Pharmaceutical Physical and Analytical Chemistry
The main purpose of the Pharmaceutical Physical and Analytical Chemistry Group is to develop novel approaches for physical chemical characterization drugs and delivery systems. The work paves the way for design of effective novel medicines and a better understanding of the fate of drug substances and delivery systems through application of quantitative analytical methods.
Research focus
The Pharmaceutical Physical and Analytical Chemistry group applies physical chemical approaches in combination with advanced analytical techniques to advance understanding of fundamental processes in drug design, development and characterization. Common to the activities is a focus on the interplay between basic physical chemical properties of drug substances and excipients, kinetics and transport processes in relation to both delivery and analytical methods.
The group designs delivery systems for parenteral administration (subcutaneous or intra-articular injection), including solid lipid particles, cubosomes and hexosomes, liquid crystalline depots, as well as prodrugs and in situ formulation forming systems.
“The methods applied in formulation development are often very crude. We move beyond the well-stirred beaker to mimic the biological environment and integrate with high-information-content analytical techniques in our in vitro systems” says Group Leader, Jesper Østergaard.
Development of analytical chemical concepts and methods is a hallmark of the group. LC, CE and TDA with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), mass-spectrometry or fluorescence are used for developing quantitative methods. These methods are used for characterizing the cell uptake and distribution, leakage and release from drug carriers of, e.g., metallo-drugs.
Azmi, I. D., Østergaard, J., Sturup, S., Gammelgaard, B., Urtti, A., Moghimi, S. M., Yaghmur, A. Cisplatin encapsulation generates morphologically different multi-compartments in the internal nanostructures of non-lamellar liquid crystalline self-assemblies. Langmuir. 34, 6570-6581. 2018.
Cubosomes and hexosomes hold promise as anti-cancer nanomedicines.
Wu, C., van de Weert, M., Baldursdottir, S.G., Yang, M., and Mu, H. (2018) Effect of excipients on encapsulation and release of insulin from spray-dried solid lipid microparticles, Int J Pharm., 550:439-446.
Protein-phospholipid complexes constitute a promising method for encapsulating protein into solid lipid micro-particles, which have implications for sustained delivery.
Sun, Y., Jensen, H., Petersen, N. J., Larsen, S.W., & Østergaard, J. Concomitant monitoring of implant formation and drug release of in situ forming poly (lactide-co-glycolide acid) implants in a hydrogel matrix mimicking the subcutis using UV-Vis imaging. J. Pharm. Biomed. Anal. 150, 95-106, 2018.
Novel in vitro release testing methods provide detailed characterization of parenteral sustained release formulations.
