Project description:BackgroundAdverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) are of great public health concern. FDA-approved drug labeling summarizes ADRs of a drug product mainly in three sections, i.e., Boxed Warning (BW), Warnings and Precautions (WP), and Adverse Reactions (AR), where the severity of ADRs are intended to decrease in the order of BW > WP > AR. Several reported studies have extracted ADRs from labeling documents, but most, if not all, did not discriminate the severity of the ADRs by the different labeling sections. Such a practice could overstate or underestimate the impact of certain ADRs to the public health. In this study, we applied the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) to drug labeling and systematically analyzed and compared the ADRs from the three labeling sections with a specific emphasis on analyzing serious ADRs presented in BW, which is of most drug safety concern.ResultsThis study investigated New Drug Application (NDA) labeling documents for 1164 single-ingredient drugs using Oracle Text search to extract MedDRA terms. We found that only a small portion of MedDRA Preferred Terms (PTs), 3819 out of 21,920 or 17.42%, were observed in a whole set of documents. In detail, 466/3819 (12.0%) PTs were in BW, 2023/3819 (53.0%) were in WP, and 2961/3819 (77.5%) were in AR sections. We also found a higher overlap of top 20 occurring BW PTs with WP sections compared to AR sections. Within the MedDRA System Organ Class levels, serious ADRs (sADRs) from BW were prevalent in Nervous System disorders and Vascular disorders. A Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) revealed that drugs within the same therapeutic category shared the same ADR patterns in BW (e.g., nervous system drug class is highly associated with drug abuse terms such as dependence, substance abuse, and respiratory depression).ConclusionsThis study demonstrated that combining MedDRA standard terminologies with data mining techniques facilitated computer-aided ADR analysis of drug labeling. We also highlighted the importance of labeling sections that differ in seriousness and application in drug safety. Using sADRs primarily related to BW sections, we illustrated a prototype approach for computer-aided ADR monitoring and studies which can be applied to other public health documents.
Project description:BACKGROUND:The high HIV prevalence in South Africa may potentially be shaping the local adverse drug reaction (ADR) burden. We aimed to describe the prevalence and characteristics of serious ADRs at admission, and during admission, to two South African children's hospitals. METHODS:We reviewed the folders of children admitted over sequential 30-day periods in 2015 to the medical wards and intensive care units of each hospital. We identified potential ADRs using a trigger tool developed for this study. A multidisciplinary team assessed ADR causality, type, seriousness, and preventability through consensus discussion. We used multivariate logistic regression to explore associations with serious ADRs. RESULTS:Among 1050 patients (median age 11?months, 56% male, 2.8% HIV-infected) with 1106 admissions we found 40 serious ADRs (3.8 per 100 drug-exposed admissions), including 9/40 (23%) preventable serious ADRs, and 8/40 (20%) fatal or near-fatal serious ADRs. Antibacterials, corticosteroids, psycholeptics, immunosuppressants, and antivirals were the most commonly implicated drug classes. Preterm neonates and children in middle childhood (6 to 11?years) were at increased risk of serious ADRs compared to infants (under 1?year) and term neonates: adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 5.97 (95% confidence interval 1.30 to 27.3) and aOR 3.63 (1.24 to 10.6) respectively. Other risk factors for serious ADRs were HIV infection (aOR 3.87 (1.14 to 13.2) versus HIV-negative) and increasing drug count (aOR 1.08 (1.04 to 1.12) per additional drug). CONCLUSIONS:Serious ADR prevalence in our survey was similar to the prevalence found elsewhere. In our setting, serious ADRs were associated with HIV-infection and the antiviral drug class was one of the most commonly implicated. Similar to other sub-Saharan African studies, a large proportion of serious ADRs were fatal or near-fatal. Many serious ADRs were preventable.
