Mohamad Abrahamsen (breathlute1)

The development of effective agents for cancer therapy and inhibition of bacterial infection has drawn a great deal of interest. Photothermal therapy has been widely used for the thermal ablation of tumor cells. In addition, antibiotics have the ability to inhibit the growth of bacteria. Thus, the combination of photothermal therapy and antibiotics may be one of the methods to address the problem. Herein, it is the first time that daptomycin (Dap) micelles were used as the template and reducing agents to prepare stable daptomycin-gold nanoflowers (Dap-AunNFs) under mild conditions. The energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) spectrum and X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectrum indicated that Dap-AunNFs were successfully prepared. When the molar ratio of HAuCl4 to Dap was 6, the gold nanoparticles inside of Dap-AunNFs were about 80 nm with flower-like shape. In addition, the photothermal conversion efficiency of Dap-Au6NFs was about 40%. More importantly, Dap-Au6NFs inhibited the growth of tumors and bacteria under the radiation of near-infrared light at 808 nm. The prepared Dap-Au6NFs could be used as photothermal antitumor and antibacterial agents in the future. Hot melt extrusion has been an exciting technology in the pharmaceutical field owing to its novel applicability. Twin-screw granulation presents a great potential and offers many advantages relative to conventional granulation processes. Different twin-screw granulation techniques, such as twin-screw dry granulation, twin-screw wet granulation, and twin-screw melt granulation, are currently being developed as robust and reproducible granulation processes. The competence of twin-screw granulation as a continuous manufacturing process has contributed to its suitability as an alternative granulation option within the pharmaceutical industry. In this article, different types of twin-screw granulation techniques were discussed. In addition, the screw elements, scale-up process, continuous twin-screw granulation which involves process analytical tools, and excipients were explored. This economical, industrially scalable process can be automated for continuous manufacturing to produce granules for the development of oral solid dosage forms. However, extensive research using process analytical tools is warranted to develop processes for the continuous manufacture of granules. The aim was to investigate the feasibility of using ErYAG fractional laser ablation to enable topical cutaneous delivery of etanercept (ETA). Preliminary investigations into the effect of fluence on micropore depth, measured by full-field optical coherence tomography, were followed by quantitative experiments to determine ETA delivery and its cutaneous biodistribution from solution and hydrogel formulations. Visualization studies were performed using confocal laser scanning microscopy and an ETA-fluorescein conjugate. Micropore depth was linearly dependent on laser fluence. However, use of a single pulse or "pulse stacking" (i.e. multiple pulses) to apply a given fluence affected pore depth; this was accommodated mathematically by including a "stacking factor". ETA delivery into porated skin from solution and 0.8% Carbopol® formulations was equivalent increasing ETA content in the gels from 0.5 to 1 and 2% increased ETA delivery linearly (Formulations 7-9 5.12 ± 0.95 to 7.48 ± 1.45 and 11.2 ± 2.2 µg/cm2, respectively; 10% FAA, 89.9 J/cm2, 5 ppp); occlusion further increased ETA delivery from Formulation 9 to 23.17 ± 6.62 µg/cm2. Cutaneous biodistribution studies demonstrated that ETA was delivered in therapeutically relevant amounts to the epidermis and dermis. Topical laser-assisted delivery of ETA might expand its range of clinical indications to include recalcitrant but not widespread psoriatic plaques (clinical trial underway). Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder share biological features and environmental risk factors that may be associate