The Drug Chat with Dr. Wambui

We are at the end of the road of our anti-platelet pathway exploration!!!! We look at 2 different ways of inhibiting the platelets from forming a clot and the different patient populations that these drugs are used. Hooray to the anti-platelets though I'm sure this isn't the end there must be another novel/cutting edge therapy just around the corner that a scientist/discoverer is just about to unveil......

In today's episode I give a gigantic high five to our scientists/discoveres! Figuring out yet another way to stop clot formation by working out the puzzle of how platelets work to form a clot. With that worked out they then make drugs that put a stop 🛑 to this and voila.... no clots are formed.

What a lovely name to pronounce Thienopyridines! Another nugget as to how platelets work to cause clots to form and how this class stops that from happening. Very Sci-Fi how these platelets work.

In the year 1899 (others say 1897) Asprin was marketed by Bayer Pharmaceuticals. Yep and we still use it today talk of super drug. It's used and indicated in many areas but again tunnel vision in this episode where we are specifically interested in how are clots not formed when asprin is around.

Warfarin is over 60 YEARS OLD yet it's the most prescribed oral anticoagulant. Listen up, refresh yourself on this oldie but really a good goodie.

A stroke is an emergency! We need to break down that clot, enter the thrombo(clot) lytics(disintegrate) class of drugs.

In this episode we discuss strokes. The leading cause of disability, dementia and death globally. We answer questions like what causes a stroke and the types of strokes. This is an important conversation especially with the statistics that are out there. 

It's the last few classes of the anti-hypertensive drugs. You may not use this routinely but...... they do lower blood pressure. Very interesting how these work. Or bodies are truly a work of art.

I am sure you have heard them called the "water pill" here is your opportunity to learn or remind thyself of exactly how does this reduce volume (make me pee more). Nope this is not a weight loss drug. 

Hey Podcasters! Calcium Channel Blockers (CCBs). Calcium is found in lots of places in your body but in this episode we stay in the heart and how calcium is used on a normal working day in your heart.. then we plug in the CCBs to treat hypertension. Listen up inquisitives.

The second of the RAAS system blockers! Very similar to the ACE Inhibitors with a little twist. "And all the Sartans assembled........."

Here we are with the ACE Inhibitors!! Yet another versatile class of drugs and oh how smart those scientists were to discover them. Listen up.

First of these drugs has been around since the 1960s!! We still use them. Some important info especially on the Side Effects.... Listen up!

Whichever set of data you look at globally or within your country cardiovascular diseases leads in the causes of death. Hypertension or High Blood Pressure is a risk factor for these diseases. In this session we will as usual check out how the body works on a normal day then apply the drugs that we use to treat. Stay tuned.......

The description of how these drugs work is like a really good Sci-Fi movie! It's the last class of the antiretroviral drugs we look at. The first novel ARV drug in over a decade is in this class. Listen up!!

In this class, the virus is inside the cell however we stop its replication by inhibiting yet another enzyme.

Just this year this class got a new drug, how encouraging is that! We are still adding on to the ARVs who knows cure could be around the corner.

Amazing work figuring out how to stop the virus from getting into the host cells. Kudos to those drug discoverers. Today we look at a group of drugs that are entry inhibitors. Increase your knowledge on this.....

A unique drug that works outside of the cell. Stops the virus from getting in!

These group of drugs still going strong!! First one approved in 1995. Yet another enzyme being inhibited to get this virus under control (read suppressed). Listen up!

Last episode we looked at the NRTIs now we have the NNRTIs. What's the difference besides the extra N you ask. Listen up and learn how they work they get used quite a bit.

In this episode we discuss the first of the drug classes used to suppress the HIV virus. Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs) were the first class of drugs approved way back in 1987. As usual we discuss how they work to suppress the virus, the associated kinetics and side effects to look out for. 

The first reported case(s) of HIV/AIDS was in 1981. Today majority of those that are HIV positive live in low and middle income countries, and many of them were not born in 1981. In this episode we look at the HIV global statistics and a recap on how the virus attacks in preparation of the HIV/AIDS drug classes discussions.

