Deferasirox in thalassemia: a comparative study between an innovator drug and its copy among a sample of Iraqi patients

Background:

The health care industry is witnessing an increasing trend in the use of generic medicines because of their presumed low cost compared with innovator medicines. The aim of this study was to determine and compare the performance of the copy drug Osveral^® and its innovator drug deferasirox (Exjade^®).

Methods:

A prospective observational study including 223 patients receiving the branded medicine Exjade^® and 101 patients receiving the copy Osveral^® was carried out. Data were assessed for a 1-year period and included clinical symptoms, serum ferritin (SF), serum creatinine (SC), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT). Data were analyzed with SPSS version 22 software (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA).

Results:

The median age of the sample was 8 years. There was no significant difference in gender distribution between the two groups (p = 0.625). Nausea was the most frequently reported adverse effect followed by diarrhea and abdominal pain in both groups. Patients receiving Exjade^® had a higher relative reduction of SF at the end of the study compared with the Osveral^® group (19.9% versus 9.93%, p = 0.028). SC was found to be significantly higher in the Osveral^® group than in the Exjade^® group throughout the study period. The mean platelet count was higher in the Exjade^® group. ALT was significantly higher among patients receiving Osveral^® over the last three months of the study.

Conclusions:

Exjade^® showed a better ability to reduce SF, with less liver toxicity, and better hemostasis profile. No congenital anomalies associated with short-term use of both drugs during pregnancy were observed or reported.

Different lengths, copies and expression levels of the mitochondrial atp6 gene in male sterile and fertile lines of carrot (Daucus carota L.)

The male-sterile carrot is an effective material for carrot breeding. The atp6 gene is involved in carrot fertility. However, the differences in lengths, copies, and expression profiles of the atp6 gene in fertile and male-sterile lines of carrot are unclear. In this study, one copy atp6 gene was found in the mtDNAs of 'Kuroda' (fertility, 954 bp) and 'Wuye-BY' (male sterility, 819 bp) carrot lines, while two copies atp6 genes (Wuye-L and Wuye-D, 954 bp and 819 bp, respectively) were found in the mtDNA of 'Wuye' (fertility). Two putative conserved domains have been detected in the carrot atp6 protein. Evolutionary analysis showed that the atp6 protein sequences of Wuye-L and Kuroda were clustered in the same branch, while Wuye-D and Wuye-BY were clustered in the same branch. The atp6 gene was higher expressed in the flowers of 'Kuroda' and 'Wuye' (Wuye-L), while lower expressed in 'Wuye-BY' and 'Wuye' (Wuye-D).

Observer age and the social transmission of attractiveness in humans: Younger women are more influenced by the choices of popular others than older women

Being paired with an attractive partner increases perceptual judgements of attractiveness in humans. We tested experimentally for prestige bias, whereby individuals follow the choices of prestigious others. Women rated the attractiveness of photographs of target males which were paired with either popular or less popular model female partners. We found that pairing a photo of a man with a woman presented as his partner positively influenced the attractiveness of the man when the woman was presented as more popular (Experiment 1). Further, this effect was stronger in younger participants compared to older participants (Experiment 1). Reversing the target and model such that women were asked to rate women paired with popular and less popular men revealed no effect of model popularity and this effect was unrelated to participant age (Experiment 2). An additional experiment confirmed that participant age and not stimulus age primarily influenced the tendency to follow others' preferences in Experiment 1 (Experiment 3). We also confirmed that our manipulations of popularity lead to variation in rated prestige (Experiment 4). These results suggest a sophisticated model-based bias in social learning whereby individuals are most influenced by the choices of those who have high popularity/prestige. Furthermore, older individuals moderate their use of such social information and so this form of social learning appears strongest in younger women.