Severe session jam phobia (SJP), the extent of underprivileged online education, and subsequent mental health disorders among students have emerged as distinguished global problems due to the overwhelming effects of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The purpose of this research was to evaluate the impact of extended COVID-19 lockdown and its mediating factors on current e-Learning activities, the prevalence of severe SJP and psychological distress among university students in Bangladesh. A web-based cross-sectional study was conducted to assemble responses through Google Form by applying a simple snowball sampling technique among university students aged 18 years or above in Bangladesh. All ethical considerations were maintained, and univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were employed to analyze the acquired data set. Among the total analyzed data (n = 1,122), the male and female ratio was almost 1:1, and a remarkable segment (63.7%) was aged between 21–24 years. Alarmingly, around 50–60% of the students were suffering from severe SJP, prevailing underprivileged education in the e-Learning platform, and severe mental distress. Logistic regression analyses demonstrated that the students from public universities, lower- and mid-income families, lower-aged, and junior years education groups were significantly (p < 0.05) more underprivileged than their counter groups. Besides, the monthly family income and university type significantly influenced the extent of severe SJP. Finally, the students who were female, rustic, come from low-income families (below 25,000 BDT), who had academic uncertainty, job insecurity, online exam phobia, and dissatisfaction with e-Learning education, were significantly suffering from moderate to severe mental distress. The current evidence demonstrates that a substantial number of Bangladeshi university students are struggling with extreme session jam phobia, underprivileged e-Learning education, and subsequent psychological distress, which need to be immediately addressed through concerted efforts by the government, parents, and university authorities.

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Background: The Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine (Covishield) was the first to be introduced in Bangladesh to fight the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic. As this vaccine had shown some side-effects in its clinical trial, we aimed to conduct a study assessing short-term adverse events following immunization (AEFIs) in Bangladesh. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted on social and electronic media platforms by delivering an online questionnaire among people who had taken at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The collected data were then analysed to evaluate various parameters related to the AEFIs of the respondents. Results: A total of 626 responses were collected. Of these, 623 were selected based on complete answers and used for the analysis. Most of the respondents were between 30–60 years of age, and 40.4% were female. We found that a total of 8.5% of the total respondents had been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Our survey revealed that out of 623 volunteers, 317 reported various side-effects after taking the vaccine, which is about 50.88% of the total participants. The majority of participants (37.07%, 231/623) reported swelling and pain at the injection site and fever (25.84%, 162/623); these were some of the common localized and generalized symptoms after the COVID-19 vaccine administration. Conclusion: The side-effects reported after receiving the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine (Covishield) are similar to those reported in clinical trials, demonstrating that the vaccines have a safe therapeutic window. Moreover, further research is needed to determine the efficacy of existing vaccines in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infections or after-infection hospitalization.

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Drug-drug interaction is a notable concern among physicians when prescribing multi-therapy to the patients as concomitant administration of multi-drugs might cause unexpected adverse drug reactions. The main objective of this research is to predict a potential drug-drug interaction between two frequently used drugs by diabetic patients, an antidiabetic drug (linagliptin) and a proton pump inhibitor (rabeprazole sodium). Here, several in vitro techniques, including thermal (melting point, thermogravimetric analysis [TGA]), morphological (scanning electron microscopy [SEM] and X-ray powder diffraction [XRPD] analysis), highly sophisticated synchronous fluorescence, and in silico methods were applied to anticipate the potential drug-drug interaction between these stated drugs quickly. The melting point and TGA study revealed thermochemical properties, thermal stability profiles, and degradation patterns upon temperature rising of the formed complex and these precursor drugs. The SEM and XRPD have provided the morphological changes like particle shape and size distribution of the desired molecule that might be caused due to the potential drug-drug interactions. Besides, the drastic reduction of the quenching rate constant of linagliptin during interaction with bovine serum albumin in synchronous fluorescence also endorsed the potential drug-drug interaction. Furthermore, the drug-receptor docking analysis demonstrated that the binding affinity of the precursor ligands might be reduced due to the predicted drug-drug interaction. However, the current evidence warrants extensive investigation to confirm the above-stated potential drug-drug interaction in the larger animal model. Finally, clinical data need to be closely monitored during the treatment of diabetic patients prescribed with linagliptin and rabeprazole sodium.

: The pandemic, well-known as COVID-19, has been brought about by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and it has distinct characteristics from other coronavirus-related epidemics. This pandemic has been ravaging the whole world for more than a year now and no drugs or vaccines have been found to eliminate this virus from the infected people effectively; only physical measures like social distancing, hand washing and face-mask wearing have been taken to reduce its spreading and very recently Veklury (remdesivir) has been permitted by the USFDA to manage the critical patients. This disease can be asymptomatic but when it is symptomatic, it presents with respiratory problems and cold- or flu-like symptoms which can be diagnosed with a chest CT and confirmed with RT-PCR tests. In this review, the taxonomy and structure of SARS-CoV-2 and history, transmission, epidemiology, pathology, clinical features and impacts of the COVID-19 have been discussed. A summary of possible drug targets, attempted physical and chemical measures, as well as vaccine candidates, have also been provided. How this coronavirus is different from other coronaviruses, the obstacles in managing this disease and the possibility of a second wave have also been reviewed. This review represents a wide range of information regarding COVID-19 and intends to be used as a comprehensive overview in this regard.

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has been a healthcare disaster because of the unique and distinct characteristics of the pathogen, the easy and rapid transmission of the virus from humans to humans, the challenges in diagnosis and confirmation of the disease and the inability to invent and distribute safe and effective drugs or vaccines worldwide that would work against all the variants of coronavirus. Bangladesh, despite being a third-world country with limited health resources, has not been one of the worst-hit countries in the world but has still suffered with the loss of nearly eleven thousand people. Traditional and herbal remedies have become popular in this sub-continent since long ago and used for the treatment and management of different diseases including infectious disease. In this review, we have summarized the reports of immunostimulating, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and respiratory distress syndrome improving activities of prospective indigenous plants of Bangladesh that may be recommended for use as complementary and alternative medicine or may be potential sources for the discovery and development of anti-COVID-19 medicaments. Thus, the review will be beneficial for the researchers, complementary and alternative medicines or herbal medicine manufacturers, formulators to find out and manage the potential herbal/nutraceutical/medicinal agents for the preparation of complementary and alternative medicines, as well as to the scientist for further research for the discovery and development of therapeutics/new drugs for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 as well as other viral infections. Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 25(1): 89-114, 2022 (January)

Herbal drugs are composed of single or several types of medicinal plants with additives. This type of preparations is gaining a wide range of popularity among a large a number of people throughout the world. With the increase of usage, it is necessary to maintain the quality of these drug preparations. Therefore, analytical approaches for their intended use in drug quality evaluation need to be validated. Our aim was to develop simple, rapid, selective, precise and economical UV-spectroscopic method for the quality control of black plum containing herbal preparation in different marketed formulation. Spectrometric analysis of black plum using ethanol shows the maximum absorbance at 279 nm. It has shown linear absorbance over the concentration range of 0.1-0.5 µg/ml with R2 value 0.9914. The developed method was validated as per ICH Q2 (R1) guidelines for various parameters namely linearity, precision, accuracy, robustness. The results were calculated statistically and it showed compliance with ICH guidelines. The relative standard deviation values and percent recovery has been found to be satisfactory, suggesting that the approach proposed is accurate. This proposed method can thus be used for the regular analytical study of black plum in bulk and pharmaceutical formulation.