Current Issue : October - December Volume : 2019 Issue Number : 4 Articles : 5 Articles
Tuberculosis is a major health problem and remains one of the main causes of mortality.\nIn recent years, there has been an increased interest in the pulmonary delivery of antibiotics to treat\ntuberculosis. Isoniazid is one of these antibiotics. In this study, we aimed to characterize isoniazid\nand formulate it into a dry powder for pulmonary administration with little or no excipient, and for\nuse in the disposable Twincer® inhaler. Isoniazid was jet milled and spray dried with and without\nthe excipient l-leucine................................
The advent of new drug therapies has resulted in a need for drug delivery that can deal\nwith increased drug concentration and viscosities. Needle-free liquid jet injection has shown great\npotential as a platform for administering some of these revolutionary therapies. This investigation\nexplores the detonative combustion phenomenon in gases as a simple and efficient means of powering\nneedle-free liquid jet injection systems. A preliminary, large-scale prototype injector was designed\nand developed. In contrast with the widely used air-powered and electrical driven needle-free\ninjectors, the proposed detonation-driven mechanism provides equivalent liquid jet evolution and\nperformance but can efficiently provide a controllable power source an order magnitude higher in\nstrength by varying combustible mixtures and initial conditions. The simplicity and power output\nassociated with this concept aid in improving current needle-free liquid injector design, especially for\ndelivery of high volume, high viscosity drugs, including monoclonal antibodies, which target precise\nlocations in skin tissue....
Background and objectives: The percutaneous route is an interesting and inventive\ninvestigation field of drug delivery. However, it is challenging for drug molecules to pass through\nthe skins surface, which is a characterized by its permeability barrier. The purpose of this study\nis to look at the effect of some penetration enhancers on in vivo permeation of insulin and insulin\nsensitizers (curcumin and rutin) through diabetes-induced mouse skin. Materials and Methods: Sting\ncrude extracts of Dendrocnide meyeniana, Urtica thunbergiana Sieb. and Zucc, and Alocasia odora (Lodd.)\nSpach were used as the penetration enhancers. Mouse skin irritation was tested by smearing the\nenhancers for the measurements at different time points and the cell viability of the HaCaT human skin\nkeratinocytes, which was determined by Trypan blue exclusion and MTT assays to evaluate human\nbiosafety for these extracts after the mouse skin permeation experiments. Results: All enhancers\ninduced a slight erythema without edema on the mouse skin that completely recovered after 6 h from\nthe enhancer smears as compared with normal mouse skin. Furthermore, no damaged cells were\nfound in the HaCaT keratinocytes under sting crude extract treatments. The blood sugar level in\nthe diabetic mice treated with the insulin or insulin sensitizers, decreased significantly (p < 0.05) in\nthe presence of enhancers...................
Chitosan has been extensively studied as a genetic drug delivery platform. However,\nits efficiency is limited by the strength of DNA and RNA binding. Expecting a reduced binding\nstrength of cargo with chitosan, we proposed including heparin as a competing polyanion in the\npolyplexes. We developed chitosanâ??heparin nanoparticles by a one-step process for the local delivery\nof oligonucleotides. The size of the polyplexes was dependent on the mass ratio of polycation\nto polyanion. The mechanism of oligonucleotide release was pH-dependent and associated with\npolyplex swelling and collapse of the polysaccharide network. Inclusion of heparin enhanced\nthe oligonucleotide release from the chitosan-based polyplexes. Furthermore, heparin reduced\nthe toxicity of polyplexes in the cultured cells. The cell uptake of chitosanâ??heparin polyplexes\nwas equal to that of chitosan polyplexes, but heparin increased the transfection eciency of the\npolyplexes two-fold. The application of chitosanâ??heparin small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeted\nto vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) silencing of ARPE-19 cells was 25% higher. Overall,\nchitosan-heparin polyplexes showed a significant improvement of gene release inside the cells,\ntransfection, and gene silencing efficiency in vitro, suggesting that this fundamental strategy can\nfurther improve the transfection efficiency with application of non-viral vectors....
Background: There has been considerable interest in the use of antimicrobial peptides\n(AMPs) as antimicrobial therapeutics in many conditions including cystic fibrosis (CF). The aim\nof this study is to determine if the prodrugs of AMPs (pro-AMPs) can be delivered to the lung\nby a vibrating mesh nebuliser (VMN) and whether the pro-AMP modification has any effect on\ndelivery. Methods: Physical characteristics of the peptides (AMP and pro-AMP) and antimicrobial\nactivity were compared before and after nebulisation. Droplet size distribution was determined by\nlaser diffraction and cascade impaction. Delivery to a model lung was determined in models of\nspontaneously-breathing and mechanically-ventilated patients. Results: The physical characteristics\nand antimicrobial activities were unchanged after nebulisation. Mean droplet size diameters were\nbelow 5 micro min both determinations, with the fine particle fraction approximately 67% for both peptides.\nApproximately 25% of the nominal dose was delivered in the spontaneously-breathing model for both\npeptides, with higher deliveries observed in the mechanically-ventilated model. Delivery times were\napproximately 170 s per mL for both peptides and the residual volume in the nebuliser was below\n10% in nearly all cases. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that the delivery of (pro-)AMPs to\nthe lung using a VMN is feasible and that the prodrug modification is not detrimental. They support\nthe further development of pro-AMPs as therapeutics in CF....
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