Publications by authors named "Panoraia Siafaka"

Alzheimer's disease, the most common neurodegenerative disease, affects more than 60 million people worldwide, a number that is estimated to double by 2050. Alzheimer's disease is characterized by progressive memory loss, the impairment of behavior, and mood changes, as well as the disturbed daily routine of the patient. Although there are some active molecules that can be beneficial by halting the progression of the disease, the blood-brain barrier and other physiological barriers hinder their delivery and, consequently, the appropriate management of the disease.

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The delivery of active molecules via the skin seems to be an efficient technology, given the various disadvantages of oral drug administration. Skin, which is the largest human organ of the body, has the important role of acting as a barrier for pathogens and other molecules including drugs; in fact, it serves as a primary defense system blocking any particle from entering the body. Therefore, to overcome the skin barriers and poor skin permeability, researchers implement novel carriers which can effectively carry out transdermal delivery of the molecules.

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Background: Hyperuricemia belongs to metabolic syndromes where increased uric acid levels are identified in the blood serum. Such a syndrome could be responsible for kidney stone formation, gout, hypertension, and chronic kidney diseases. It has been reported that cardiovascular risks have been linked with hyperuricemia.

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It has been estimated that every year, millions of people are affected by neurodegenerative disorders, which complicate their lives and their caregivers' lives. To date, there has not been an approved pharmacological approach to provide the complete treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. The only available drugs may only relieve the symptoms or slow down the progression of the disease.

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Background: Currently, there is ongoing research in the pharmaceutical technology field to develop innovative drug delivery systems with improved therapeutic efficacy.

Objectives: Although there is a high need for new drug molecules, most scientists focus on the advancement of novel pharmaceutical formulations since the present excipients lack important properties such as low release rate leading to repeated dosing. Aside from this, pharmaceutical technologists aim to develop drug formulations that can target specific organs and tissues, lowering the possibility of adverse effects.

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It is well documented that cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. During the pandemic, cancer screening was suspended, and only symptomatic patients were referred for screening. It is believed that deaths related to various cancer types have increased by around 10%, and the screening suspension was assumed as the main reason.

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Background: In recent years, numerous scientists have gained interest in nanotechnology- based systems, especially for biomedical applications. Then, nanocarriers present tunable abilities and can be easily functionalized to target specific epithelial cells, tissues, and organs, while various materials can be chosen and generate nanosized particles. At present, nanoparticles that possess bioadhesion have been studied as potent drug carriers since they can easily penetrate and target organs.

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Alzheimer's disease accounts for a high percentage of dementia cases in elderly individuals. This type of brain disease is caused by damage to the brain cells affecting the ability of the patients to communicate, as well as their thinking, behavior, and feelings. Although numerous research laboratories focus on advancements in treating Alzheimer's disease, the currently approved pharmacological approaches seem to only alleviate the symptoms.

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Background & Objective: Diabetes is a global health problem that has resulted in millions of deaths; one of the most common diabetes complications is that wounds of diabetic patients tend to heal more slowly or may not heal at all, resulting in undesirable outcomes. Diabetic wounds, if become chronic and infected, could provoke lower extremities amputation, sepsis, and even death. Hence, early detection, careful examination, debridement, cleaning, and prevention or controlling the infection of diabetic wounds are important factors for the successful outcome of the case.

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Infants and other children can be affected by various acute, chronic and many of them rare illnesses. Developing drugs for children is very challenging since they cannot intake tablets or hard oral solid dosage forms. Besides, most of the prescribed pediatric medications are unlicensed.

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The goal of this study was to develop and examine the nanogel-based topical delivery system of mupirocin. Nanogels were prepared with chitosan and bovine serum albumin by ionic gelation and Carbopol 940 was added to improve the gelling/adhesive properties. Detailed characterization studies were performed and the cellular binding capacity of radiolabeled nanogels was investigated on CCD-1070Sk cell lines.

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In recent years, the hydrophobic active substances have led researchers to develop new formulations to enhance bioavailability and dissolution rate; brinzolamide, a lipophilic drug belongs to carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, which cause reduction of intraocular pressure in patients suffering from glaucoma. Currently, the marketed product of brinzolamide is in the form of ocular drops; nonetheless, the conventional drops provide decreased therapeutic efficacy owing to their low bioavailability and pulsed drug release. Thus, the development of novel ocular formulations such as topical microemulsions is of high importance.

