Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Drug Delivery using Water-in-HFA Microemulsions: Surfactant Design Through Computer Simulations and Atomic Force Microscopy The da Rocha Group This research is aimed at developing a fundamental knowledge of the interfacial properties of the bare and surfactant-modified hydrofluoroalkane|water interface (HFA|W). The goal of our project is to design efficient amphiphiles capable of forming and stabilizing aggregates of water dispersed in HFA, for use in pressurized metereddose inhalers. Such novel formulations are expected to deliver biomolecules via pulmonary route. Therapeutic agents, including antibiotics and anticancer agents, can be incorporated in the aqueous phase and create new perspectives for the treatment of medically relevant diseases. Within this context, we used GRID to run atomistic molecular dynamics computer simulations in order to determine the thermodynamic and microscopic interfacial properties of the HFA|W interface. In addition, ab initio calculations using Gassuan 03 were performed in order to study the solvation of the surfactant tail in HFA propellants. Publications: Robson P. S. Peguin, Parthiban Selvam and Sandro R. P. da Rocha. Microscopic and Thermodynamic Properties of the HFA-134a-Water Interface: Atomistic Computer Simulations and Tensiometry under Pressure. European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences (submitted in 2005). Robson P. S. Peguin and Sandro R. P. da Rocha. Ab Initio: Relating Surfactant Tail Chemistry and Solubility in Hydrofluoralkanes (to be submitted). Parthiban Selvam, Udayan Chokshi, Robson P. S. Peguin and Sandro R. P. da Rocha. In situ Tensiometric Study of the Surfactant-modified HFA-134a|Water Interface (to be submitted). More information at http://chem1.eng.wayne.edu/~sdr/