Overview of Inhaled Nanopharmaceuticals.

Nanopharmaceuticals represent a group of nanoparticles engineered for medical purposes. Nowadays, nanotechnology offers several possibilities to improve the safety and efficacy of medicines by designing advanced carrier systems which have been found to offer particular advantages when formulated in the nanoscale. Some of the initially marketed nano-formulations already demonstrate advantages over conventional formulations.

Preparation of maltodextrin nanoparticles and encapsulation of bovine serum albumin - Influence of formulation parameters.

Maltodextrin, which is obtained by partial hydrolysis of starch, is water soluble and could serve as hydrophilic carrier for the encapsulation of protein-based active pharmaceutical ingredients. We investigated three different commercial maltodextrins (Dextrose Equivalents (DE) 4.0-7.

Co-culture of human alveolar epithelial (hAELVi) and macrophage (THP-1) cell lines.

The air-blood barrier is mainly composed of alveolar epithelial cells and macrophages. Whereas the epithelium acts as a diffusional barrier, macrophages represent an immunological barrier, in particular for larger molecules and nanoparticles. This paper describes a new co-culture of human cell lines representing both cell types.

Inhibition of surface crystallisation of amorphous indomethacin particles in physical drug-polymer mixtures.

Surface coverage may affect the crystallisation behaviour of amorphous materials. This study investigates crystallisation inhibition in powder mixtures of amorphous drug and pharmaceutical excipients. Pure amorphous indomethacin (IMC) powder and physical mixtures thereof with Eudragit(®) E or Soluplus(®) in 3:1, 1:1 and 1:3 (w/w) ratios were stored at 30 °C and 23 or 42% RH.