Investigation of parameters influencing incorporation, retention and cellular cytotoxicity in liposomal formulations of poorly soluble camptothecin.

Improving tumor delivery of lipophilic drugs through identifying advanced drug carrier systems with efficient carrier potency is of high importance. We have performed an investigative approach to identify parameters that affect liposomes' ability to effectively deliver lipophilic camptothecin (CPT) to target cells. CPT is a potent anticancer drug, but its undesired physiological properties are impairing its therapeutic use.

New applications of phospholipid vesicle-based permeation assay: permeation model mimicking skin barrier.

The phospholipid vesicle-based permeation assay (PVPA), based on a tight barrier composed of liposomes mimicking cells, is providing an opportunity to predict passive drug permeability through biological membranes. Although it was originally developed to mimic the intestinal epithelia, this study focuses on its potential as a simple and affordable skin model for transdermal permeation of drug candidates and evaluation of various drugs and formulations at an early development stage. The changes induced in lipid composition of the lipid-based barriers to better mimic the in vivo stratum corneum lipid composition required optimization of liposomal properties and manufacturing conditions applied in barrier formation.

Improved burns therapy: liposomes-in-hydrogel delivery system for mupirocin.

Wounds, particularly burns, are prone to colonization of potentially life-threatening bacteria. Local delivery of antimicrobial agents in sufficient quantities and over longer period of time can reduce risk of burn infections. Mupirocin-in-liposomes-in-hydrogels were proposed as advanced delivery system for improved burn therapy.

Drug permeability across a phospholipid vesicle based barrier: 3. Characterization of drug-membrane interactions and the effect of agitation on the barrier integrity and on the permeability.

Recently, we reported on the development and structural characterization of a phospholipid vesicle based barrier useful for medium throughput screening of passive drug permeability. Here, we investigate the physical and functional integrity of the phospholipid vesicle based barriers to agitation by stirring or shaking, and whether agitation affects drug permeability of sulpiride, metoprolol and testosterone. In addition, three drugs (caffeine, naproxen and sulphasalazine) which were shown in a previous study to affect the electrical resistance of the barriers, were investigated for their influence on the permeability of a simultaneously applied hydrophilic marker (calcein), and on the thermotropic phase transition of the phospholipid bilayers using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).

Liposome size analysis by dynamic/static light scattering upon size exclusion-/field flow-fractionation.

The aim of the current study was to analyse the particle size distribution of a liposome dispersion, which contained small egg phosphatidylcholine vesicles and had been prepared by high-pressure homogenisation, by various size analysis techniques. Such liposomes were chosen since they can be looked at as a prototype of drug nano-carriers. Three sub-micron particle size analysis techniques were employed: (1) fixed-angle quasi-elastic laser light scattering or photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS), (2) size exclusion chromatographic (SEC) fractionation with subsequent (off-line) PCS size-analysis and quantification of the amount of particles present in the sub-fractions, and (3) field-flow-fractionation coupled on-line with a static light scattering and a refractive index (RI)-detector.

Camptothecin-catalyzed phospholipid hydrolysis in liposomes.

Hydrolysis of phospholipid (PL) within camptothecin (CPT)-containing liposomes was studied systematically, after elevated lyso-phosphatidylcholine (LPC)-concentrations in pH 5, CPT-containing liposomes (22.1+/-0.9 mol%) relative to control-liposomes (7.

Assessing the accuracy of routine photon correlation spectroscopy analysis of heterogeneous size distributions.

The aim of the current study was to investigate the ability of a fixed-angle routine photon correlation spectrometer (PCS) to resolve bimodal size distributions. The focus was on dispersions consisting of a majority of smaller and a minority of bigger particles. Monodisperse latex beads of sizes from 21 to 269 nm were measured first as single-size dispersions and then with various binary blends.

Driving forces and the influence of the buffer composition on the complexation reaction between ibuprofen and HPCD.

Cyclodextrins are often used in order to increase the aqueous solubility of drug substances by complexation. In order to investigate the complexation reaction of ibuprofen and hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin, titration calorimetry was used as a direct method. The thermodynamic parameters of the complexation process (stability constant, K(11); complexation enthalpy, deltaH(c) degrees ) were obtained in two different buffer systems (citric acid/sodium-phosphate and phosphoric acid) at various pH values.

The pharmacophore of short cationic antibacterial peptides.

Cationic antibacterial peptides have been proclaimed as new drugs against multiresistant bacteria. Their limited success so far is partially due to the size of the peptides, which gives rise to unresolved issues regarding administration, bioavailability, metabolic stability, and immunogenicity. We have systematically investigated the minimum antibacterial motif of cationic antibacterial peptides regarding charge and lipophilicity/bulk and found that the pharmacophore was surprisingly small, opening the opportunity for development of short antibacterial peptides for systemic use.

Important structural features of 15-residue lactoferricin derivatives and methods for improvement of antimicrobial activity.

This review focuses on important structural features affecting the antimicrobial activity of 15-residue derivatives of lactoferricins. Our investigations are based on an alanine-scan of a 15-residue bovine lactoferricin derivative that revealed the absolute necessity of two tryptophan residues for antimicrobial activity. This "tryptophan-effect" was further explored in homologous derivatives of human, caprine, and porcine lactoferricins by the incorporation of one additional tryptophan residue, and by increasing the content of tryptophan in the bovine derivative to five residues.