once-daily oral administration at escalating doses of 25, 50, 100, 200, 400, and 800 mg/day for 4 weeks. Telbivudine was rapidly absorbed after oral administration, with the median times T(max) to the maximum plasma concentration (C(max)) ranging from 0.8 to 3.0 h postdosing across cohorts. Single-dose and steady-state maximum C(max)s and the areas under the plasma concentration-time curve from time zero to time t (AUC(0-t)s) increased proportionally with dose. At steady-state, the values of C(max) and AUC(0-t) were higher than those obtained after the administration of a single dose, indicative of a slight accumulation, with the ratios of the steady-state value to the value after the administration of a single dose ranging from 1.14 to 1.49 for C(max) and from 1.40 to 1.70 for AUC(0-t). While the elimination of telbivudine from plasma was apparently monophasic over the 8-h sampling period, the substantial steady-state trough plasma levels observed in the groups receiving doses of 100 to 800 mg were clearly indicative of the presence of a second slower elimination phase, with the mean estimated half-lives ranging from 29.5 to 41.3 h by compartmental modeling analysis. Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic analyses by using maximum-effect modeling established a quantitative relationship between a reduction in serum HBV DNA levels and parameters of drug exposure, in particular, the steady-state C(max) and AUC(0-t). In summary, this study showed that telbivudine exhibits dose-proportional plasma pharmacokinetics with sustained steady-state drug exposure and exposure-related antiviral activity, supporting the need for further clinical studies by use of a once-daily regimen in patients with chronic HBV infection.