Above or below 14 years? An orthopantomographic study based on chronological course of eruption of mandibular premolars and second molars in a sample of south Indian children.

In the context of dental age assessment, two significant factors can be studied; tooth mineralisation and tooth emergence. Little is known about the role of a second molar eruption in forensic age estimation. This paper aims to contribute to forensic age estimation using an age threshold of 14 years, studying the eruption stages of permanent mandibular premolars and second molars. Totally 640 orthopantomograms (OPGs) of south Indian children, aged between 10 and 18 years, were evaluated using Olze et al. staging of tooth eruption stages (A-D). Spearman's rho correlation showed a strong, positive, and statistically significant correlation between the chronological age and the eruption stages of both sexes' teeth. Accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, and post-test probability values were calculated for all tested teeth. The best performance to discriminate individuals above or below 14 years showed stage D in second molars. The sensitivity varied between 89% and 94% and specificity between 75% and 84%, respectively. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed high diagnostic performance for stage D, with area under the ROC curve (AUC) values of 84% and 85% for tooth 37 and 85% and 83% for tooth 47 in males and females, respectively. In conclusion, it is possible to predict age over 14 years in south Indian children using tooth emergence stages from OPGs with a relatively high interobserver agreement and good diagnostic accuracy. However, there are some limitations and, therefore, must be used in conjunction with other methods.

Formulation development and evaluation of zolmitriptan oral soluble films using 22 factorial designs.

OBJECTIVE: The present investigation involves the development of zolmitriptan oral soluble film (OSF) formulations and optimization with quality by design (QBD) using natural polymers and evaluation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Initially, various natural polymers such as sodium alginate, pectin, and gelatin were screened by casting films using solvent casting technique and the prepared films were evaluated. Based on the physical and mechanical properties, sodium alginate was selected as best film former and zolmitriptan-loaded films were casted. The formulation was optimized with the help of 22 factorial experimental designs (QBD) in which sodium alginate concentration and plasticizer concentrations were used as factors and at two levels. The drug-loaded films were evaluated for various mechanical, physicochemical properties, and in vitro drug release properties. Factor effects were interpreted by calculating the main factor effects and by plotting the interaction plots. RESULTS: Thickness of the films, disintegration time, and percent drug loading efficiency were in the range of 0.698 ± 0.13-1.318 ± 0.22 mm, 175 ± 3.1-280 ± 1.7 s, and 68.34 ± 0.5-94.70 ± 0.7% w/v, respectively. Cumulative percent drug released was 61.8 ± 2.6-94.7 ± 4.1% after 30 min. Polymer concentration at two levels of plasticizer had statistically significant effect on drug loading efficiency and in vitro drug release rate. X2 formulation was found to be excellent in drug loading efficiency and in vitro drug release profiles; hence, drug excipient compatibility studies using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and stability studies for 60 days were carried out for X2 formulation and found to be stable. CONCLUSION: Sodium alginate OSFs containing zolmitriptan was successfully prepared, optimized, and evaluated.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of phaitanthrin congeners as anti-mycobacterial agents.

Natural alkaloid, tryptanthrin (indolo[2,1-b]quinazoline-6,12-dione) and its analogues are found to exhibit potent anti-tubercular activity against MDR-TB. A novel class of indolo[2,1-b]quinazolinones have been synthesized to evaluate their anti-mycobacterial activity. Enoyl-acyl carrier protein reductase (InhA) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is one of the key enzymes and has been validated as an effective anti-microbial target. In silico molecular docking study demonstrates that the synthesized compounds exhibit high affinity for the M. tuberculosis drug target InhA. Phaitanthrin is a natural product, which belongs to a family of tryptanthrin and exhibits structural similarity except at position 6. Phaitanthrin derivatives are prepared by modifying the keto functionality of tryptanthrin. These phaitanthrin congeners are found to display promising anti-tubercular activity.