Project description:Identifying genetic factors responsible for serious adverse drug reaction (SADR) is of critical importance to personalized medicine. However, genome-wide association studies are hampered due to the lack of case-control samples, and the selection of candidate genes is limited by the lack of understanding of the underlying mechanisms of SADRs. We hypothesize that drugs causing the same type of SADR might share a common mechanism by targeting unexpectedly the same SADR-mediating protein. Hence we propose an approach of identifying the common SADR-targets through constructing and mining an in silico chemical-protein interactome (CPI), a matrix of binding strengths among 162 drug molecules known to cause at least one type of SADR and 845 proteins. Drugs sharing the same SADR outcome were also found to possess similarities in their CPI profiles towards this 845 protein set. This methodology identified the candidate gene of sulfonamide-induced toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN): all nine sulfonamides that cause TEN were found to bind strongly to MHC I (Cw*4), whereas none of the 17 control drugs that do not cause TEN were found to bind to it. Through an insight into the CPI, we found the Y116S substitution of MHC I (B*5703) enhances the unexpected binding of abacavir to its antigen presentation groove, which explains why B*5701, not B*5703, is the risk allele of abacavir-induced hypersensitivity. In conclusion, SADR targets and the patient-specific off-targets could be identified through a systematic investigation of the CPI, generating important hypotheses for prospective experimental validation of the candidate genes.
Project description:Oncology-associated adverse drug/device reactions can be fatal. Some clinicians who treat single patients with severe oncology-associated toxicities have researched case series and published this information. We investigated motivations and experiences of select individuals leading such efforts. Clinicians treating individual patients who developed oncology-associated serious adverse drug events were asked to participate. Inclusion criteria included having index patient information, reporting case series, and being collaborative with investigators from two National Institutes of Health funded pharmacovigilance networks. Thirty-minute interviews addressed investigational motivation, feedback from pharmaceutical manufacturers, FDA personnel, and academic leadership, and recommendations for improving pharmacovigilance. Responses were analyzed using constant comparative methods of qualitative analysis. Overall, 18 clinicians met inclusion criteria and 14 interviewees are included. Primary motivations were scientific curiosity, expressed by six clinicians. A less common theme was public health related (three clinicians). Six clinicians received feedback characterized as supportive from academic leaders, while four clinicians received feedback characterized as negative. Three clinicians reported that following the case series publication they were invited to speak at academic institutions worldwide. Responses from pharmaceutical manufacturers were characterized as negative by 12 clinicians. One clinician's wife called the post-reporting time the "Maalox month," while another clinician reported that the manufacturer collaboratively offered to identify additional cases of the toxicity. Responses from FDA employees were characterized as collaborative for two clinicians, neutral for five clinicians, unresponsive for negative by six clinicians. Three clinicians endorsed developing improved reporting mechanisms for individual physicians, while 11 clinicians endorsed safety activities that should be undertaken by persons other than a motivated clinician who personally treats a patient with a severe adverse drug/device reaction. Our study provides some of the first reports of clinician motivations and experiences with reporting serious or potentially fatal oncology-associated adverse drug or device reactions. Overall, it appears that negative feedback from pharmaceutical manufacturers and mixed feedback from the academic community and/or the FDA were reported. Big data, registries, Data Safety Monitoring Boards, and pharmacogenetic studies may facilitate improved pharmacovigilance efforts for oncology-associated adverse drug reactions. These initiatives overcome concerns related to complacency, indifference, ignorance, and system-level problems as barriers to documenting and reporting adverse drug events- barriers that have been previously reported for clinician reporting of serious adverse drug reactions.
Project description:Background:The Protecting Canadians from Unsafe Drugs Act will eventually require institutions to report all serious adverse drug reactions (ADRs), although the proposed regulations do not yet define what will need to be reported and by whom. Knowledge about the occurrence of serious ADRs in the hospital setting is needed to optimize the effectiveness of reporting and to determine the potential implications of mandatory reporting. Objectives:To quantify and characterize suspected serious ADRs in patients admitted to a general medicine service, to assess the likelihood of causality, and to determine inter-rater agreement for identification of ADRs and assessment of their likelihood. Methods:This prospective observational study involved 60 consecutive patients admitted to a general medicine service at a tertiary care teaching centre starting on March 28, 2016. The primary outcome was the number of serious ADRs, defined by Health Canada as ADRs that result in hospital admission, congenital malformation, persistent or significant disability or incapacity, or death; that are life-threatening; or that require significant intervention to prevent one of these outcomes. Medical records were reviewed independently by pairs of pharmacists for serious ADRs, and the likelihood of causality was assessed using the World Health Organization-Uppsala Monitoring Centre system. Inter-rater agreement was calculated using the kappa score, and disagreements were resolved by discussion and consensus. Results:Twenty-three serious ADRs occurred in the sample of 60 patients. The proportion of patients experiencing a serious ADR that contributed to the original hospital admission was 19/60 (32%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 20%-43%), and 4 patients (7%, 95% CI 0%-13%) experienced a serious ADR during their hospital stay. Inter-rater agreement for occurrence of serious ADRs was moderate (kappa 0.58, 95% CI 0.35-0.76). Conclusion:Reportable serious ADRs were common among patients admitted to a general medicine service. Canadian hospitals would face difficulties reporting all serious ADRs because of the frequency of their occurrence and the subjectivity of their identification.
