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Oral drug delivery is the preferred route of administration for the majority of drugs. Solid dosage forms arewell-accepted because of ease of administration, accurate dosing and high degree of patient compliance. The orodispersible technology platform has attracted increasing interest. Fast disintegrating in the mouth before swallowing, orodispersible dosage forms like orodispersible tablets (ODTs) address the need for patient-compliant medicines. ODTs represent a convenient alternative to conventional tablets or capsules. ODTs are an interesting approach when a rapid onset of therapeutic action is important. So far, ODTs have often been considered as an innovative variant of conventional oral solid dosage forms. Still, the development of ODT formulations is typically assisted by compendial in vitro test methods. However, the techniques described in international pharmacopoeias are non-specific for ODTs. After administration, the dispersion of an ODT in the mouth may provide effects which might influence the absorption of the drug. The performance of ODTs is more comparable to solutions/suspensions than to traditional tablets. To better guide the development of a new ODT formulation, this lack needs to be addressed. It is the aim of this work to design more specific in vitro test methods helping to improve understanding ODT formulations. To reflect the physiological conditions experienced by an ODT after administration, particular attention was given to the mouth where the ODT disperses and releases the drug before swallowing. In vitro biorelevant test setups simulating in vivo conditions were designed. An electronic tongue system was used to assess taste properties of ODTs. These test methods were applied in different stages of the ODT formulation development. Diclofenac being a poorly soluble and weakly acidic NSAID which is a standard medication for acute painful inflammatory conditions was used as a drug model. Three forms, i.e. the free acid and its sodium/potassium salt, were investigated for the formulation of palatable and fast acting ODTs. In Chapter 1, the development of biorelevant test setup reflecting the physiological conditions experienced by ODTs is described in detail. The newly-designed in vitro models successfully discriminated the different diclofenac forms in successive in vitro compartments simulating the mouth, the stomach and the small intestine. It was possible to identify peculiar dissolution profiles with diclofenac salts. Characterizing in-depth the diclofenac free acid and salt particles provided a better understanding of the peculiar dissolution profiles. Critical behaviors of diclofenac salts on their way from the mouth to the stomach and passing different pH conditions were extensively evaluated. Reasons for pH-dependent API precipitation and particle agglomeration were studied in detail. In pre-formulation studies, the proposed biorelevant test setups succeeded in helping to early identify critical pharmaceutical properties for diclofenac salts and to select diclofenac free acid as the most appropriate drug form providing the most stable in vitro performance. In Chapter 2, the electronic tongue method as an in vitro taste assessment tool for ODTs is proposed. Using the TS-5000Z taste sensing system (Insent Inc., Japan), the method was able to differentiate between the taste/aftertaste qualities and intensities of the three diclofenac candidates. The electronic tongue was also successfully used to differentiate different ODT formulations. The results obtained proved that valuable information can be gained. By this means, the taste perception of the diclofenac drug candidates were classified and rank against each other. For manufacturing taste-masked ODTs, diclofenac free acid, could be selected easily. The electronic tongue found out to be a precious tool in assisting the development of a new ODT product and finding the most appropriate multi-component formulation. Both proposed methods successfully showed their discriminative ability and also their utility in pre-formulation studies of ODTs. In the previous chapters, it was indeed possible to early select diclofenac free acid as the most suitable drug candidate for the targeted product profile. In Chapter 3, said methods were further used to guide the development of the taste masked diclofenac ODT formulation. This study highlights the importance of considering in vitro the physiological aspects which may have an impact on the in vivo performance of ODT dosage forms. The contact of ODTs with the mouth should be simulated in vitro for a better understanding of the in vivo behavior. With feasible biorelevant in vitro dissolution methods, an optimized correlation of in vitro and in vivo results may be achieved. The proposed in vitro test methods may provide data of predictive value and may support the rational development of ODT formulations.
Chemistry and biology of Phenolics isolated from Myricaria germanica (L.) Desv. (Tamaricaceae)
(2014)
In accordance with the recent worldwide interest in plant phenolics, which emerges from their broad range of biological activities, particular emphasis has been focused, in the present thesis, on the constitutive phenolics of the extract of Myricaria germanica (L.) Desv. (Tamaricaceae). During the current thesis twenty phenolics (1 – 20) were isolated and identified from the aqueous/ethanol extract of the whole Myricaria germanica plant. The isolates include four hitherto unknown natural phenolics (2, 10, 12 and 20). Also, the cytotoxic activities of M. germanica extract, column fractions, and one new natural isolate against three different solid tumor cell lines, namely, breast cancer (MCF-7), prostate (PC-3), and liver (Huh-7) cancer cell using SRB viability assay have been investigated and first insights into mode of action have been obtained.
