No abstract available.
Expectorants*

Cough is a protective reflex and also a common symptom of many respiratory diseases. The basic principle of management in chronic cough is treatment of its underlying cause. However, certain situations will necessitate cough suppressant therapy on a short-term basis for symptomatic relief of cough. Antitussives, expectorants and mucolytic agents are often used as the cough suppressant. Most of these drugs, however, are not consistently effective in reducing cough in adequately performed clinical trials. The aim of this brief review is to provide the list and some rationale for the currently available antitussive agents to practitioners.
Antitussive Agents ; Cough ; Expectorants ; Reflex

No abstract available.
Antitussive Agents* ; Expectorants* ; Histamine Antagonists*

Cough is the most frequent complaint from medical patients even though coughing is a protective reflex. The principle of relief from a cough is treatment of its underlying disease. However, when the treatment of the cause of coughing is not effective, cough suppression therapy just to relieve the symptom may be attempted. Antitussives and mucoactive drugs are used for this purpose. Unfortunately, the currently available agents are not consistently effective and frequently have intolerable side effects. Therefore, understanding the side effects and mechanism of action of these agents is definitely needed. This review provides a summary of the currently available antitussives and mucoactives.
Antitussive Agents ; Cough ; Expectorants ; Humans ; Reflex ; Sputum

In this study, we investigated whether glycyrrhizin, prunetin and morroniside affect mucin secretion from cultured airway epithelial cells and compared the possible activities of these agents with the inhibitory action on mucin secretion by poly-L-lysine (PLL) and the stimulatory action by adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Confluent primary hamster tracheal surface epithelial (HTSE) cells were metabolically radiolabeled using (3)H-glucosamine for 24 h and chased for 30 min in the presence of varying concentrations of each agent to assess the effects on (3)H-mucin secretion. The results were as follows: 1) glycyrrhizin and morroniside increased basal mucin secretion from airway; 2) prunetin did not affect basal mucin secretion; 3) glycyrrhizin did not inhibit ATP-induced mucin secretion. We conclude that glycyrrhizin and morroniside can increase basal mucin secretion, by directly acting on airway mucin-secreting cells and suggest that two compounds be further investigated for the possible use as mild expectorants during the treatment of inflammatory airway diseases.
Adenosine Triphosphate ; Animals ; Cricetinae ; Epithelial Cells* ; Expectorants ; Glycyrrhizic Acid* ; Mucins*

BACKGROUND: Fudosteine, (-)-(R)-2-amino-3-(3-hydroxypropylthio)propionic acid, is a cysteine derivative that was approved in Japan, as a new mucoactive agent. The aim of this study was to evaluate the tolerability and pharmacokinetics (PK) of fudosteine in healthy Korean subjects. METHODS: A randomized, open-label, parallel, escalating single-dose study was conducted in 16 healthy Korean male subjects. The subjects were allocated to single-dose groups of 400 or 800 mg. Serial blood samples for PK analysis were collected immediately prior and after dosing up to 24 hours, and plasma concentrations were determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Safety profiles were evaluated by monitoring adverse events and clinical evaluations throughout the study. RESULTS: Median time to peak concentration (Tmax) of both dosing group were around 0.5 hours and half-life (t1/2) were around 3 hours. Mean peak concentration (Cmax) of 400 mg and 800 mg dosing group were 10.8 and 21.5 microg/mL and the mean area under the plasma concentration versus time curve from the dosing time to infinity (AUCinf) were 26.8 and 55.0 microg.h/mL, respectively. Mean dose-normalized Cmax were 0.0271 and 0.0269 microg/mL/mg (P=0.923), respectively and dose-normalized AUCinf were 0.0669 and 0.0688 microg.hr/mL/mg (P=0.093), respectively. Fudosteine was well tolerated without any serious adverse events or clinical laboratory abnormalities. CONCLUSION: This study showed that fudosteine has a linear PK property and is well tolerated within 800 mg in healthy Korean volunteers.
Administration, Oral ; Chromatography, Liquid ; Cysteine ; Cystine ; Expectorants ; Half-Life ; Humans ; Japan ; Male ; Plasma

