Salmeterol: The Optimization of an Asthmatic Drug
Abstract:
Asthma can be found in so many people all across world. Asthma is not biased;
sex, race, or country does not matter. Asthma affects a large percent of the global
population. Becoming aware of this is the first step. Now, using a drug in use,
salmeterol, I want to optimize this drug to make it better by giving it different analogs,
which will give it different properties. Using the latest technology in the Chemistry Lab,
Gaussview and Gaussian 03W aided me in creating models for these analogs and
optimizing them.
3
Imagine you are a cross country runner competing in the annual Mt. Sac Cross
Country Invitational. The finish line is just ahead, and the crowd is going wild with
excitement. The top runner is slightly ahead of you, and you decide to sprint the last fifty
yards to the finish line, hopefully to attain first place. Nearing the finish line, you
suddenly have trouble breathing, and your heartbeat becomes irregular. You quickly
realize you are having an acute asthma attack and pull out your inhaler. With a deep
breath and a small puff, you feel better. However, the time it took to complete the
process cost you, and you will have to settle with second place. Better luck next time!
Asthma is a growing chronic condition in America and has taken quite a toll on
Americans. According to the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology (1),
approximately twenty million Americans have asthma, half of which are specifically from
allergic asthma. With so many people with the condition, it is no surprise that in 2001, a
quarter of all Emergency Room visits were caused by asthma. As a result, health costs
for asthma have soared and have hit ten billion dollars annually. Unfortunately, not
every person has been able to survive the effects of asthma, and approximately five
thousand deaths occur due to asthma yearly. Though the sole cause of asthma is
unknown, there are several probable hypotheses as to why one would attain asthma (7).
As a result, asthma awareness must be spread. Not only does a large part of the
American population have this condition, but they also do not know how they got the
condition. This has led me to create a goal: to optimize salmeterol, a drug used for
asthma. However, many do not know what asthma is.
4
To fully grasp the concept of asthma, one must first analyze the system that it
affects: the respiratory system, which controls the inhalation and exhalation of air.
Following the pathway of air, it begins in the atmosphere and enters the body through
Of all the things to be unacceptable at in life, breathing has to be one of them. 1 in 12 people in the U.S. have asthma, with the numbers increasing every year. Most may not believe asthma to be a killer disease, when in all actuality, approximately 10 Americans die of asthma each day, and about 4,000 each year. Over the last 16 years, asthma has played a huge impact in my life. Having to continuously make trips to the hospital every couple months due to asthma attacks triggered by unknown reasons. Getting medications upon medications and breathing treatment after breathing treatment, they were finally able to get my O2 levels back to stable conditions. A great amount of knowledge and experience goes into knowing how to live with asthma and what to do under certain circumstances in case of an asthma attack.
During an asthma attack, the walls of the airways become irate, and the mucous membrane found on the walls of the lungs become swollen with fluid and mucus fills taking up the remaining space, making it difficult to breathe. *Because air cannot flow in and out of the lungs freely, a whistling or wheezing sound may be heard. During a severe attack, wheezing might stop because of the air moving in and out of the lungs are too weak to make a...
Imagine a young child competing with his or her fellow classmates during recess and immediately losing the ability to breathe normally. He or she stops in the middle of the competition and falls to the ground while holding his or her chest trying to find air. When you are young, being able to keep up with your peers during recess and sporting events is very important, however, having asthma restricts this. Asthma has a significant impact on childhood development and the diagnosis of asthma for children 18 years and younger has dramatically increased over the years. Asthma is known as a “chronic inflammation of the small and large airways” with “evident bronchial hyper-responsiveness, airflow obstruction, and in some patients, sub-basement fibrosis and over-secretion of mucus” (Toole, 2013). The constant recreation of the lung walls can even occur in young children and “lead to permanent lung damages and reduced lung function” (Toole, 2013). While one of the factors is genetics, many of the following can be prevented or managed. Obesity, exposure to secondhand smoke, and hospitalization with pneumonia in the early years of life have all been suggested to increase children’s risk of developing asthma.
"Asthma is a pulmonary disease with the following characteristics: 1) airway obstruction that is reversible in most patients either spontaneously or with treatment; 2) airway inflammation; and 3) increased airway responsiveness to a variety of stimuli" (Enright, 1996, p. 375). There presently exist many varieties of asthma that differ in the severity, means of induction, and methods of treatment. One type is exercise-induced asthma. "Exercise-induced asthma (EIA) is a temporary increase in airway resistance and acute narrowing of the airway that occurs after several minutes of strenuous exercise, usually after the exercise had ceased" (Spector, 1993, p. 571). Perfectly healthy individuals with no history of asthma or allergies can experience EIA. EIA can be found in 5.6%-25% of the general population and in 40%-90% of asthmatics (Randolph, 1997). EIA has been recognized for over 300 years, but only recently have it's pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment been studied in detail.