This study validates a newly-developed scale of consumer culture at individual-level in purchase-consumption context. Following unipolar approach in measurement, the applicable-reliable scale for consumer culture analyzes plausible effects of the seven cultural dimensions on three selected consumer-behaviors; anticipated regret, and two further purchase behaviors of variety-seeking and Quality-consciousness, comparing both Hedonic and Utilitarian aspect of consumer decisions. The interaction among the three behavioral variables are also studied. Feeling the necessity of cultural investigations in rather-unknown countries, Iran and Germany are focused.Iran is among the culturally undiscovered markets with an ever increasing demand; also German consumers have several unknown aspects in their purchase behaviors. Finally, the role of contextual elements — nationality, demographic profile and task— in consumer purchase behaviors are separately analyzed.
The soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis is capable of surviving most of the ensuing environmental stress conditions. The dynamic nature of the soil habitat is manifested with varying amounts of nutrients, frequent flooding, drying and variation of other growth parameters like temperature, acidity, aeration etc. In order to survive in these conditions, B. subtilis has evolved to employ very complex adaptational responses. These adaptational responses are often multi-faceted; hence comprehensive understanding of the adaptational responses requires generation and integration of data on multi-omics level. Hence, multi-omics based detailed analysis was performed for the molecules involved in the central carbon metabolism (CCM) and proline biosynthesis pathway. In the current study two major stress conditions were extensively investigated: 1) energy limitation/starvation which is achieved by limiting glucose in the growth medium, 2) osmostress resulting from frequent drying out of soil which is simulated by adding 1.2 M NaCl to the growth medium. In addition to osmostress, the naturally available osmoprotectant glycine betaine (GB) was supplemented to understand the simultaneous influence of osmostress and osmoprotection on cellular physiology. To measure absolute protein abundances by mass spectrometry, a targeted approach (SRM –single reaction monitoring) using stable heavy isotope labeled artificial standard proteins known as QconCATs was optimized and implemented in the current study. The SRM technique in combination with QconCAT provided absolute quantitative data with high dynamic range for the 45 targeted CCM proteins. Transcriptome data was obtained from microarray analysis. The resulting data were integrated with the other omics data sets obtained by metabolome and flux analysis. As part of a joint study conducted by the BaCell-SysMO and BaSysBio consortia which aimed for the genome wide mapping of transcription units and previously unannotated RNAs of B. subtilis by means of tiling array hybridizations, mRNA samples from growth at high and low temperatures (51°C and 16°C) and in the presence of 1.2 M NaCl, shake flask experiments during transition from exponential growth to the stationary phase, and high density batch fermentation. Time course analysis of B. subtilis transitioning from exponential to stationary phase was investigated by high cell density fed-batch fermentation (glucose limitation) and batch fermentation (glucose exhaustion) with glucose as a limiting factor. A multi-omics analysis of the CCM for the batch fermentation was performed and the time course data was integrated and visualized. In conclusion, pathway based multi-omics data were generated, integrated and visualized as a prerequisite for systems biology approaches and for a better understanding of the complex adaptational responses of B. subtilis.
Approaches to the Analysis of Proteomics and Transcriptomics Data based on Statistical Methodology
(2014)
Recent developments in genomics and molecular biology led to the generation of an enormous amount of complex data of different origin. This is demonstrated by a number of published results from microarray experiments in Gene Expression Omnibus. The number was growing in exponential pace over the last decade. The challenge of interpreting these vast amounts of data from different technologies led to the development of new methods in the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics. Researchers often want to represent biological phenomena in the most detailed and comprehensive way. However, due to the technological limitations and other factors like limited resources this is not always possible. On one hand, more detailed and comprehensive research generates data of high complexity that is very often difficult to approach analytically, however, giving bioinformatics a chance to draw more precise and deeper conclusions. On the other hand, for low-complexity tasks the data distribution is known and we can fit a mathematical model. Then, to infer from this mathematical model, researchers can use well-known and standard methodologies. In return for using standard methodologies, the biological questions we are answering might not be unveiling the whole complexity of the biological meaning. Nowadays it is a standard that a biological study involves generation of large amounts of data that needs to be analyzed with a statistical inference. Sometimes data challenge researchers with low complexity task that can be performed with standard and popular methodologies as in Proteomic analysis of mouse oocytes reveals 28 candidate factors of the "reprogrammome". There, we established a protocol for proteomics data that involves preprocessing of the raw data and conducting Gene Ontology overrepresentation analysis utilizing hypergeometric distribution. In cases, where the data complexity is high and there are no published frameworks a researcher could follow, randomization can be an approach to exploit. In two studies by The mouse oocyte proteome escapes maternal aging and CellFateScout - a bioinformatics tool for elucidating small molecule signaling pathways that drive cells in a specific direction we showed how randomization can be performed for distinct complex tasks. In The mouse oocyte proteome escapes maternal aging we constructed a random sample of semantic similarity score between oocyte transcriptome and random transcriptome subset of oocyte proteome size. Therefore, we could calculate whether the proteome is representative of the trancriptome. Further, we established a novel framework for Gene Ontology overrepresentation that involves randomization testing. Every Gene Ontology term is tested whether randomly reassigning all gene labels of belonging to or not belonging to this term will decrease the overall expression level in this term. In CellFateScout - a bioinformatics tool for elucidating small molecule signaling pathways that drive cells in a specific direction we validated CellFateScout against other well-known bioinformatics tools. We stated the question whether our plugin is able to predict small molecule effects better in terms of expression signatures. For this, we constructed a protocol that uses randomization testing. We assess here if the small molecule effect described as a (set of) active signaling pathways, as detected by our plugin or other bioinformatics tools, is significantly closer to known small molecule targets than a random path.