An HPLC method was established for the determination of the related substance in erdosteine. Waters ODS-SunFire (250 mm x 4.6 mm ID, 5 microm) column was used, the mobile phase was composed of methanol-acetonitrile-0.01 mol x L(-1) citric acid (20:4:76, the pH value was adjusted by triethylamine to 2.5). The flow rate was 1 mL x min(-1). The detection wavelength was 254 nm. The related substances in the sample of erdosteine taken were calculated by self control with or without the response factor of impurity relative to that of erdosteine. Under the chromatographic condition developed, the impurities in erdosteine were isolated well. The detection limit was 0.2 microg x mL(-1) (signal/noise = 3) by principal component calculated. The method can be adopted to control the related substances in erdosteine.
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Drug Contamination ; Expectorants ; chemistry ; Limit of Detection ; Thioglycolates ; chemistry ; Thiophenes ; chemistry

AIMTo develop a near-infrared diffuse reflectance analysis (NIRDRA) method for rapid noninvasive quantitative determination of ambroxol hydrochloride in half-finished product particles and non-blister-packed, blistered tablets.

METHODSAll spectra were measured with a Fourier transform spectrometer equipped with a PbS and a InGaAs detector, an external integrating sphere, a rotating sample cup, and a fibre-optic probe for reflectance measurements. All samples were scanned from 12,000 cm-1 to 4,000 cm-1, and each sample spectrum was obtained as an automatic mean of 64 scans. No spectrum pre-processing method was used, and spectral regions, 4,602-4,247, 12,000-7,498 and 6,102-5,446, 12,000-5,446 cm-1 were selected to develope mathematical models by partial least square method for half-finished product particles and non-blister-packed, blistered tablets samples, respectively.

RESULTSThe optimal rank and mean square error determined for half-finished product particles and non-blister-packed, blistered tablets samples by cross validation method all was 6 and 0.306, 0.972 and 1.492, respectively, the average recovery was 100%, 100% and 102% respectively; and the RSD was 1.17%, 1.70% and 1.78% respectively.

CONCLUSIONResults showed that the NIRDRA method was rapid, simple, noninvasive and sensitive, and it can be applied to assay the content of ambroxol hydrochloride in half-finished product particles non-blister-packed and blistered tablets.

Ambroxol ; administration & dosage ; analysis ; Expectorants ; administration & dosage ; analysis ; Quality Control ; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared ; methods ; Tablets

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) shows a high mortality as well as a high prevalence around the world. Recent large-scale clinical studies showed that inhaled long-acting anticholinergics, inhaled long-acting beta2-agonists, and inhaled corticosteroid have beneficial effects on patients suffered from COPD. In addition, the combination of the two or three inhalers above shows more beneficial effects. The beneficial effects are the improvement of symptom, lung function, and quality of life as well as the reduction of exacerbation and possibly death. These beneficial effects are true not only for the patients with severe and very severe COPD but also for the patients with moderate COPD. Clinical studies also showed that mucolytics and roflumilast, a new anti-inflammatory drug have beneficial effects on the patients with COPD. According to these beneficial results proven by the recent clinical studies, the guidelines for the management of COPD might be revised to promote the usage of the beneficial drugs for the patients with COPD. The promoted usage of the COPD drugs would help the COPD patients to overcome their symptom, limitation of airflow and frequent exacerbation and also to improve their quality of life.
Aminopyridines ; Benzamides ; Cholinergic Antagonists ; Cyclopropanes ; Expectorants ; Humans ; Lung ; Nebulizers and Vaporizers ; Prevalence ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; Quality of Life

A case of dermatitis herpetiformis associated with bronchogenic carcinoma is reported. The 56 year-old female patient developed cough with expectorants and exertional dyspnea one year ago, and also showed the pinhead to rice sized erythematous papulovesicular eruptions on the back and extremities with severe itching sensation one month ago. Bronchogenic carcinoma was confirmed by chest X-ray and so on. Skin biopsy was performed on the vesicular lesion and reveled subepidermal bullae with eosinophilic and neutrophilic inflammatory cells infiltertaion.
Biopsy ; Carcinoma, Bronchogenic* ; Cough ; Dermatitis Herpetiformis* ; Dermatitis* ; Dyspnea ; Eosinophils ; Expectorants ; Extremities ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Neutrophils ; Pruritus ; Sensation ; Skin ; Thorax