Diammonium Glycyrrhizinate-Based Micelles for Improving the Hepatoprotective Effect of Baicalin: Characterization and Biopharmaceutical Study.

Saponins are an important class of surface-active substances. When formulated as an active ingredient or co-used with other drugs, the effect of their surface activity on efficacy or safety must be considered. In this paper, diammonium glycyrrhizinate (DG), a clinical hepatoprotective drug that has long been used as a biosurfactant, was taken as the research object to study its combined hepatoprotective effect with baicalin (BAI).

Construction of the small intestine on molecular dynamics simulation and preliminary exploration of drug intestinal absorption prediction.

In this study, molecular dynamics simulation was applied to the construction of the small intestinal epithelial cell membrane and prediction of drug absorption. First, we constructed a system of a small intestinal epithelial cell membrane that was close to the real proportion and investigated the effects of temperature, water layer thickness, and ionic strength on membrane properties to optimize environmental parameters. Next, three drugs with different absorptivity, including Ephedrine (EPH), Quercetin (QUE), and Baicalin (BAI), were selected as model drugs to study the ability of drugs through the membrane by the free diffusion and umbrella sampling simulation, and the drug permeation ability was characterized by the free diffusion coefficient D and free energy barrier (△G) in the processes.

Formulation design and mechanism study of hydrogel based on computational pharmaceutics theories.

Formulation design and mechanism study of the drug delivery system (DDS) is an important but difficult subject in pharmaceutical research. The study of formulation factors is the most time- and labor-consuming work of formulation design. In this paper, a multiscale computational pharmaceutics strategy was developed to guide the systematic study of formulation factors of a typical polymer-based DDS, hydrogel, and further to guide the formulation design.

Saponin surfactants used in drug delivery systems: A new application for natural medicine components.

Saponins are a group of compounds widely distributed in the plant kingdom. Due to their amphiphilic characteristic structure, saponins have high surface activity and self-assembly property and can be used as natural biosurfactants. Therefore, saponin has become a potential drug delivery system (DDS) carrier and has attracted the attention of many researchers.

Investigation on drug entrapment location in liposomes and transfersomes based on molecular dynamics simulation.

In this study, liposome and transfersome were successfully constructed using molecular dynamics simulation. Three drugs with different polarity, including 5-fluorouracil, ligustrazine, and osthole, were selected as model drugs to study the distribution of drugs in lipid vesicles by calculating the radial distribution function and the potential of mean force. The solubility parameters between drugs and different regions in lipid vesicles were calculated to characterize the compatibility of drugs in different regions in lipid vesicles, which provided the basis for the conclusion of this paper.

The Application of Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics to the Evaluation of Liposome Physical Stability.

Physical stability is one of critical characteristics of liposome, especially to its clinical application. Vesicle fusion was one of the common physical stability phenomena that occurred during the long storage period. Because vesicle fusion could be easily checked by the change of vesicle size, it was widely applied in the evaluation of liposome physical stability.