.:Gotta Drop a Blog in The Corner:.

this past week i had 3 exams in 24 hours, which was... wonderful. i haven't had such an intense period of exams in awhile. i think the last time was in 2006 when i had 5 finals within 48 hours. however i do notice a difference from now and then... i really feel the effects of being older... i can't stay up and study. back then, i could still force myself to stay up... these days... i NEED to sleep. i can't help it, i just have to shut my eyes and take a nap. too bad for me i still have a lot more semesters to go through before i finish my program here, and it's just gonna get harder. anyways, i think i did pretty well on them which i was happy about. the tox exam was 15 pages of mostly short answers, probably one of the more exhausting exams i've ever taken of mechanisms, and pathognomonic signs and symptoms of toxicity. i've been wondering if companies are coming up with practical applications for drug metabolism so that we can have a better cost benefit ratio for medication use. for example, the cyp3a4 gene is part of the cytochrome p450 system of drug metabolism in humans. many drugs are metabolized by this system to either inactive metabolites, or active metabolites (ie. the parent drug gets modified and "turned-on"). cyp3a4 in the gi tract is affected by grapefruit juice, in that the juice will inhibit cyp3a4 action. many of the currently popular statin medications (generically: lovastatin, atorvastatin, simvastatin or brand: mevacor, zocor, lipitor) are metabolized by the cyp3a4 enzyme. if grapefruit juice inhibits these statin drugs, it leads to increased levels of these medications in the body, increasing the chances of toxicity. however... grapefruit juice can be exponentially cheaper to consume, develop, and manufacture (process) than these medications. my question is, can we develop a test to examine how a patient who's taking these medications processes the drugs under the influence of grapefruit juice? can we then have the patient take tailored doses of these medications with grapefruit juice so that: 1) we can lower drug costs for an individual by deceasing drug consumption with the help of a cyp3a4 inhibitor like grapefruit juice. 2) standardize to an extent the way grapefruit juice acts. this would also help in the reduction of drug metabolites that a processed by the body that are introduced into our environment since drug contamination of the water supply is an increasing concern. recent studies have shown many water supplies have a detectable level of common medications and drug metabolites. how will this all affect our food supply or the animal population isn't known yet, but i suspect it can't be good. is there a correlation between fish deaths in lakes, ponds, and streams and these levels? i would imagine any reduction of these metabolites into the environment would be better in the long run. drug/biotech companies may want to find ways to inhibit some of these enzymes in combination with the drugs they produce that affects these enzymes. that way a smaller dose will bring about the same changes... though this could also decrease the difference between therapeutic dose and toxic dose so there's a drawback to that too. i think we have to recognize though that what we do and consume will at some point affect the environment in some way. we often think that what we consume is just a one shot deal, and our waste gets dragged away (or excreted) and we don't think about where it goes. however it will eventually affect another place, when it ends up wherever it goes.

i was thinking the other day... when people get into long term relationships (this can include friendships or actual relationships)... depending on how established they are, i think it's interesting that certain habits, likes and dislikes are developed or changed which are influenced by the other person. what's more interesting to me is that some of these habits, likes, and dislikes continue to hold in an individual (which i think is more common in long term relationships between couples) even after they break up or end a friendship. what i think is fascinating is that even though the past person who was in the relationship isn't a part of one's daily thought process, they still may do certain things in their daily routine which are somehow connected to the other without thinking about it.

i've seen a two movies recently. up was really good, there were parts of it that really would affect anyone... but i think as a whole i still like nemo and monsters, inc. more. actually i think i'd rate wall-e higher too, though initially after i saw up i think i would've rated it higher than wall-e. the hangover was ridiculous. it's a little raunchy, so if you're not into those kinds of movies it might not be for you... but there are some parts that i thought were hillarious (and parts that i was thinking to myself, "who the hell thinks up these situations to put into movies?") there's also some really funny lines in it, and the baby is really cute.

that is it for now.

i hope i can make it home in time to check this out.