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Several developments and research methods are ongoing in drug technology and chemistry research to elicit effectiveness regarding the therapeutic activity of drugs along with photoprotection for their molecular integrity. The detrimental effect of UV light induces damaged cells and DNA, which leads to skin cancer and other phototoxic effects. The application of sunscreen shields to the skin is important, along with recommended UV filters. Avobenzone is widely used as a UVA filter for skin photoprotection in sunscreen formulations. However, keto-enol tautomerism propagates photodegradation into it, which further channelizes the phototoxic and photoirradiation effects, further limiting its use. Several approaches have been used to counter these issues, including encapsulation, antioxidants, photostabilizers, and quenchers. To seek the gold standard approach for photoprotection in photosensitive drugs, combinations of strategies have been implemented to identify effective and safe sunscreen agents. The stringent regulatory guidelines for sunscreen formulations, along with the availability of limited FDA-approved UV filters, have led many researchers to develop perfect photostabilization strategies for available photostable UV filters, such as avobenzone. From this perspective, the objective of the current review is to summarize the recent literature on drug delivery strategies implemented for the photostabilization of avobenzone that could be useful to frame industrially oriented potential strategies on a large scale to circumvent all possible photounstable issues of avobenzone.

Focuses on a study that surgically treated several patients with celiac axis compression. Clinical presentation; Operative findings; Results; Discussion.

The role of syphilis and alcohol was investigated in a prospective study of patients with cirrhosis of liver in Uganda, and results were correlated with the histological type of cirrhosis, and serological tests for hepatitis B antigen (HB Ag). Eighteen out of eighty (22·5%) patients with histologically-proven cirrhosis had positive serology for syphilis (VDRL and TPI). A high incidence of alcoholism (80%) and syphilis (60%) was found in patients with micronodular cirrhosis who were all negative for HB Ag. By contrast, HB Ag was detected in 37% of patients with macronodular cirrhosis who had a much smaller incidence of syphilis and alcoholism. Although chronic infection with hepatitis B virus related to HB Ag appears to be an important factor in the pathogenesis of cirrhosis in at least 30% of cases, infection acquired during past treatment for syphilis is not an important cause of the association of syphilis with cirrhosis in this population. Subdivision of patients with cirrhosis into those with and those without a history of severe alcohol abuse showed that the difference between the incidence of syphilis in the two groups is significant statistically. However, evidence of syphilis in association with non-alcoholic as well as alcoholic cirrhosis in this and other previously reported series suggests that the association between the two diseases cannot be entirely explained through the common factor of alcoholism, and other factors may also be responsible. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Carnosinase, the dipeptidase which hydrolyses carnosine and other histidine-containing dipeptides, was assayed in mucosal tissues of the human and of the rat gut. Kinetic properties of the intestinal enzyme were found to be similar to carnosinase of other animal tissues. Little or no activity was detected in human gastric or colonic mucosa, and the levels were lower in duodenal than jejunal mucosa. The distribution of carnosinase is similar to that of the disaccharidases. Mean carnosinase activity was 8-8 units/g weight in 15 patients with histologically normal mucosa compared with 5-7 units in five with villous atrophy. The enzyme levels increased with histological improvement of the mucosa in patients with coeliac disease on a gluten-free diet. Tolerance curves for carnosine and its constitutent amino acids showed malabsorption of the dipeptide in a patient with carnosinase deficiency. It is concluded that the intestinal mucosa has much less hydrolase activity for carnosine than for glycylglycine and other dipeptidases, and the relatively slow hydrolysis appears to be the rate-limiting step in the total absorptive process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sera were tested for autoantibodies in 98 patients with cryptogenic cirrhosis in Uganda and results correlated with serological tests for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBs Ag) and antibody to HBs Ag (HBs Ab). Smooth muscle antibodies (SMA) were detected in 23 (24%) of the patients but there was no difference in the incidence of SMA between HBs At-positive and negative cases. Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) were detected in five cases; mitochrondrial, gastric and thyroid antibodies were not found in any patient. Unlike other geographical locations autoimmune mechanisms appear to play little part in the progression of chronic liver disease in Uganda Africans: Hepatitis B surface antigen was present in 86 (87%) and HBs Ab in 47 (48%) of the patients. Although evidence for past exposure to hepatitis B virus (as shown by detection of HBs Ab) was present in at least 80 out of the 62 HBs Ag-negative cases, there was no greater incidence of autoantibodies in HBs Ag-negative patients with or without HBs Ab. persistent infection with hepatitis B virus and continuing liver damage may be an important factor but these results do not favor a role for the virus in causing chronic liver disease by triggering off an autoimmune reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The activities of jejunal mucosal peptide hydrolases for glycylglycine, glycyl-L-leucine and L-leucylglycine, were assayed in 37 patients. Eight patients, four of whom had Crohn's disease, were found to have a marked reduction in the activity of glycylglycine dipeptidase and, to a lesser extent, of the other two hydrolases. Although absorption of glycine in the two groups was similar, there was malabsorption of glycylglycine in the patients with reduced dipeptidases as shown by a flat absorption curve. The importance of peptide hydrolases of small-intestinal mucosa in the final digestion of proteins, and the implications of peptidase deficiency in disease states is discussed. It is concluded that significant peptidase deficiency may occur even when the mucosa is otherwise histologically completely normal, similar to some states of disaccharidase deficiency described in recent years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The clinical features in a series of 24 patients with hypothermia treated at Mulago Hospital, Kampala, are described. Hypothermia developed in all when the environmental temperature did not fall below 16 degrees. There was a preponderance of males; 14 of the 24 cases were over 50 years old. The most common predisposing factors were severe undernutrition or malnutrition with wasting and almost complete absence of subcutaneous fat, and anaemia present in over two thirds of the patients. Hypoglycaemia appeared to be the immediate precipitating factor in at least five patients. Acute pancreatitis was found in three of the four patients who died unexpectedly 2-7 days after recovery from hypothermia; focal pancreatitis and fat necrosis was also present in six other cases. It is concluded that hypothermia is not uncommon, and is a dangerous complication amongst patients with severe under- or malnutrition, and can occur even under "tropical" conditions, when the environmental temperature does not fall below 16 degrees.