Nanocrystalline cellulose as a reinforcing agent for poly (vinyl alcohol)/ gellan-gum-based composite film for moxifloxacin ocular delivery.

Nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) is a star material in drug delivery applications due to its good biocompatibility, large specific surface area, high tensile strength (TS), and high hydrophilicity. Poly(Vinyl Alcohol)/Gellan-gum-based innovative composite film has been prepared using nanocrystalline cellulose (PVA/GG/NCC) as a strengthening agent for ocular delivery of moxifloxacin (MOX) via solvent casting method. Impedance analysis was studied using the capacitive sensing technique for examining new capacitance nature of the nanocomposite MOX film. Antimicrobial properties of films were evaluated using Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus as gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria respectively by disc diffusion technique. XRD revealed the characteristic peak of NCC and the amorphous form of the drug. Sustained in vitro release and enhanced corneal permeation of drug were noticed in the presence of NCC. Polymer matrix enhanced the mechanical properties (tensile strength 22.05 to 28.41 MPa) and impedance behavior (resistance 59.23 to 213.23 Ω) in the film due to the presence of NCC rather than its absence (16.78 MPa and 39.03 Ω respectively). Occurrence of NCC brought about good antimicrobial behavior (both gram-positive and gram-negative) of the film. NCC incorporated poly(vinyl alcohol)/gellan-gum-based composite film exhibited increased mechanical properties and impedance behavior for improved ocular delivery of moxifloxacin.

Lipid-Gelucire based rectal delivery of ramipril prodrug exhibits significant lowering of intra-ocular pressure in normotensive rabbit: sustained structural relaxation release kinetics and IVIVC.

Carboxylesterase enzymes convert a prodrug ramipril into the biologically active metabolite ramiprilat. It is prescribed for controlling ocular hypertension after oral administration. High concentrations of carboxylesterase enzymes in rectal and colon tissue can transform ramipril significantly to ramiprilat. Sustained rectal delivery of ramipril has been developed for intra-ocular pressure lowering effect using a normotensive rabbit model. Rectal suppositories have been formulated using a matrix base of HPMC K100-PEG 400-PEG 6000, incorporating varying amounts of Gelucire by the fusion moulding method. The presence of Gelucire in the suppository exhibited sustained structural relaxation-based release kinetics of RM compared to its absence. Intravenous and oral administration of ramipril has decreased IOP in the treated rabbit up to 90 and 360 min, respectively. Treated rabbits with suppositories have revealed decreased IOP for an extended period compared to the above. Formulation containing GEL 3% reduced intra-ocular pressure to 540 min, with the highest area under the decreased IOP curve. Compared to oral, the pharmacodynamic bioavailability of ramipril has been improved significantly using a sustained-release rectal suppository. A rectal suppository for sustained delivery of ramipril could be used to lower IOP significantly.

Engineered Clay-Polymer Composite for Biomedical Drug Delivery and Future Challenges: A Survey.

Clay materials are widely used in drug delivery systems due to their unique characteristics. Montmorillonite is a major component of bentonite and it has a large surface area, better swelling capacity, and high adsorption capacity. The modification of natural bentonite could improve its sorption ability for new emerging applications. Recent advancements in the polymer-silicate composite have novel biomedical applications in drug delivery, tissue regeneration, wound healing, cancer therapy, enzyme immobilization, diagnostic and therapeutic devices, etc. Perspective view of the montmorillonite- polymer composite as a pharmaceutical carrier in drug delivery systems has been discussed in this review. Different types of modification of montmorillonite for the development of pharmaceutical formulations have also been documented. Many challenges in clay nanocomposite systems of polymer of natural/synthetic origin are yet to be explored in improving antimicrobial properties, mechanical strength, stimuli responsiveness, resistance to hydrolysis, etc. Drug interaction and binding capability, swelling of clay may be carried out for finding possible applications in monitoring delivery systems. Pharmaceutical properties of active drugs in the formulation could also be improved along with dissolution rate, solubility, and adsorption. The clay-incorporated polymeric drug delivery systems may be examined for a possible increase in swelling capacity and residence time after mucosal administration.

Ocular delivery of felodipine for the management of intraocular pressure and inflammation: Effect of film plasticizer and in vitro in vivo evaluation.

