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BACKGROUND: The role of sports pharmacists is being emphasized in international athletic events. This study aimed to describe the pharmacy services for the 2019 Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) World Masters Championships in Gwangju, South Korea. METHOD: Research focused on athletes and coaching staff who received medications after visiting medical centers and pharmacies located in the athletes' village from July 5 to July 29, 2019. We collected daily results of pharmacy operation and prescription interventions. The data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel, and were expressed as frequency (%). RESULTS: Throughout the tournament, 633 patients received medication at the athletes' village pharmacy (gender: 338 men [53.4%], 295 women [46.6%]; nationality: 299 Korean [47.2%], 334 overseas players [52.8%]; patient type: 150 athletes [23.7%], 427 non-athletes [67.5%]). Therapy for musculoskeletal disorders was the most common (n = 29, 19.3%), and oral NSAIDs (n = 56, 22.0%) were the most frequently dispensed medication in athletes. Pharmacists intervened for 47 out of 491 prescriptions (9.6%), with dosage change (n = 21, 44.7%) being the most common intervention type. CONCLUSION: Sports pharmacists at FINA World Masters Championships played a pivotal role in ensuring the safe usage of medications by all participants, especially athletes. This study results will be a useful reference for pharmacy services at future international or domestic sports competitions.
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AIM: rAAV mediated endostatin gene therapy has been examined as a new method for treating cancer. However, a sustained and high protein delivery is required to achieve the desired therapeutic effects. We evaluated the impact of topoisomerase inhibitors in rAAV delivered endostatin gene therapy in a liver tumor model. METHODS: rAAV containing endostatin expression cassettes were transduced into hepatoma cell lines. To test whether the topoisomerase inhibitor pretreatment increased the expression of endostatin, Western blotting and ELISA were performed. The biologic activity of endostatin was confirmed by endothelial cell proliferation and tube formation assays. The anti-tumor effects of the rAAV-endostatin vector combined with a topoisomerase inhibitor, etoposide, were evaluated in a mouse liver tumor model. RESULTS: Topoisomerase inhibitors, including camptothecin and etoposide, were found to increase the endostatin expression level in vitro. The over-expressed endostatin, as a result of pretreatment with a topoisomerase inhibitor, was also biologically active. In animal experiments, the combined therapy of topoisomerase inhibitor, etoposide with the rAAV-endostatin vector had the best tumor-suppressive effect and tumor foci were barely observed in livers of the treated mice. Pretreatment with an etoposide increased the level of endostatin in the liver and serum of rAAV-endostatin treated mice. Finally, the mice treated with rAAV-endostatin in combination with etoposide showed the longest survival among the experimental models. CONCLUSION: rAAV delivered endostatin gene therapy in combination with a topoisomerase inhibitor pretreatment is an effective modality for anticancer gene therapy.