Non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma has drawn more and more attention to the field of wound healing research during the last two decades. It is characterized by a unique composition, which includes amongst others free radicals, ions and electrons. Furthermore, non-thermal plasma exhibits temperatures that are below those inducing thermal cell damage. Next to its well-established anti-bacterial properties, plasma can have lethal as well as stimulating effects on mammalian cells. Therefore, the medical application of non-thermal plasma on chronic wounds seems to be a promising tool to enable healing processes. However, less is known about the plasma-mediated induction of intracellular signaling pathways in human immune cells, which play a leading part in the process of wound recovery and removal of pathogens. Therefore, this thesis examined the cellular effects of a non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma treatment on human immune cells using the argon plasma jet kinpen 09. Here, the CD4+ T helper cell line Jurkat, the monocyte cell line THP-1 as well as the corresponding primary cells were investigated. First, cell survival and apoptosis induction was assessed in response to non-thermal plasma treatment by growth curves and flow cytometric assays. On the one hand it could be shown that primary cells are more susceptible to plasma treatment than the respective cell lines. On the other hand, monocytes responded less sensitive to plasma exposure than lymphocytes. Furthermore, this thesis outlined the impact of non-thermal plasma treatment on the gene expression level of immune cells. Therefore, DNA microarray analysis was performed with the cell lines Jurkat and THP-1. It became obvious that plasma exposure modulated the expression of several genes in both cell types. Differential expression of distinct target genes was further validated by quantitative PCR in the immune cell lines. Here, elevated gene expression levels of JUN and FOS in Jurkat cells and increased transcription of JUND in THP-1 cells in response to plasma treatment were made visible. JUN, FOS and JUND are components of the transcription factor AP-1, which is involved amongst others in gene expression of IL-8 and HMOX-1. Consequently, transcriptional induction of the inflammatory cytokine IL-8 as well as the enzymes HMOX-1 and GSR was detected in plasma-treated THP-1 cells. In addition, alterations in the protein activation levels were analyzed in plasma-treated Jurkat, THP-1 cells and primary monocytes. Since some of the identified target genes are known to be associated with the MAPK pathways, the regulation of these cascades was further investigated by western blot analysis. In all investigated cell types the pro-proliferative signaling molecules ERK 1/2 and MEK 1/2 as well as the pro-apoptotic signaling proteins p38 MAPK and JNK 1/2 were activated in a plasma treatment time dependent manner. In contrast to Jurkat and primary monocytes, the anti-apoptotic HSP27 was only induced in THP-1 cells in response to plasma exposure. Moreover, modulation of cytokine production and secretion was examined in the different immune cell types and co-cultured THP-1 and HaCaT keratinocytes by ELISA or flow cytometry. While Jurkat cells showed no plasma-mediated regulation of cytokine expression, THP-1 cells revealed an increased IL-8 secretion after long plasma time duration (360 s). Additionally, the intracellular expression levels of IL-6 and IL-8 were modulated in primary monocytes by plasma exposure. While short plasma treatment caused no alteration of the number of cells expressing IL-8 an up-regulation of the intracellular IL-6 level occurred after 30 s of plasma treatment. Long plasma treatment times resulted in a significant decrease of the intracellular IL-8 and IL-6 production levels. Furthermore, co-cultured THP-1 and HaCaT cells as well as mono-cultured THP-1 and HaCaT cells were examined regarding their cytokine secretion profile. Here, cells treated with plasma (180 s) as well as LPS and plasma (180 s and LPS) were compared with untreated cells. IL-6, IL-8 and GM-CSF secretion was induced by both plasma and plasma combined with LPS treatment in mono-cultivated HaCaT cells and co-cultured cells. Though, the highest cytokine secretion levels were reached in the plasma and LPS exposed co-culture. In contrast, mono-cultivated THP-1 cells only showed an increased secretion of IL-6, IL-8 and TNFa after incubation with plasma together with LPS exposed medium. In conclusion, this study revealed for the first time the non-thermal plasma-modulated expression of numerous genes and cytokines and the activation state of various signaling cascades in human immune cells. Thus, it contributes to gain a better understanding of the immune-modulatory impacts of plasma that might promote the wound healing process.