Taste assessment for paediatric drug Development: A comparison of bitterness taste aversion in children versus Naïve and expert young adult assessors.

Medicines for children often taste bitter, presenting a significant challenge to treatment compliance. However, most studies on paediatric drug development rely on adult volunteers for sensory research, and the level of expertise required from these assessors is unclear. This study aimed to address this gap by investigating perceived bitterness aversion to taste strips impregnated with different concentrations of quinine hydrochloride in 439 school-aged children. Expert (n = 26) and naïve (n = 65) young adult assessors evaluated quinine solutions as well as taste strips, for methodological bridging purposes. All assessors differentiated the aversiveness of the taste strips in a dose dependent manner. Younger children aged 4-8 years had difficulty discriminating higher bitter concentrations, whereas pre-adolescents 9-11 years and naive adults showed better discrimination at the top of the scale. Naive assessors showed similar bitter perception as children. However, the results were slightly different between strips and solution in adults. These findings highlight the key role that adult panels can play in paediatric formulation development. Taste strips show promise as a safe and pragmatic tool for sensory pharmaceutical evaluations, though further studies are warranted to establish the relationship between age and hedonic taste perception using compounds with diverse physicochemical and sensory qualities.

Responsive Sensory Evaluation to Develop Flexible Taste-Masked Paediatric Primaquine Tablets against Malaria for Low-Resource Settings.

Primaquine is an important antimalarial drug for malaria transmission blocking and radical cure, but it is not currently available in child-friendly formulations in appropriate doses. Adult-strength tablets are often crushed and dissolved in water to obtain the required dose, which exposes the drug's bitter taste. As part of the developing paediatric primaquine (DPP) project, this study adopted a responsive sensory pharmaceutics approach by integrating real-time formulation development and pre-clinical taste assessment to develop palatable, flavour-infused primaquine tablets. A design of experiment (DoE) approach was used to screen different taste-masking agents and excipient blends with trained, expert sensory assessors, with quinine hydrochloride as a model bitter tastant. The taste-masking efficacy of selected prototype formulation blends was validated with naïve assessors using the highest 15 mg primaquine dose. The mean bitterness intensity rating, measured on a discrete 11-point scale, was halved from 7.04 for the unflavoured control to 2.74-3.70 for the formulation blends. Sucralose had the biggest impact on bitterness suppression and improving palatability. Two different flavouring systems have been developed, and their acceptability in paediatric patients will be assessed as part of upcoming validation field clinical trials in Africa.

Combining sensory and texturometer parameters to characterize different type of cosmetic ingredients.

INTRODUCTION: Sensory properties have a great importance for cosmetics and personal care products. If literature permits to consult articles comparing different formulations on their sensory attributes, there are only a few articles concerning ingredients. OBJECTIVE: The overall objective of this study was to carry out an original study combining the sensory evaluation of different natures of ingredients, in order to initiate a sensory data set that could help researchers to identify differentiating sensory characteristics, as well as initiating a comparison between sensory data and texturometer instrumental measurements. METHODS: Oils, glycolic extracts, butter and starch were evaluated according to descriptive sensory analysis methodology with the help of panel of 25 experts. In order to compare responses obtained from the panel to instrumental measurements, texture analyzes were performed in compression traction model. RESULTS: Significant differences were detected in ten of the eleven evaluated sensory attributes, indicating that ingredients have distinct sensory profiles. The mainly discriminative attributes for the analyzed ingredients were: gloss, opacity, fluidity, freshness, whitening and oily residue. The oils are mostly related to oily residue and slipperiness while extracts are mostly related to gloss, fluidity and freshness attributes. Both Tapioca Starch and Shea Butter were related to non-fluidity, opacity, and Tapioca Starch was related to freshness too. This study was completed by a texturometer analysis which lead to show the opposite correlation between the sensory attribute fluidity and the consistent index.

INTRODUCTION: Les propriétés sensorielles ont une grande importance pour les cosmétiques et les produits de soins. Si la littérature permet de consulter des articles comparant différentes formulations sur leurs attributs sensoriels, il n'y a que quelques articles concernant les ingrédients. OBJECTIF: L'objectif global de cette étude était de réaliser une étude originale combinant l'évaluation sensorielle de différentes natures d'ingrédients, afin d'initier un ensemble de données sensorielles qui pourrait aider les chercheurs à identifier les caractéristiques sensorielles discriminantes, ainsi qu'à initier une comparaison entre données sensorielles et mesures instrumentales du texturomètre. MÉTHODES: Les huiles, les extraits glycoliques, le beurre et l'amidon ont été évalués selon la méthodologie d'analyse sensorielle descriptive avec l'aide d'un panel de 25 experts. Afin de comparer les réponses obtenues à partir du panel aux mesures instrumentales, des analyses de texture ont été effectuées avec un texturométre selon la méthode traction-compression. RÉSULTATS: Des différences significatives ont été détectées sur dix des onze attributs sensoriels évalués, indiquant que les ingrédients ont des profils sensoriels distincts. Les attributs principalement discriminants pour les ingrédients analysés étaient : la brillance, l'opacité, la fluidité, la fraîcheur, le blanchiment et les résidus huileux. Les huiles sont principalement liées aux descripteurs résidus huileux et glissant tandis que les extraits sont principalement liés aux attributs de brillance, de fluidité et de fraîcheur. L'amidon de tapioca et le beurre de karité étaient tous deux liés à la non-fluidité, l'opacité et l'amidon de tapioca était également lié à la fraîcheur. Cette étude a été complétée par une analyse texturométrique qui a montré la corrélation opposée entre le descripteur sensoriel fluide et l'indice de consistance.

Standardised evaluation of medicine acceptability in paediatric population: reliability of a model.

OBJECTIVES: Our novel tool to standardise the evaluation of medicine acceptability was developed using observational data on medicines use measured in a paediatric population included for this purpose (0-14 years). Using this tool, any medicine may be positioned on a map and assigned to an acceptability profile. The present exploration aimed to verify its statistical reliability. METHODS: Permutation test has been used to verify the significance of the relationships among measures highlighted by the acceptability map. Bootstrapping has been used to demonstrate the accuracy of the model (map, profiles and scores of acceptability) regardless of variations in the data. Lastly, simulations of enlarged data sets (×2; ×5; ×10) have been built to study the model's consistency. KEY FINDINGS: Permutation test established the significance of the meaningful pattern identified in the data and summarised in the map. Bootstrapping attested the accuracy of the model: high RV coefficients (mean value: 0.930) verified the mapping stability, significant Adjusted Rand Indexes and Jaccard coefficients supported clustering validity (with either two or four profiles), and agreement between acceptability scores demonstrated scoring relevancy. Regarding enlarged data sets, these indicators reflected a very high consistency of the model. CONCLUSIONS: These results highlighted the reliability of the model that will permit its use to standardise medicine acceptability assessments.