Polyphenols are inversely associated with the incidence of chronic diseases, but therapeutic use is limited by poor stability and bioaccessibility. Encapsulation has been shown to overcome some of these limitations. A selection of polyphenols (catechin, gallic acid, and epigallocatechin gallate) and their combinations were encapsulated in beta-cyclodextrin (βCD). Encapsulation was characterized and the thermal and storage stability was evaluated using the 2,2-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) assay. The samples were then subjected to in vitro digestion using a simple digestion (SD) model (gastric and duodenal phases) and a more complex digestion (CD) model (oral, gastric, and duodenal phases). Thereafter, the chemical (oxygen radical absorbance capacity assay) and cellular (dichlorofluorescein diacetate assay in Caco-2 cells) antioxidant and antiglycation (advanced glycation end-products assay) activities were determined. Inclusion complexes formed at a 1:1 molar ratio with a high encapsulation yield and efficiency. Encapsulation altered the morphology of the samples, increased the thermal stability of some and the storage stability of all samples. Encapsulation maintained the antioxidant activity of all samples and significantly improved the antiglycation and cellular antioxidant activities of some polyphenols following SD. In conclusion, the formed inclusion complexes of βCD with polyphenols had greater storage stability, without altering the beneficial cellular effects of the polyphenols.

Pharmacogenomics (PGx) can personalize medication therapy in South Africa’s (SA) diverse population but faces context-specific barriers: inadequate SA-specific allele variant data, infrastructure limitations, education and training gaps, and economic constraints. This call to action proposes SA’s first PGx stewardship framework to guide rational PGx testing integration. Three critical pillars are as follows (1) targeted research to build an open-access PGx variant database informed by SA data; (2) phased implementation starting with high-risk medicines in tertiary hospitals; and (3) nationally accredited PGx curricula for health professionals. All pillars are grounded in culturally responsive ethical, legal and social frameworks addressing SA’s sociohistorical context. We advocate for interprofessional collaboration to position SA as a leader in equitable PGx implementation, aligning with National Health Insurance priorities to reduce adverse drug reaction (ADR) related hospitalizations by 30% within 5 years.

The physicochemical diversity of the structurally related aromatic probe drugs, used together in a drug cocktail to assess metabolic and transport phenotypes, require optimized analytical procedures for simultaneous quantification. The analytical conditions can greatly influence the analyte selectivity, retention, stability, and ultimately the robustness of the method. The aim of this study was to assess the selectivity of the structurally related ionizable analytes between the commonly used C18 column chemistry and an alternative biphenyl column chemistry as well as the influence of changes in the analytical conditions on method robustness using liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry. A repeated measure two‐factor analysis of variance with Geisser‐Greenhouse correction was used to determine statistical significance. The results showed that a biphenyl stationary phase in combination with methanol as the organic eluent, could provide improved resolution and analyte selectivity. Changes in analytical conditions caused statistically significant variation in the retention behavior, selectivity, column efficiency, and sensitivity of the analytes of interest The robustness experiment confirmed the importance of controlling analytical conditions to ensure the reproducibility and reliability of the quantitative method.

Interethnic and interindividual variability in in vivo cytochrome P450 (CYP450)-dependent metabolism and altered drug absorption via expressed transport channels such as P-glycoprotein (P-gp) contribute to the adverse drug reactions, drug–drug interaction and therapeutic failure seen in clinical practice. A cost-effective phenotyping approach could be advantageous in providing real-time information on in vivo phenotypes to assist clinicians with individualized drug therapy, especially in resource-constrained countries such as South Africa. A number of phenotyping cocktails have been developed and the aim of this study was to critically assess the feasibility of their use in a South African context. A literature search on library databases (including AccessMedicine, BMJ, ClinicalKey, MEDLINE (Ovid), PubMed, Scopus and TOXLINE) was limited to in vivo cocktails used in the human population to phenotype phase I metabolism and/or P-gp transport. The study found that the implementation of phenotyping in clinical practice is currently limited by multiple administration routes, the varying availability of probe drugs, therapeutic doses eliciting side effects, the interaction between probe drugs and extensive sampling procedures. Analytical challenges include complicated sample workup or extraction assays and impractical analytical procedures with low detection limits, analyte sensitivity and specificity. It was concluded that a single time point, non-invasive capillary sampling, combined with a low-dose probe drug cocktail, to simultaneously quantify in vivo drug and metabolite concentrations, would enhance the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of routine phenotyping in clinical practice; however, future research is needed to establish whether the quantitative bioanalysis of drugs in a capillary whole-blood matrix correlates with that of the standard plasma/serum matrixes used as a reference in the current clinical environment.

Hypercholesterolaemia is one of the leading causes of atherosclerosis and an increased risk for developing cardiovascular heart disease. The burden of cardiovascular disease in South Africa is high due to the high prevalence of familial ...