Contrast echocardiography is broadly described as a variety of techniques whereby the blood pool on cardiac ultrasound is enhanced with encapsulated gas-filled microbubbles or other acoustically active nano- or microparticles. The development of this technology has occurred primarily in response to the need improve current diagnostic applications of echocardiography such as the need to better d...

Inhalation delivery of aerosolized antibacterials is preferred over conventional methods of delivery for targeting lung infection. The present study is concerned with the development and characterization of a novel, spray dried, aerosolized, chitosan polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) based microparticles containing antibacterials for the treatment of lung infections.Chitosan polyelectrolyte complex...

Inhalation delivery of aerosolized antibacterials is preferred over conventional methods of delivery for targeting lung infection. The present study is concerned with the development and characterization of a novel, spray dried, aerosolized, chitosan polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) based microparticles containing antibacterials for the treatment of lung infections.Chitosan polyelectrolyte complex...

Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) play a major role in shaping both innate and adaptive immune responses, mainly via their production of large amounts of type I IFNs. pDCs are considered to primarily present endogenous Ags and are thought not to participate in the uptake and presentation of Ags from the extracellular environment, in contrast to their myeloid counterparts, which efficiently en...

A new formulation method was developed for preparing poly(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles loaded with recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF). Lyophilized rhG-CSF powder and PLGA polymer were directly co-dissolved in a single organic phase, and the resulting solution was dispersed into an aqueous solution. PLGA nanoparticles encapsulating rhG-CSF were...

Particle-based delivery of encapsulated antigens has great potential for improving vaccine constructs. In this study, we show that antigen-loaded, pH-sensitive hydrogel microparticles are taken up and presented by bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) in vitro and are taken up by dendritic cells (DCs) and monocytes in vivo. This uptake is irrespective of targeting antibodies. BMDCs in vit...

Gallic acid (GA) was encapsulated with native (NIn), cross-linked (CIn) and acetylated (AIn) inulin by spray-drying. Inulin microparticles were characterized by encapsulation efficiency (EE) and their release profile in yogurt. The EE was significantly higher for GA-CIn (98%) compared with GA-NIn (81%) and GA-AIn (77%) microparticles, showing the effect of the modification of inulin on interact...

During the last decade, many berry-type fruits have been recognised as good sources of anthocyanins. Nevertheless, the use of anthocyanins in the development of food colourants and healthy and/or functional ingredients has been limited because of their low stability under given environmental conditions and interaction with other compounds in the food matrix. This review compiles information abo...

The aim of the present study was to design a new pH-enzyme double-dependent mesalamine colon-specific delivery system. The drug release behaviors in vitro and pharmacokinetics and biodistribution in vivo were further evaluated. The mean particle diameters of mesalamine-coated microparticles were 312.2 µm. In vitro, a small amount of mesalamine was released in HCl at a pH of 1.2 and PBS medium a...

Host response to implanted biomaterials and medical devices poses tremendous challenges to their clinical applications. Today, the quest to mitigate this immunological attack for improved longevity of these devices remains daunting. This thesis aims to explore the use of anti-inflammatory drugs in minimizing the host response and improve the efficacy of implantable and transplantable therapeuti...