Project description:MotivationAdverse drug reactions (ADRs) are one of the main causes of death and a major financial burden on the world's economy. Due to the limitations of the animal model, computational prediction of serious and rare ADRs is invaluable. However, current state-of-the-art computational methods do not yield significantly better predictions of rare ADRs than random guessing.ResultsWe present a novel method, based on the theory of 'compressed sensing' (CS), which can accurately predict serious side-effects of candidate and market drugs. Not only is our method able to infer new chemical-ADR associations using existing noisy, biased and incomplete databases, but our data also demonstrate that the accuracy of CS in predicting a serious ADR for a candidate drug increases with increasing knowledge of other ADRs associated with the drug. In practice, this means that as the candidate drug moves up the different stages of clinical trials, the prediction accuracy of our method will increase accordingly.Availability and implementationThe program is available at https://github.com/poleksic/side-effects.Supplementary informationSupplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Project description:Persistent severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection is difficult to treat. Here, we report a case of 5-month persistent coronavirus disease 2019 in an immunocompromised patient who was successfully treated with 30 consecutive days of remdesivir. Prolonged remdesivir infusion with concurrent cycle threshold monitoring might provide a potential solution to cure these patients with difficult-to-treat infections.
Project description:BackgroundThe impact of remdesivir (RDV) on mortality rates in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is controversial, and the mortality effect in subgroups of baseline disease severity has been incompletely explored. The purpose of this study was to assess the association of RDV with mortality rates in patients with COVID-19.MethodsIn this retrospective cohort study we compared persons receiving RDV with those receiving best supportive care (BSC). Patients hospitalized between 28 February and 28 May 2020 with laboratory-confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection were included with the development of COVID-19 pneumonia on chest radiography and hypoxia requiring supplemental oxygen or oxygen saturation ≤94% with room air. The primary outcome was overall survival, assessed with time-dependent Cox proportional hazards regression and multivariable adjustment, including calendar time, baseline patient characteristics, corticosteroid use, and random effects for hospital.ResultsA total of 1138 patients were enrolled, including 286 who received RDV and 852 treated with BSC, 400 of whom received hydroxychloroquine. Corticosteroids were used in 20.4% of the cohort (12.6% in RDV and 23% in BSC). Comparing persons receiving RDV with those receiving BSC, the hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) for death was 0.46 (.31-.69) in the univariate model (P < .001) and 0.60 (.40-.90) in the risk-adjusted model (P = .01). In the subgroup of persons with baseline use of low-flow oxygen, the hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) for death in RDV compared with BSC was 0.63 (.39-1.00; P = .049).ConclusionTreatment with RDV was associated with lower mortality rates than BSC. These findings remain the same in the subgroup with baseline use of low-flow oxygen.
Project description:Data on the efficacy of remdesivir in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) are limited in pregnant patients since they have been excluded from clinical trials. We aimed to investigate some clinical outcomes following remdesivir administration in pregnancy. This was a retrospective cohort study conducted on pregnant women with moderate to severe COVID-19. The enrolled patients were divided into two groups with and without remdesivir treatment. The primary outcomes of this study were the length of hospital and intensive care unit stay; respiratory parameters of hospital day 7 including respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, and mode of oxygen support; discharge until days 7 and 14, and need for home oxygen therapy. Secondary outcomes included some maternal and neonatal consequences. Eighty-one pregnant women (57 in the remdesivir group and 24 in the non-remdesivir group) were included. The two study groups were comparable according to the baseline demographic and clinical characteristics. Of the respiratory outcomes, remdesivir was significantly associated with a reduced length of hospital stay (p = 0.021) and also with a lower level of oxygen requirement in patients on low-flow oxygen [odds ratio (OR) 3.669]. Among the maternal consequences, no patients in the remdesivir group developed preeclampsia but three patients (12.5%) experienced this complication in the non-remdesivir group (p = 0.024). Furthermore, in patients with moderate COVID-19, the percentage of emergency termination was significantly lower in remdesivir group (OR 2.46). Our results demonstrated some probable benefits of remdesivir in respiratory and also maternal outcomes. Further investigations with a larger sample size should confirm these results.