• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.199-204
• /
• 1995

Gastrodia elata is a medicinal plant which has been used as anticonvulsant in Korea, Japan and China. This study was conducted to examine the action mechanism of Gastrodia elata centering around the change of GABA and glutamic acid level in brain while observing the anticonvulsive effect in PTZ-induced seizure model. Seizures were reduced effectively by pretreatment of ether soluble part of methanol extract of Gastrodia elata. The pretreatment of ether soluble part inhibited not only the decrease of brain GABA level but also the increase of brain glutamic acid level observed in PTZ model of convulsive dose. Although there was not any change in glutamic acid level, the same development was also observed in the model of subconvulsive dose. From above results, it seems that the anticonvulsive component of Gastrodia elata is lipophilic, and its action mechanism is originated from both control action of GABA level and inhibition of glutaminergic neurotransmission.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.261-268
• /
• 1998

Propolis is a lipophilic, natural product prepared by mixing the exudates collected from various plants by honeybees with beeswax for the purpose of using to seal hive walls and to strengthen the borders of combs. Because of its versatile bioactivities, propolis has been attracting many investigators'interest. But the pharmacological studies on propolis has, to date, been exclusively performed for an alcohol extract, there is few information of water extract. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the various effects of water extract of Chinese propolis. The water extract of propolis and its fractions of organic solvents showed strong antioxidative activities, especially ether and ethylacetate fractions, and reduced the lipid peroxidation of rat liver in viro. Additionally the ether fraction of propolis (10 mg/ml) inhibited the activity of hyaluronidase by 50%. In vivo, the water extract of propolis considerably decreased s-GOT, s-GPT and s-LDH activities which represent for the hepatotoxicity induced by $CCl_4$ in rats, and prolonged the MST (Medium revival tinge) and ILS (Increasing in MST over control) by 18% in mice which inoculated with sarcoma 180 ascites cells. These results suggest that the water extract of propolis has various bioactivities as well as the alcohol extract.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.249-255
• /
• 1998

Solid Lipid Nanoparticle(SLN), one of the colloidal carrier systems, has many advantages such as good biocompatibility, low toxicity and stability. In this paper, the effects of drug lipophilicity and surfactant on the drug loading capacity, particle size and drug release profile were examined. SLNs were prepared by homogenization of melted lipid dispersed in an aqueous surfactant solution. Ketoprofen, ibuprofen and pranoprofen were used as model drugs and tweens and poloxamers were tested for the effect of surfactant. Mean particle size of prepared SLNs was ranged from 100 to 150nm. The drug loading capacity was improved with the most lipophilic drug and low concentration of surfactant. Particle size and polydispersity of SLNs were changed according to the used lipid and surfactant. The rates of drug release were controlled by the loading drug and surfactant concentration. SLN system with effective drug loading efficiency and proper particle size for the intravenous or oral formulation can be prepared by selecting optimum drug and surfactant.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.33-37
• /
• 2000

One of the methods to increase the solubility of a drug is to use complexation with a cyclodextrin. Due to the hydrophobic nature of the interior cavity of the cyclodextrin, it has been known that undissociated lipophilic drugs can be included within the cyclodextrin by hydrophobic interaction. Recently, inclusion of hydrophilic or dissociated form of a drug has been investigated. In this study, the synergism of pH and complexation with $hydroxypropy-{\beta}-cyclodextrin\;(HP\;{\beta}\;CD)$ to increase the solubility of two oxicam derivatives was investigated. In addition, the effect of partition coefficient of dissociated and undissociated form of the drug on the extent of complexation with HP ${\beta}$ CD was studied. The solubility was measured by equilibrium solubility method. The solubility of tenoxicam and piroxicam increased exponentially with an increase in solution pH above the pKa of the drug in the presence and absence of HP ${\beta}$ CD. The solubility of the drugs increased linearly as a function of HP ${\beta}CD$ concentration at fixed pH. Although the stability constant of ionized species is less than that of the unionized species, the concentration of the ionized drug complex is greater than that of the unionized drug complex due to higher concentration of ionized species at pH 7.3.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.43-48
• /
• 1991

New quinoline compounds were designed, synthesized, and examined with submitochondria. Most compounds showed high activity against NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase. Inhibition activity was mainly affected by the length of the lipophilic part, regardless of bulkiness or location of a phenyl group in the side chain. The $\beta-methyl$ group was demons)rated to be the optimal functionality on the nuclei of the quinoline derivatives so 4hat either deletion or insertion of a methylene on the group eliminated its activity.

• The Korean Journal of Food & Health Convergence
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.13-17
• /
• 2019

Amiodarone hydrochloride is an antiarrhythmic agent which has low aqueous solubility and presents bioavailability problem. These properties are a challenge for the pharmaceutical industry. Inclusion of lipophilic compound in the hydrophobic core of micelles, i.e. self-assembled structures based on surfactants in aqueous solution, is one way of increasing the solubility. Intravenous formulation of amiodarone hydrochloride with polysorbate 80 as a detergent and benzyl alcohol as a co-solvent is used in medical practice. This paper aimed to study the effect of polysorbate 80 and benzyl alcohol on the water solubility of amiodarone hydrochloride. Formation of mixed micelles consisting of nonionic surfactant polysorbate 80 and cationic amiodarone with chloride counterion was investigated by fluorescence spectroscopy. Benzyl alcohol was found to decrease the stability of the mixed micelles and lead to crystallization of amiodarone hydrochloride. The greatest amounts of crystals formed at 4℃ for 30 days in the model drug solutions with polysorbate 80 concentrations of 100.1 mg/mL and 97.9 mg/mL. A change of the polysorbate 80 concentration and avoidance the use of benzyl alcohol are recommended to improve the stability of the parenteral dosage form. These results can open new perspectives in the optimization of amiodarone intravenous formulations.

