Identifying meaningful aspects of health and concepts of interest for assessment in systemic lupus erythematosus: implications for digital clinical measure development.

Objectives: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease with heterogeneous clinical manifestations which significantly impacts the daily lives of patients. Herein, we aimed to (i) investigate patients' perspectives on and experience with SLE; (ii) identify meaningful aspects of health (MAHs) and concepts of interest (COIs) in SLE that could be evaluated using digital clinical measures (DCMs); and (iii) identify target DCMs for their assessment.

Methods: A mixed-methods, multistep approach was deployed for (i) exploring patients' experience with SLE through a social media listening study and focused group discussions with patients; (ii) mapping patients' experiences to define MAHs and identify COIs measurable using DCMs; (iii) selecting DCMs for the target COIs; and (iv) identifying types of wearable sensors for measuring COIs in the patients.

Current-stimulated release of solutes solubilized in water-immiscible room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs).

Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs), salts which are liquid at room temperature, may be water-soluble or water immiscible, depending on the combination of cation and anion. They are efficient solvents for a wide range of solutes including drugs. The water-immiscible RTILs studied in this paper (the 1-butyl, hexyl and octyl 3-methyl imidazolium (BMIM, HMIM, and OMIM) hexafluorophosphate (PF(6)(-)) salts) can act as drug reservoirs.

Water-immiscible room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) as drug reservoirs for controlled release.

Water-immiscible room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) have a largely unexplored potential as pharmaceutical solvents and reservoirs. This paper explores some relevant properties of the hexafluorophosphate (PF6(-)) salts of butyl, hexyl and octyl-3-methylimidazolium cations (BMIM, HMIM, OMIM, respectively). The dodecyl analogue is solid at room temperature, but its melting point can be lowered by addition of the lower homologues.

Novel anhydrous emulsions: formulation as controlled release vehicles.

Novel anhydrous emulsions, which may offer some advantages as depot or reservoir vehicles for lipophilic drugs in controlled delivery systems, were formulated using castor oil as the disperse phase and dimethicone or cyclopentasiloxane as the continuous phase. Among the emulsifiers studied only silicone surfactants (cyclomethicone/dimethicone copolyols) which were miscible in silicone oil stabilized the emulsions. Cyclomethicone/PEG/PPG-18/18 Dimethicone and Cyclopentasiloxane/PEG/PPG-18/18 Dimethicone were more effective in lowering the interfacial tension between castor oil and both dimethicone and cyclopentasiloxane.