Asthma is a condition of the bronchial tubes characterized by episodes of constriction and increased mucous production. A person with asthma has bronchial tubes that are super sensitive to various stimuli, or triggers, that can produce asthma symptom.In other words, asthmatics have special sensitivity that causes their lung tissue to react far more than is should to various stimulating factors or triggers. For this reason, people with asthma are said to have "twitchy airways."Some symptoms that people with asthma commonly experience are chest tightenings, difficulty inhaling and exhaling, wheezing, production of large amounts of mucous in their windpipes and coughing.Coughing can be frequent or intermittent, and can be loose-reflecting extra mucous secretion in the airways or dry and deep-reflecting tight bronchospasms. Not all these symptoms occur in every case of asthma.Sometimes people may have coughing without and symptoms for months or even years before it's realized that they are asthmatic. Interestingly enough, asthma symptoms are most severe at night, while we're lying down our airways narrow as a result of gravity changes. Also our lungs do not clear secretions as well at night, which leads to mucous retention, and that can increase the obstruction to air flow.
Secondly, severe asthma can be life-threatening. Suffering from asthma can be frightening to experience and people often feel scared and anxious. The fear and scare can also lead to breathlessness and so mak...
Goals of treatment include interventions to help maintain good lung function (U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2014). Asthma is treated with long-term control and quick relief medications (U. S. Department of Health and human Services, 2014). The severity of symptoms will dictate a medical treatment plan. As advanced practice nurses, we need to help asthma patients identify their triggers. This aspect is individualized based on the recognition of symptoms that lead to exacerbations. A few of common triggers include smoke, weather, pollen, and food. Additionally, we need to provide them with education related to their disease process.
Asthma is a disease that affects the breathing passages of the lungs (bronchioles). People who have asthma always have difficulty breathing. In the United States alone, over twenty-five million Americans are diagnosed with asthma. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), asthma is known to be the third most common disease as well as a leading cause to hospitalization in America. In 2008, one in two people were reported to have asthma attacks which is roughly about twelve million asthma attacks a year. In 2007, the United States spent more than fifty-six million dollars on medical costs, lost school and work days, and early deaths from asthma. Asthma is not visible to the human eye, so it is difficult in an emergency situation for the lay responder to tell whether the victim is having trouble breathing or having an asthma attack. Unlike people who are diabetic and have to wear medical ID bracelets, people with asthma are not required to wear them, but it should be recommended to help the lay responder, the doctors and the paramedics identify the situation they are dealing with at hand. For hours, days or even months a person may be normal but then an attack may suddenly happen out of nowhere.
[1] According to the American Lung Association, in 2007 about 34.1 million Americans, including 9 million children, were diagnosed with asthma during their lifetime. In Australia, there are a total of around 2 million people who had asthma; this ...
Asthma hospitalizations among children ages 5-14 are much higher than the rates in other Queens communities.
Asthma is the leading cause of hospital admissions during childhood. Kumar and Robbins give an accurate definition of asthma as “a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways that causes recurrent episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and cough, particularly at night and/or early in the morning” (489). Asthma is a terrifying disease, especially in children, because of the sudden attacks that could claim lives if not treated immediately and effectively. Despite recent advancements in available drugs and overall therapy, the incidence of childhood asthma is rising (Dolovich 373). In order to effectively treat and eventually prevent the onset of asthma, more effective and economical therapies are necessary; although current knowledge has already led to breakthroughs in new drug treatments, the rising incidence rate calls for more. Therefore, to advance the effectiveness of asthma therapies, researchers must first look at the changes caused by the disease, the risk factors that cause or exacerbate it, and lastly understand the mechanisms of the current drugs.
A patient with asthma can have a high quality of life, with little, to no inference in daily activities. Patient compliance to proper medication regimens is the main determinant in asthma outcomes. By being vigilant with medication compliance, the patient can be expected to require less hospitalizations and less complications, compared to those with poorly-controlled asthma. It is vital for patients to be able to identify changes in their symptoms that justify seeking medical attention. Increased use of rescue inhaler (more than 2 days a week), restricting activities, missing work/school, and low peak flow measurements compared to their normal measurements are all indicative of change in status of asthma control and warrant health care assistance to return to baseline
Most of you may not think of asthma as a killer disease, yet more that 5,000 Americans die of asthma each year. According to the Mayo Clinic web page, asthma also accounts for more that 400,000 hospital discharges annually. As the number of people with asthma increases, the more likely you are to come in contact with a person who has the disease. As far as I can remember, I have had asthma my whole life. My mother and one of my sisters also have asthma, so I have a first hand experience with it. This morning, I will discuss some interesting facts about asthma, I will specifically focus on what it is, warning signs, symptoms, causes, and the treatments that are used.
Asthma is a disease that currently has no cure and can only be controlled and managed through different treatment methods. If asthma is treated well it can prevent the flare up of symptoms such as coughing, diminish the dependence on quick relief medication, and help to minimize asthma attacks. One of the key factors to successful treatment of asthma is the creation of an asthma action plan with the help of a doctor that outlines medications and other tasks to help control the patient’s asthma ("How Is Asthma Treated and Controlled?"). The amount of treatment changes based on the severity of the asthma when it is first diagnosed and may be the dosage may be increased or decreased depending on how under control the patient’s asthma is. One of the main ways that asthma can be controlled is by becoming aware of the things that trigger attacks. For instance staying away from allergens such as pollen, animal fur, and air pollution can help minimize and manage the symptoms associated with asthma. Also if it is not possible to avoid the allergens that cause a patient’s asthma to flare up, they may need to see an allergist. These health professionals can help diagnosis what may need to be done in other forms of treatment such as allergy shots that can help decrease the severity of the asthma ("How Is Asthma Treated and Controlled?").
Millions of people suffer from asthma.. Many of them have different things that can trigger an attack. (Thesis)