Transdermal and transmucosal powdered drug delivery.

High-velocity powder injection is a promising new drug-delivery technique that provides needle- and pain-free delivery of traditional drugs, drugs from biotechnology such as proteins, peptides, and oligonucleotides as well as traditional and genetic vaccines. The energy of a transient helium gas jet accelerates fine drug particles of 20 microns-100 microns diameter to high velocities and delivers them into skin or mucosal sites. This review describes the configuration and operating principles of devices that accelerate the particles, the required properties of the particles, the characteristics of the target tissues, and features of the developmental test methods.

Single bolus administration of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator: effects on infarct related vessel patency, microvascular perfusion, and microvascular reocclusion in a canine model of thrombotic occlusion/reperfusion.

Study Objective: The aim was to evaluate the thrombolytic efficacy of recombinant double chain tissue plasminogen activator (Duteplase, t-PA) given as a single intravenous bolus versus an infusion in a canine model of coronary arterial occlusion/reperfusion.

Design: Coronary arterial thrombi were induced by a copper coil (placed under fluoroscopic control) in the left anterior descending coronary artery of anaesthetised dogs. Following 90 min thrombotic occlusion, animals were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups: group 1 = t-PA infused intravenously at 0.

Enhanced myocardial salvage by maintenance of microvascular patency following initial thrombolysis with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator.

Study Objective: The aim was to examine the value of a subthrombolytic maintenance infusion of recombinant double chain tissue plasminogen activator (BW t-PA, Duteplase) in preserving microvascular coronary flow following initial thrombolysis.

Design: Coronary arterial thrombi were induced by a copper coil (placed under fluoroscopic control) in the canine left anterior descending coronary artery. Complete vessel occlusion occurred within 10-15 min of coil placement.

New synthetic antagonists of bradykinin.

1 A new synthetic bradykinin analogue was found to be an antagonist of bradykinin-induced vascular permeability in rabbit skin. It was effective in equimolar concentrations. 2 These analogues also antagonized the action of bradykinin in contracting the guinea-pig isolated ileum.

Use of procyclic trypanosomes for detection of antibodies in sera from vervet monkeys infected with Trypanosoma rhodesiense: an immunodiagnostic test for African sleeping sickness.

Uncoated procyclic culture forms of African trypanosomes were used in immunofluorescence and simple agglutination assays to detect antibodies in the sera of vervet monkeys infected with T. b. rhodesiense.

Immunocytochemical and enzyme histochemical localization of kallikrein-like enzymes in colon, intestine, and stomach of rat and cat.

Kallikrein was localized in goblet (or mucous) cells of rat colon and in rat and cat small intestine and stomach by two immunocytochemical techniques. A kallikrein-like enzyme was also localized by enzyme histochemistry in mast cells of colon, intestine, and stomach of the cat, where they appeared to be associated with blood vessels in the lamina propria. The mast cell enzyme, however, was not detected by immunocytochemistry using antibodies to kallikrein.

A study of vasoactive intestinal peptide and acetylcholine as possible mediators of vasodilatation in the cat submandibular gland.

Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) is a powerful vasodilator agent in the submandibular gland of the cat, and its effect can be reduced by avian pancreatic polypeptide (APP), or by desensitization of the gland's blood vessels to VIP. However, the vasodilatation caused by parasympathetic nerve stimulation is not reduced by either of these means. We conclude, therefore, that VIP is unlikely to be a major mediator of this atropine-resistant vasodilatation.