Controlled drug release from hydrogels for contact lenses: Drug partitioning and diffusion.

Optimization of drug delivery from drug loaded contact lenses assumes understanding the drug transport mechanisms through hydrogels which relies on the knowledge of drug partition and diffusion coefficients. We chose, as model systems, two materials used in contact lens, a poly-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (pHEMA) based hydrogel and a silicone based hydrogel, and three drugs with different sizes and charges: chlorhexidine, levofloxacin and diclofenac. Equilibrium partition coefficients were determined at different ionic strength and pH, using water (pH 5.6) and PBS (pH 7.4). The measured partition coefficients were related with the polymer volume fraction in the hydrogel, through the introduction of an enhancement factor following the approach developed by the group of C. J. Radke (Kotsmar et al., 2012; Liu et al., 2013). This factor may be decomposed in the product of three other factors EHS, Eel and Ead which account for, respectively, hard-sphere size exclusion, electrostatic interactions, and specific solute adsorption. While EHS and Eel are close to 1, Ead>>1 in all cases suggesting strong specific interactions between the drugs and the hydrogels. Adsorption was maximal for chlorhexidine on the silicone based hydrogel, in water, due to strong hydrogen bonding. The effective diffusion coefficients, De, were determined from the drug release profiles. Estimations of diffusion coefficients of the non-adsorbed solutes D=De×Ead allowed comparison with theories for solute diffusion in the absence of specific interaction with the polymeric membrane.

Evaluation of the antiviral and antimicrobial activities of triterpenes isolated from Euphorbia segetalis.

A phytochemical reinvestigation of the whole plant of Euphorbia segetalis yielded five tetracyclic triterpenes: 3beta-hydroxy-cycloart-25-en-24-one (1), cycloart-25-ene-3beta,24-diol (2), cycloart-23-ene-3beta,25-diol (3), lanosta-7,9(11),24-trien-3beta-ol (4) and lanosta-7,9(11),24(31)-trien-3beta-ol (5). beta-acetoxy-cycloart-25-en-24-one (1a) and glutinol (6), lupenone (7), dammaranodienol (9), cycloartenol acetate (10), 24-methylenecycloartanol acetate (11) and beta-sitosterol (12), isolated previously, were evaluated for their antiviral activities against Herpes simplex virus (HSV) and African swine fever virus (ASFV). Lupenone exhibited strong viral plaque inhibitory effect against HSV-1 and HSV-2. The in vitro antifungal and antibacterial activities of la, cycloart-23-ene-3beta,25-diol, 3-acetate (3a) and 6-12 were also investigated.

Solid-state structure and solution behavior of eight-coordinate Sm(III) poly(pyrazolyl)borate compounds.

[Sm(Tp(Me2)(2)(kappa(2)-S(2)CNR(2))] compounds (R = Et (1), Me (2); Tp(Me2) = HB(3,5-Me2pz)(3)) have been isolated from reaction of (R(2)NC(S)S)(2) with 2 equiv of [Sm(Tp(Me2)(2)]. Reductive cleavage of 2,2'-dipyridyl disulfide or 2,2'-dipyridyl diselenide by [Sm(Tp(Me2)(2)] afforded good yields of [Sm(Tp(Me2)(2)(kappa(2)-Y)] compounds (Y = 2-SC(5)H(4)N (3), 2-SeC(5)H(4)N (4)). 4 is the first selenopyridine complex of an f-block element. Sm(Tp(Me2)(2)(2-OC(5)H(4)N) (5) has been synthesized by salt metathesis of [Sm(Tp(Me2)(2)Cl] with the sodium salt of the 2-hydroxypyridine. The solid-state structures of 1, 3, 4, and 5 were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis and revealed that the compounds are all eight-coordinate with dodecahedral geometry. The samarium atoms are bound in tridentate fashion to two pyrazolylborate ligands and in bidentate fashion by the third ligand. The solution behavior of the compounds was studied by (1)H NMR techniques. (1)H-(1)H exchange spectroscopy experiments give evidence for two distinct dynamic regimes occurring in solution.

Cycloartane triterpenes from Euphorbia tuckeyana.

Investigation of the acetone extract of the whole plant of Euphorbia tuckeyana afforded a new cycloartane-type triterpene named as cyclotucanol. Its structure was established as cycloartane-24-methylene-3beta,25-diol (1). The known cycloartane triterpenes cycloeucalenol (2), 3beta-hydroxycycloart-25-en-24-one (3), cycloart-25-ene-3beta,24-diol (4), 25,26,27-trisnor-3beta-hydroxycycloartan-24-al (5) and cycloart-23-ene-3beta,25-diol (6) were also isolated and identified.