Glaucoma may cause irreversible eyesight loss and damage to the optic nerve. Trabecular meshwork obstruction may raise intraocular pressure (IOP) in open-angle and/or closed-angle type inflammatory glaucoma. Ocular delivery of felodipine (FEL) has been undertaken for the management of intraocular pressure and inflammation. FEL film was formulated using different plasticizers, and IOP has been assessed using a normotensive rabbit eye model. Ocular acute inflammation induced by carrageenan has also been monitored. Drug release has been enhanced significantly (93.9 % in 7 h) in the presence of DMSO (FDM) as a plasticizer in the film compared to others (59.8 to 86.2 % in 7 h). The same film also exhibited the highest ocular permeation of 75.5 % rather than others (50.5 to 61.0 %) in 7 h. Decreased IOP was maintained up to 8 h after ocular application of FDM compared to the solution of FEL only up to 5 h. Ocular inflammation has almost been disappeared within 2 h of using the film (FDM), whereas inflammation has been continued even after 3 h of the induced rabbit without film. DMSO plasticized felodipine film could be used for the better management of IOP and associated inflammation.

AI-assisted Emergency Healthcare using Vehicular Network and Support Vector Machine.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an emergency across the globe. The number of corona positive and death cases is still rising worldwide. All countries' governments are taking various steps to control the infection of COVID-19. One step to control the coronavirus's spreading is to quarantine. But the number of active cases at the quarantine center is increasing daily. Also, the doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff providing service to the people at the quarantine center are getting infected. This demands the automatic and regular monitoring of people at the quarantine center. This paper proposed a novel and automated method for monitoring people at the quarantine center in two phases. These are the health data transmission phase and health data analysis phase. The health data transmission phase proposed a geographic-based routing that involves components like Network-in-box, Roadside-unit, and vehicles. An effective route is determined using route value to transmit data from the quarantine center to the observation center. The route value depends on the factors such as density, shortest path, delay, vehicular data carrying delay, and attenuation. The performance metrics considered for this phase are E2E delay, number of network gaps, and packet delivery ratio, and the proposed work performs better than the existing routing like geographic source routing, anchor-based street traffic aware routing, Peripheral node based GEographic DIstance Routing . The analysis of health data is done at the observation center. In the health data analysis phase, the health data is classified into multi-class using a support vector machine. There are four categories of health data: normal, low-risk, medium-risk, and high-risk. The parameters used to measure the performance of this phase are precision, recall, accuracy, and F-1 score. The overall testing accuracy is found to be 96.8%, demonstrating strong potential for our technique to be adopted in practice.

Bentonite-in hypromellose-poloxamer sol-gel for corneal application of trimetazidine: Study of rheology and ocular anti inflammatory potential.

Bentonite is reported to be used for extending ocular drug delivery safely in a controlled manner. Bentonite combined hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC)-poloxamer based sol-to-gel formulation has been developed for the prophylactic ocular anti-inflammatory effect of trimetazidine after corneal application. HPMC-poloxamer sol formulation was prepared incorporating trimetazidine to bentonite at 1: 2*10-5 to 1:5*10-6 ratios using cold method, and investigations were carried out in carrageenan-induced rabbit eye model. Pseudoplastic shear thinning behavior without any yield value and high viscosity at low shear rate were the positive attribute of the tolerability of the sol formulation after ocular instillation. Presence of bentonite nanoplatelets revealed more sustained in vitro release (~79-97 %) and corneal permeation (~79-83 %) over a period of 6 h in comparison to its absence. Prominent acute inflammation has been produced in the carrageenan-induced untreated eye, whereas the absence of ocular inflammation has been noticed in the previously sol-treated eye even after carrageenan injection. HPMC-poloxamer-based formulation exhibited stronger binding affinity (5.13 kcal/mol) in the presence of bentonite rather than its absence (3.99 kcal/mol), resulting in a stable and sustained effect. HPMC-poloxamer in-situ gel of trimetazidine containing bentonite could be utilized for sustained ocular delivery and the control of ophthalmic inflammation prophylactically.