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Background: Buccal drug delivery is a fascinating research field. Gel-based formulations present potent characteristics as buccal systems since they have great physicochemical properties.

Methods: Among the various gels, in situ gels are viscous colloidal systems consisting of polymers; when physiological conditions change (pH, temperature, ion activation), they are transformed into the gel phase.

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In the last decade, the use of nanotheranostics as emerging diagnostic and therapeutic tools for various diseases, especially cancer, is held great attention. Up to date, several approaches have been employed in order to develop smart nanotheranostics, which combine bioactive targeting on specific tissues as well as diagnostic properties. The nanotheranostics can deliver therapeutic agents by concomitantly monitor the therapy response in real-time.

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Background: Dementia and its related types such as Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia and mixed dementia belong to brain associated diseases, resulting in long-term progressive memory loss. These diseases are so severe that can affect a person's daily routine. Up to date, treatment of dementia is still an unmet challenge due to their complex pathophysiology and unavailable efficient pharmacological approaches.

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Wound healing is an unmet therapeutic challenge among medical society since wound assessment and management is a complex procedure including several factors playing major role in healing process. Wounds can mainly be categorized as acute or chronic. It is well referred that the acute wound displays normal wound physiology while healing, in most cases, is seemed to progress through the normal phases of wound healing.

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Neurodegeneration is defined as the progressive atrophy and loss of function of neurons; it is present in neurodegenerative disorders such as Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's diseases. The detection of such disorders is performed by various imaging modalities while their therapeutic management is quite challenging. Besides, the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders is still under ongoing research due to complex and multi-factorial mechanisms.

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Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the modern world and dyslipidemia is one of the major risk factors. The current therapeutic strategies for cardiovascular diseases involve the management of risk factors, especially dyslipidemia and hypertension. Recently, the updated guidelines of dyslipidemia management were presented, and the newest data were included in terms of diagnosis, imaging, and treatment.

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Background: The oral application of drugs is the most popular route through which the systemic effect can be achieved. Nevertheless, oral administration is limited by difficulties related to the physicochemical properties of the drug molecule, including low aqueous solubility, instability, low permeability, and rapid metabolism, all of which result in low and irregular oral bioavailability.

Objective: The enhancement of oral bioavailability of drug molecules with such properties could lead to extreme complications in drug preparations.

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Alzheimer's disease is a neuropathological disease with symptoms such as language problems, confusion as to place or time, loss of interest in activities, which were previously enjoyed, behavioral changes, and memory loss. Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia affect almost 46.8 million people globally and are estimated to strike about 131.

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Background: At present, the controlled local drug delivery is a very promising approach compared to systemic administration, since it mostly targets the affected tissue. In fact, various drug carriers for local delivery have been prepared with improved therapeutic efficacy.

Objective: polymer gels are drug delivery systems that not only present liquid characteristics before their administration in body, but once they are administered, form gels due to gelation.

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Background: Schizophrenia belongs to mental illnesses affecting 1% of the worldwide population. Its therapy is still unmet; thus, researchers aimed to develop new pharmacological molecules which can improve its management.

Methods: Moreover, the current typical and atypical antipsychotics should be formulated in more efficacious systems that can deliver the drug in the brain with as few side effects as possible.

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Sufficient ophthalmic drug delivery is still challenging for pharmaceutical technologists, despite various scientific efforts. Several ocular drug carriers have been designed to enhance bioavailability by prolonging the drug retention time. One of the current encouraging approaches is the utilization of colloidal carriers with the characteristic submicron-nanometer size.

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In this study, novel adhesive films were prepared for Mupirocin dermal delivery. Natural polymers as chitosan, sodium alginate and carbopol were used for films development to evaluate possible interactions and drug release properties. Solvent evaporation method was used for films preparation.

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Hypertension can be referred to as modern scourge in 2017 and although, it seems that an improvement has been done during the passage of time, the full treatment still remains an unmet achievement for clinicians. Hypertension incidence in Mediterranean countries, especially Greece and Turkey, seems to be increasing irrespective of the expected protective effect of Mediterranean diet. The changed lifestyle and dietary habits of both populations led to advanced cardiovascular events and arteriosclerosis both of which are linked with high blood pressure.

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