Inhibitory effect of opiates on LPS mediated release of TNF and IL-8.

Most patients with advanced cancer experience severe pain and are often treated with opiates. Cancer patients are especially susceptible to opportunistic infections due to treatment with immunosuppressive and cytostatic drugs. Since opiates have been demonstrated to have immunomodulatory effects, it is of clinical importance to evaluate potential differences between commonly used opiates with regard to their effect on the immune system. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of morphine, tramadol, fentanyl and ketobemidone on the functioning of the immune system with special reference to TNF and IL-8 release. Method. U-937 cells were preincubated with different concentrations of opioids followed by stimulation with LPS 100 µg/ml for three hours. The effect of opioids on the levels of cytokine mRNA was studied using RT-PCR. Erk and Akt phosphorylation was also measured by Western blot. Results. All opioids with the exception of fentanyl were capable of inhibiting TNF release from U-937 cells. Morphine had no effect on IL-8 release but the effect of other opiates was almost the same as the effect on TNF. All opioids with the exception of fentanyl were capable of inhibiting production of mRNA for TNF and IL-8. The observed effects of opiates were not always reversible by naloxone, suggesting that the effects might be mediated by other receptors or through a non-receptor mediated direct effect. Although preliminary evidence suggests the involvement of Erk and Akt pathways, further studies are needed to unravel the intracellular pathways involved in mediating the effects of opiates. Our data suggests that the order of potency with regard to inhibition of cytokine release is as follows: tramadol > ketobemidone > morphine > fentanyl. Conclusion. Further studies are needed to understand the clinical implications of the observed immunosuppressive effects of tramadol and ketobemidone and to improve opioid treatment strategies in patients with cancer.

Topical morphine gel in the treatment of painful leg ulcers, a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial: a pilot study.

Chronic painful wounds, a major health problem, have a detrimental impact on the quality of life due to associated pain. Some clinical reports have suggested that local administration of morphine could be beneficial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the analgesic effect of topically applied morphine on chronic painful leg ulcers. Twenty-one patients were randomly assigned to receive either morphine or placebo in a randomised, placebo-controlled, crossover pilot study. Each patient was treated four times in total. Pain was measured by the visual analogue score (VAS) before application of gel, directly after and after 2, 6, 12 and 24 hours. Although an overall, clinically relevant, reduction of pain was observed upon treatment with morphine, the difference was not statistically significant. Morphine reduced pain scores more than placebo on treatment occasions 1 and 2. The difference was statistically significant only 2 hours after dressing on the first treatment occasion. Thus, our study did not demonstrate a consistent and globally significant difference in nociception in patients treated with morphine. However, the relatively small number of patients included in our study and other methodological limitations makes it difficult for us to draw general conclusions regarding efficacy of topically applied morphine as an effective treatment for some painful ulcers. Further studies are warranted to evaluate the value of topically applied morphine in the treatment of patients with chronic painful leg ulcers.

Direct health care costs and length of hospital stay related to health care-acquired infections in adult patients based on point prevalence measurements.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of health care-acquired infection (HAI) and the consequence for patients with HAI tend to vary from study to study. By including all patients, all medical specialties, and performing a follow-up analysis, this study contributes to previous findings in this research field. METHODS: Data from the Swedish National Point Prevalence Surveys of HAI 2010-2012 was merged with cost per patient data from the county Health Care Register (N = 6,823). Extended length of stay (LOS) and costs related to an HAI were adjusted for sex, age, intensive care unit use, and surgery. RESULTS: Patients with HAI (n = 732) had a larger proportion of readmissions compared with patients with no HAI (29.0% vs 16.5%). Of the total bed days, 9.3% was considered to be excess days attributed to the group of patients with an HAI. The excess LOS comprised 11.4% of the total costs (95% CI, 10.2-12.7). The 1-year overall mortality rate for patients with HAI in comparison to all other patients was 1.75 (95% CI, 1.45-2.11), all 5 of these differences were statistically significant (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Even if not all outcomes for patients with an HAI can be explained by the HAI itself, the increase in inpatient days, readmissions, associated costs, and higher mortality rates are quite notable.

Pharmacogenetic aspects of tramadol pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics after a single oral dose.

The major purpose of this study was to elucidate if genotyping can facilitate interpretations of tramadol (TRA) in forensic case work, with special regard to the estimation of the time of drug intake and drug related symptoms (DRS). The association between genetic polymorphisms in CYP2D6, OPRM1 and ABCB1 and pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of TRA was studied. Nineteen healthy volunteers were randomized into two groups receiving a single dose of either 50 or 100mg of orally administrated TRA. Blood samples were collected prior to dosing and up to 72h after drug intake. The subjects were asked to report DRS during the experimental day. We found a positive correlation between the metabolic ratio of O-desmethyltramadol (ODT) to TRA and the time after drug intake for both CYP2D6 intermediate metabolizers and extensive metabolizers. For the only poor metabolizer with detectable ODT levels the metabolic ratio was almost constant. Significant associations were found between the area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) and three of the investigated ABCB1 single nucleotide polymorphisms for TRA, but not for ODT and only in the 50mg dosage group. There was great interindividual variation in DRS, some subjects exhibited no symptoms at all whereas one subject both fainted and vomited after a single therapeutic dose. However, no associations could be found between DRS and investigated polymorphisms. We conclude that the metabolic ratio of ODT/TRA may be used for estimation of the time of drug intake, but only when the CYP2D6 genotype is known and taken into consideration. The influence of genetic polymorphisms in ABCB1 and OPRM1 requires further study.

Influence of UGT2B7, OPRM1 and ABCB1 gene polymorphisms on postoperative morphine consumption.

Therapeutic modulation of pain with morphine and other opioids is associated with significant variation in both effects and adverse effects in individual patients. Many factors including gene polymorphisms have been shown to contribute to the interindividual variability in the response to opioids. The aim of this study was to investigate the significance of UGT2B7, OPRM1 and ABCB1 polymorphisms for interindividual variability in morphine-induced analgesia in patients undergoing hysterectomy. The frequency of these polymorphisms was also investigated in forensic autopsies as morphine is also a very commonly abused drug. Blood samples were collected from 40 patients following abdominal hysterectomy, 24 hr after initiation of analgesia through a patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pump. Samples were genotyped and analysed for morphine and its metabolites. We also genotyped approximately 200 autopsies found positive for morphine in routine forensic analysis. Patients homozygous for UGT2B7 802C needed significantly lower dose of morphine for pain relief. The same trend was observed for patients homozygous for ABCB1 1236T and 3435T, as well as to OPRM1 118A. The dose of morphine in patients included in this study was significantly related to variation in UGT2B7 T802C. Age was significantly related to both dose and concentration of morphine in blood. Regression analysis showed that 30% of differences in variation in morphine dose could be explained by SNPs in these genes. The genotype distribution was similar between the forensic cases and the patients. However, the mean concentration of morphine was higher in forensic cases compared to patients. We conclude that gene polymorphisms contribute significantly to the variation in morphine concentrations observed in individual patients.