Influence of TiO2 on Mucosal Permeation of Aceclofenac: Analysis of Crystal Strain and Dislocation Density.

Titanium dioxide can adhere with human epithelial cells and have good tolerability. Present work has been undertaken to explore the influence of TiO2 on mucosal permeation of aceclofenac. Mucosal permeation of aeclofenac solution containing TiO2 has been carried out. In fourier transform infrared spectrosopy (FTIR), the intensity of the peaks has decreased along with the increase of TiO2 content in the formulation indicating a possible binding between drug and TiO2. Melting enthalpy has been decreased with the increased content of TiO2 in the solid. The status of crystal strain and dislocation density of TiO2 and aceclofenac in the solid state formulation has also been evaluated from Xray Diffraction data using Debye-Scherrer's equation. Mucosal permeation of aceclofenac has shown sustained effect for more than 20 h in presence of titanium dioxide. Titanium dioxide could be used in designing formulation for sustaining mucosal aceclofenac delivery after performing risk assessment study.

Circadian rhythm in behavioral activities and diurnal abundance of stray street dogs in the city of Sambalpur, Odisha, India.

This is the first research article that documents circadian variability in behavioral variables, namely resting (Rt) and standing (St) in stray street dogs of Sambalpur city, India. We also estimated the abundance as a function of time of the day and gender in a population of stray dog inhabiting streets of the city. In addition, we determined the association between the behavioral variables and the environmental variables, such as light intensity, sound intensity, temperature and humidity. We determined the abundance of street dogs at 10 hotspots using the photographic capture-recapture technique and Lincoln index equation. In another study, we determined dogs' density along the three randomly selected routes that connect the beginning (Dhanupali) and end (P.C. Bridge) of the city precincts. We recorded the resting and standing activities of the stray street dogs using still and video cameras at four times of the day continuously over a longitudinal timescale of 72 hours. This study was conducted at four randomly selected dog hotspots. Subjecting the log-transformed time series data to the Cosinor rhythmometry we obtained three different rhythm parameters, such as mesor (M), amplitude (A) and acrophase (Ø) of the rhythm in resting and standing behavior of stray street dogs. We found out both spatial and temporal variability in the behavior of street dogs. The sightings of dogs were always more during the evening and nighttime irrespective of the investigated routes and hotspots. Further, we also observed that the abundance of male dogs was always significantly more as compared with the bitches. A lack of association between two attributes the time of the day and gender apropos the number of sightings of the street dogs was validated by the Fisher's exact test. Using Pearson's correlation analysis technique we found a negative relationship between light intensity and resting activity. In addition, we also found a negative association between standing activity and ambient environmental temperature. These findings were complimentary to the observed circadian variability in the resting and standing behavior of the stray street dogs. In conclusion, despite a few limitations, this study documents a statistically significant circadian rhythm in activities of stray street dogs. It also highlights spatial variability in the abundance of dogs on the streets and hotspot localities of the urban Sambalpur. We do have a hunch. It is likely that similar phenomenamight be of common occurrence in many urban areas of the world. These data might also help in addressing street dog menace - one of the major problems the people and administrative authorities of most of the Indian cities and elsewhere worldwide are experiencing since quite long.

Interactions between Ibuprofen and Silicified-MCC: Characterization, Drug Release and Modeling Approaches.

Analysis of the binding interactions of ibuprofen and silicified-microcrystalline cellulose (SMCC) has been undertaken. Co-processing of ibuprofen with SMCC was carried out by solid state ball milling, and aqueous state equilibration followed by freeze drying to investigate the effect of silicified-microcrystalline cellulose on ligand. Molecular docking study revealed that ibuprofen formed complex through hydrogen bond with microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and silicon dioxide (SiO2); the binding energy between MCC and SiO2, and ibuprofen and SMCC were found as -1.11 and -1.73 kcal/mol respectively. The hydrogen bond lengths were varying from 2.028 to 2.056 Å. Interaction of Si atom of SMCC molecule with Pi-Orbital of ibuprofen has shown the bond length of 4.263 Å. Significant improvement in dissolution of ibuprofen has been observed as a result of interaction. Binary and ternary interactions revealed more stabilizing interactions with ibuprofen and SMCC compared to SMCC formation.