Muthukumar Subramanian

By Shalini Sivadasan, Muthukumar Subramanian and Rajasekaran Aiyalu

Metformin was approved for the treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in 1958 for UK, in 1972 for Canada and in 1995 by FDA in USA. Metformin is the drug of choice for patients who are obese and have type 2 diabetes mellitus. Though metformin was at first proven to treat hyperglycemia, many other uses of metformin are proven to be effective. It is also used for gestational diabetes mellitus, obesity, hyper secretion of ovarian androgen, poly-cystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), anti-psychotic therapy induced weight gain, cancer treatment and anti-aging. Metformin causes a decrease in appetite thus known to act on obesity. The other action of metformin is reduction of circulating levels of insulin and insulin like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) which is associated with anticancer action. There are ongoing researches about the effect of metformin on anti-aging properties and proved that metformin is linked with anti-aging factors. Three main factors that are related with aging are oxidation, glaciation and methylation. Metformin as all drugs, have unwanted effects as well. Many side effects of metformin are considered mild where lactic acidosis and vitamin B12 deficiency happens to be the major.

Part of the book: Metformin

By Muthukumar Subramanian, Chellam Sankar, Gayathri Rajaram and Vinesha Ravi

Oral solid dosage forms hold a predominant position in the drug delivery system. Tablets are the most widely used and convenient dosage form. Due to their ease of manufacturing, the minimum cost of production, easy handling and storage, and better stability, tablets are most preferred. Patients who are prescribed more than one drug are in a situation to consume multiple tablets. To minimize the counts, one or more drugs are cast into layers to form a single tablet, thus called layered tablets. Layered tablets tend to improve patient compliance and reduce the cost of production by half. Layers can be of multiple drugs or the same drug at different doses or drugs with release enhancers or drugs with fillers. Layered tablets hold a greater potential with better patient outcomes as well as stay production-friendly.

Part of the book: Dosage Forms

By Gayathri Rajaram, Alagumurugan Alagaraswamy, Muthukumar Subramanian and Vinesha Ravi

Cancer is undeniably a scary disease that leads to morbidity and mortality. With the state-of-the-art advances, chemotherapy has made incredible strides, but the efficiency is still questionable. Diagnosing and treating cancer are necessary to effectively approach the disease. Theranostics is a hybrid technique that combines therapeutics and diagnostics. The key to cancer therapy is targeted drug delivery, which specifically kills cancer cells without harming healthy cells. The idea of targeted therapy is merely a theoretical expectation that the drug will reach the target site. As seeing is believing, theranostics helps visualize the drug delivery with the combination of diagnostic agents. Clinical settings have extensively examined the field of theranostics. This chapter goes into great length about the potential targets and radioisotopes in theranostics.

Part of the book: Smart Drug Delivery Systems