• Macromolecular Research
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.283-290
• /
• 2003

Organic drugs including aspirin, omeprazole, and naproxen with three different levels of octanol/water partition coefficient were examined for their release behavior from the amphiphilic PCL-b-PEO-b-PCL (PCEC) matrix. Scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of PCEC illustrated a well defined two-phase morphology consisted of dispersed poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) domain and continuous polycaprolactone (PCL) phase. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD) experiments veri tied that three model drugs are dissolved as a molecular dispersion in PCEC matrix. The release of hydrophilic aspirin closely followed the water absorption profile of the matrix indicating that its major fraction is present in PEO domain. However, substantial amount of aspirin present in less hydrophilic region displayed discontinuous biphasic release pattern. In the case of omeprazole with intermediate hydrophobicity consistent release behavior was observed for a period of 24 hrs after the rapid liberation of ca. 10% of the drug presumably partitioned in PEO phase. It was ascribed to the fact that the progressive hydration of PCEC matrix gradually increased the chance of drug/water exposure to compensate the exhaustion of device. Naproxen with the highest octanol/water distribution coefficient among three model drugs exhibited a limited release of 35% for 24 hrs. Finally, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose phthalate (HPMCP)/PCEC blend matrix demonstrated an accelerated and quantitative release of hydrophobic naproxen by generating high porosity and thereby expanding polymer/water interface.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.1051-1054
• /
• 2013

Closo-carborane has been considered as an efficient boron-carrier for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) and an attractive surrogate of lipophilic phenyl or cyclohexyl ring in drug design. Despite a great number of carborane-containing ligands have been synthesized and evaluated, molecular modeling studies of carborane ligands with macromolecules have been rarely reported. We herein describe a facile docking and scoring-function strategy of 16 carborane ligands with an estrogen receptor by using the commercial Gaussian, Chem3D Pro and Discovery Studio (DS) computational programs. Docked poses of the carborane ligands in silico exhibited similar binding modes to that of the crystal ligand in the active site of estrogen receptor. Score analysis of the best docked pose for each ligand indicated that the Ligscore1 and the Dockscore have a moderate correlation with in vitro biological activity. This is the first report on the scoring-correlation studies of carborane ligands with macromolecules. The integrated Gaussian-DS approach has a potential application for virtual screening, De novo design, and optimization of carborane ligands in medicinal chemistry.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.200-209
• /
• 2014

Background: Spinal opioid administration is an excellent option to separate the desirable analgesic effects of opioids from their expected dose-limiting side effects to improve postoperative analgesia. Therefore, physicians must better identify either specific opioids or adequate doses and routes of administration that result in a mainly spinal site of action rather than a cerebral analgesic one. Methods: The purpose of this topical review is to describe current available clinical evidence to determine what opioids reach high enough concentrations to produce spinally selective analgesia when given by epidural or intrathecal routes and also to make recommendations regarding their rational and safety use for the best management of postoperative pain. To this end, a search of Medline/Embase was conducted to identify all articles published up to December 2013 on this topic. Results: Recent advances in spinal opioid bioavailability, based on both animals and humans trials support the theory that spinal opioid bioavailability is inversely proportional to the drug lipid solubility, which is higher in hydrophilic opioids like morphine, diamorphine and hydromorphone than lipophilic ones like alfentanil, fentanyl and sufentanil. Conclusions: Results obtained from meta-analyses of RTCs is considered to be the 'highest' level and support their use. However, it's a fact that meta-analyses based on studies about treatment of postoperative pain should explore clinical surgery heterogeneity to improve patient's outcome. This observation forces physicians to use of a specific procedure surgical-based practical guideline. A vigilance protocol is also needed to achieve a good postoperative analgesia in terms of efficacy and security.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
• /
• v.36 no.5
• /
• pp.293-297
• /
• 2006

Curcumin is a phytochemical compound with anticancer activity. Although curcumin has substantial pharmacological effect against various cancers, the low solubility of curcumin has hindered its development. For an organic solvent-free injectable formulation, we encapsulated curcumin in various liposomes. Due to its lipophilic property, curcumin was placed in the membrane region of liposomes. Curcumin was stably encapsulated in all formulations tested in this study. The cellular uptake of curcumin delivered in liposomal formulations or free form was measured in K562 human leukemia cell lines using a flow cytometry and MTT viability assay, respectively. Although all the liposomes could solubilize curcumin, the cellular levels and the anticancer effects of liposomal curcumin varied with the composition of liposomes. Moreover, liposomal curcumin down-regulated the expression of Notch-1, the molecule involved in the carcinogenesis, to the similar extent to free curcumin dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide. These results warrant the development of liposomal curcumin as an injectable formulation for leukemia treatment.