Factors promoting research activities among Japanese pharmacists: a questionnaire survey.

Pharmacists are expected to demonstrate their expertise in clinical practice and conduct research activities to generate new evidence. However, the factors promoting research activities among pharmacists remain unclear. Therefore, we investigated the research activities of Japanese pharmacists through a questionnaire survey and examined the factors contributing to the promotion of research activities. A web-based questionnaire using Google Forms was disseminated across pharmacists working in community pharmacies, drugstores, hospitals, and clinics. The questionnaire included respondents' backgrounds, research activities, and research environments. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the factors promoting pharmacists' research activities, with experience in research paper acceptance as the objective variable. In total, 401 responses were included in the analysis. Of the respondents, 54.1% were hospital pharmacists, and 77.1% were pharmacists with > 5 years of pharmacist experience. Furthermore, 50.4% of the pharmacists had presented at conferences, and 22.2% had experience in research paper acceptance. The influential factors were "master's degree or higher," "number of affiliated academic societies," "acquisition of specialists/certified pharmacists," and "daily availability of a consultant for writing research papers." This study revealed the factors contributing to the promotion of research activities among pharmacists. We believe that our findings will help promote research among pharmacists.

Sucutinirane-diterpene derivatives induce apoptosis via oxidative stress in HL-60 cells.

Previously, we reported the isolation of cassane-type diterpenes, sucutiniranes A-F, from the seeds of Bowdichia nitida. In this study, a series of sucutinirane derivatives was prepared, and their in vitro toxicity in the HL-60 cell line was evaluated. Then the action mechanism of a representative compound that induces cell death was investigated. Whereas C-6 or C-7 diol esters and ether decreased the activity against the HL-60 cell line, furan-oxidized derivatives 12 and 13 showed improvement or retention of the activity compared with those of the natural products sucutinirane A (11), E (1), and F (2). Treatment with sucutinirane derivative 13 elevated caspase 3/7 activity and also decreased expression of Bcl-2 family proteins, Mcl-1, and Bid. Derivative 13 generated reactive oxygen species in HL-60 cells, whose apoptotic effects were attenuated by the addition of an antioxidant, N-acetyl-L-cysteine. These results suggest that cassane butenolide 13 induces apoptosis in HL-60 via its oxidative effects.