Antimicrobial resistance is an emerging global public health crisis as flagged by the World Health Organization. We are joined by Dr. Beatrice Kimani and Dr. Sheenal Davdra pharmacists at the Mama Lucy Kibaki hospital and Mbagathi hospital respectively (both hospitals in Nairobi). They each carried out a health study in their respective hospitals on prescribing practices of antimicrobials. In this episode they share with us as health professionals on the ground what they found out and pointers on how they think this crisis can be averted. 

Hint: There's a high correlation between high use of antimicrobials and resistance.

We end the chat on anti-diabetic drugs with insulin. Listen up to the interesting journey that insulin has had to get to where we are today. An encouragement to researchers globally to keep on keeping on!

The drug discoverers out there are a fabulous bunch! For a disease that has been around for so long even today we are inquisitive enough to find new ways to treat this disease. Enter the Sodium -Glucose co-transporter type 2 inhibitors that lower blood glucose without insulin playing a role in this reduction, and the first in this class was approved in 2013! Yes just the other day (other day in drug years).

What an amazing discovery these drugs are. With novel ways of beating diabetes, they go beyond just insulin secretion, FASCINATING! Listen up to how our bodies work then apply these drugs.

What a captivating name.....Thiazolidindiones!! Besides understanding how these drugs work, we learn what a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program is, and why drugs are placed on this program. 

Sandra Muchilwa is a registered nurse with five years experience in Nairobi Kenya. As a radiology nurse she shares with us her journey in becoming a nurse and what her experience as a radiology nurse is like. Join us and learn about a different role in nursing. 

In this episode we discuss another two of the oral anti-diabetics. These two get grouped together because they have some similarities on how they decrease blood glucose. Hint.... Hint not insulin production.

In this episode we look at "What is Diabetes Mellitus?". I

t's a short introduction to help us better understand how the different classes of drugs get plugged in with the goal to treat and control high blood sugar levels.

Medication errors are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems. To this end in 2017, WHO launched a global initiative to reduce severe, avoidable medication-associated harm in all countries by 50% over the next 5 years.

In this episode Dr. Wambui has a chat with Dr. Kyle Hultgren the founding director of the Purdue University College of Pharmacy's Center for Medication Safety Advancement. They talk about the importance of Medication safety covering topics like; what is medication safety, who is responsible for medication safety, and strategies to ensure medication safety in healthcare. 

Welcome to the final episode of season 1!!! In this episode we tackle the following classes: PI3K inhibitors, mTOR inhibitors, Proteosome inhibitors, Histone deacetylase inhibitors, DNA Methylation inhibitors, Hedgehog pathway blockers, and CAR T cell therapy. What an exciting group of target therapies, novel ways to fight cancer that are really fascinating.

Ok I change my mind, growth factors are the most amazing pieces in the human body bar none! We not only chat about growth factors but also look at Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors as they work in the inhibition of how growth factors exhibit their work.

Cancer cells can be sooooo smart they figured out a way not to be detected by our immune system. However we are smarter! We came up with drugs that counteract them. "Checkmate Cancer!!"

In this episode we tackle drugs that are immunomodulators. We get to see how these drugs activate or boost the immune system. We also have  a recap of how these immune cells work and relate this to these drugs.

This is the last block of the hormone therapy drugs. We go through the Aromatase inhibitors, Gonadotropin releasing agonists, and Gonadotropin releasing hormone antagonists. 

In this episode we chat about drugs that are working on receptors. Both prostate cancer and breast cancer depend on hormones to grow. How about we stop the hormones from their action. That's exactly what these drugs do. Ride along with me.

The chemotherapies that have been derived from plants. This is the last of the "Traditional Chemotherapies', how they came to be is very impressive. We chat about how they work of course and seal of the session with miscellaneous anti-cancer agents.

We are at the tail end of the traditional chemotherapies. Yippee! The mechanism of action of these two classes, with associated toxicities and pharmacokinetics are discussed in this episode. As always we apply concepts of pharmacology to better learn and retain how the drugs work. 

Our journey continues with another 2 classes of anticancer drugs. Looking at how they plug into our bodies, plus we use examples of the drugs in these classes for better understanding.