The Drug Chat with Dr. Wambui

Amazing work figuring out how to stop the virus from getting into the host cells. Kudos to those drug discoverers. Today we look at a group of drugs that are entry inhibitors. Increase your knowledge on this.....

A unique drug that works outside of the cell. Stops the virus from getting in!

These group of drugs still going strong!! First one approved in 1995. Yet another enzyme being inhibited to get this virus under control (read suppressed). Listen up!

Last episode we looked at the NRTIs now we have the NNRTIs. What's the difference besides the extra N you ask. Listen up and learn how they work they get used quite a bit.

In this episode we discuss the first of the drug classes used to suppress the HIV virus. Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs) were the first class of drugs approved way back in 1987. As usual we discuss how they work to suppress the virus, the associated kinetics and side effects to look out for. 

The first reported case(s) of HIV/AIDS was in 1981. Today majority of those that are HIV positive live in low and middle income countries, and many of them were not born in 1981. In this episode we look at the HIV global statistics and a recap on how the virus attacks in preparation of the HIV/AIDS drug classes discussions.

Antimicrobial resistance is an emerging global public health crisis as flagged by the World Health Organization. We are joined by Dr. Beatrice Kimani and Dr. Sheenal Davdra pharmacists at the Mama Lucy Kibaki hospital and Mbagathi hospital respectively (both hospitals in Nairobi). They each carried out a health study in their respective hospitals on prescribing practices of antimicrobials. In this...

We end the chat on anti-diabetic drugs with insulin. Listen up to the interesting journey that insulin has had to get to where we are today. An encouragement to researchers globally to keep on keeping on!

The drug discoverers out there are a fabulous bunch! For a disease that has been around for so long even today we are inquisitive enough to find new ways to treat this disease. Enter the Sodium -Glucose co-transporter type 2 inhibitors that lower blood glucose without insulin playing a role in this reduction, and the first in this class was approved in 2013! Yes just the other day (other day in dr...

What an amazing discovery these drugs are. With novel ways of beating diabetes, they go beyond just insulin secretion, FASCINATING! Listen up to how our bodies work then apply these drugs.

What a captivating name.....Thiazolidindiones!! Besides understanding how these drugs work, we learn what a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program is, and why drugs are placed on this program. 

Sandra Muchilwa is a registered nurse with five years experience in Nairobi Kenya. As a radiology nurse she shares with us her journey in becoming a nurse and what her experience as a radiology nurse is like. Join us and learn about a different role in nursing. 

In this episode we discuss another two of the oral anti-diabetics. These two get grouped together because they have some similarities on how they decrease blood glucose. Hint.... Hint not insulin production.

Getting into the drug classes used to treat diabetes. We start off with those that increase the secretion of insulin -  Sulfonylureas and Meglitinides. These drugs get to their site of action and stimulate our bodies to release more insulin to gobble up the glucose, as a result blood sugar levels are controlled.  

In this episode we look at "What is Diabetes Mellitus?". I t's a short introduction to help us better understand how the different classes of drugs get plugged in with the goal to treat and control high blood sugar levels.

Medication errors are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems. To this end in 2017, WHO launched a global initiative to reduce severe, avoidable medication-associated harm in all countries by 50% over the next 5 years. In this episode Dr. Wambui has a chat with Dr. Kyle Hultgren the founding director of the Purdue University College of Pharmacy's Center for Medication S...

Welcome to the final episode of season 1!!! In this episode we tackle the following classes: PI3K inhibitors, mTOR inhibitors, Proteosome inhibitors, Histone deacetylase inhibitors, DNA Methylation inhibitors, Hedgehog pathway blockers, and CAR T cell therapy. What an exciting group of target therapies, novel ways to fight cancer that are really fascinating.

Ok I change my mind, growth factors are the most amazing pieces in the human body bar none! We not only chat about growth factors but also look at Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors as they work in the inhibition of how growth factors exhibit their work.

Cancer cells can be sooooo smart they figured out a way not to be detected by our immune system. However we are smarter! We came up with drugs that counteract them. "Checkmate Cancer!!"

In this episode we tackle drugs that are immunomodulators. We get to see how these drugs activate or boost the immune system. We also have  a recap of how these immune cells work and relate this to these drugs.

As we prepare to look at Immunotherapies, this episode will give an overview of what the immune system is, how it works and the players in this fascinating part of the human body.

This is the last block of the hormone therapy drugs. We go through the Aromatase inhibitors, Gonadotropin releasing agonists, and Gonadotropin releasing hormone antagonists. 

In this episode we chat about drugs that are working on receptors. Both prostate cancer and breast cancer depend on hormones to grow. How about we stop the hormones from their action. That's exactly what these drugs do. Ride along with me.

Moving on to the next block of drugs. We begin by finding out what hormones are and how they are produced. We then look at the first class in this block the Adrenal Steroid Inhibitors. Fun times with the hormones!

The chemotherapies that have been derived from plants. This is the last of the "Traditional Chemotherapies', how they came to be is very impressive. We chat about how they work of course and seal of the session with miscellaneous anti-cancer agents.