Sharif Digital Repository

Numerical and analytical exact solutions of diffusional release from a cylindrical polymeric matrix into an infinite medium have been developed in which the initial solute loading (A) is greater than solubility limit (Cs). Also, the effects of boundary layers on the drug release rate have been studied. The numerical solution is valid for any initial drug loading whereas analytical solution can be used for high values of drug loading. Comparisons have been made between numerical and analytical exact solutions in upper and lower bounds (A/Cs蠑1 and A/Cs→1) and previously presented approximate solution. The presented results validate the proposed numerical solution  

A novel injectable in situ gelling thermosensitive chitosan-block-poly(ethylene glycol) formulation was synthesized for drug delivery applications. Block copolymerization of monomethoxy-poly(ethylene glycol) onto chitosan using potassium persulfate as an initiator was carried under a nitrogen atmosphere in aqueous solution. The effects of potassium persulfate and poly(ethylene glycol) concentrations, reaction time and reaction temperature on block polymerization were studied by determining the yield of reaction (%Y), polymerization efficiency (%E) and add-on percentage (%Add-on). Keeping the other conditions constant, the optimum reaction conditions were found to be initiator = 0.01 M,... 

A thermosensitive copolymer was synthesized by graft copolymerization of poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) copolymers onto the surface of chitosan membranes. Acryloyl chloride was used as a coupling reagent for the covalent attachment of PLGA to the chitosan membranes. FTIR spectroscopy and DSC analysis were used to characterize the resulting graft copolymer. Thermosensitive swelling behaviors of the copolymer were investigated as well. The membranes exhibited reversible swelling-shrinking behavior; higher swelling ratios were obtained observed at higher temperatures. Drug permeation studies were carried out using vancomycin hydrochloride and betamethasone sodium phosphate as the model... 

A novel thermosensitive hydrogel was synthesized by block copolymerization of monomethoxy poly(ethylene glycol) macromere (PEG) onto chitosan backbone, using potassium per sulfate as a free radical initiator. This block copolymer exhibits a thermoreversible transition from an injectable solution at low temperature to a gel at body temperature. Synthesized copolymers were characterized using FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and DSC techniques. Solubility test was performed to compare water and organo-solubility of chitosan before and after copolymerization. Sol-gel transition behavior was investigated using the vial inversion method and viscosity measurements. The gelation behavior makes the... 

Prostate cancer (PCa), the second most malignant neoplasm in men, is also the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men globally. Unfortunately, this malignancy remains largely asymptomatic until late-stage emergence when treatment is limited due to the lack of effective metastatic PCa therapeutics. Due to these limitations, early PCa detection through prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening has become increasingly important, resulting in a more than 50% decrease in mortality. Conventional assays for PSA detection, such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), are labor intensive, relatively expensive, operator-dependent and do not provide adequate sensitivity.... 

Conducting polymer-based devices and scaffolds has become remarkably popular due to their properties such as conductivity, tunable electrochemical properties, and straightforward fabrication procedures. Hence, they have versatile applications and can be used as implants, biosensors, cell capture/release devices, and regenerative medicine scaffolds. This review addresses the effect of conductive polymers on cell behavior since their conductive features can be applied to simulate a cellular response. Moreover, the impact of polymer chemical and physical properties on cellular response has been discussed. Recent biomedical engineering approaches used for cell capture and release were reviewed... 

To determine the outward permeability of retina-choroid-sclera (RCS) layer for different ophthalmic drugs and to develop correlations between drug physicochemical properties and RCS permeability. A finite volume model was developed to simulate pharmacokinetics in the eye following drug administration by intravitreal injection. The RCS permeability was determined for 32 compounds by best fitting the drug concentration-time profile obtained by simulation with previously reported experimental data. Multiple linear regression was then used to develop correlations between best fit RCS permeability and drugs physicochemical properties. The RCS drug permeabilities had values that ranged over 3 ×... 

Purpose: To determine the outward permeability of retina-choroid-sclera (RCS) layer for different ophthalmic drugs and to develop correlations between drug physicochemical properties and RCS permeability. Methods: A finite volume model was developed to simulate pharmacokinetics in the eye following drug administration by intravitreal injection. The RCS permeability was determined for 32 compounds by best fitting the drug concentration-time profile obtained by simulation with previously reported experimental data. Multiple linear regression was then used to develop correlations between best fit RCS permeability and drugs physicochemical properties. Results: The RCS drug permeabilities had... 

Submicron sized polyacrylamide particles were prepared via modified precipitation polymerization method. Experimental design based on Taguchi approach was employed to study the influence of the polymerization composition including monomer (acrylamide), crosslinker (methylenebisacrylamide), initiator (azobisisobutyronitrile), and modifier (polyvinylpyrrolidone, K-30), on the size and morphology of the particles. Varying the polymerization composition, submicron-particles with sizes ranging between 100 and 600 nm were achieved. In all the cases, polydispersity index (PDI) of the particle size was found to be almost 1 indicating uniformity of the particle size. The concentration of crosslinker... 

The mean spherical approximation (MSA) model, coupled with two hard sphere models, was used to predict the activity coefficients of mixtures of electrolyte solutions at different temperatures and concentrations. The models, namely the Ghotbi-Vera-MSA (GV-MSA) and Mansoori et al.-MSA (BMCSL-MSA), were directly used without introducing any new adjustable parameters for mixing of electrolyte solutions. In the correlation step, the anion diameters were considered to be constant, whereas the cation diameters were considered to be concentration dependent. The adjustable parameters were determined by fitting the models to the experimental mean ionic activity coefficients for single aqueous... 

Corticosteroids have been the mainstay of uveitis therapy. When intraocular inflammation is unresponsive to steroids, or steroid related side effects become a concern, steroid-sparing medications may be administered which can be classified into immunosuppressive and immunomodulatory agents. Uveitis treatment can be delivered systemically, topically, periocularly or intraocularly. All of the above mentioned medications can entail significant systemic side effects, particularly if administered for prolonged durations, which may become treatment-limiting. Some medications, particularly hydrophobic compounds, may poorly cross the blood-retinal barrier. Topical medications, which have the least... 

The purpose of this study was to develop a computational model to simulate the dynamics of intraocular gas behavior in pneumatic retinopexy (PR) procedure. The presented model predicted intraocular gas volume at any time and determined the tolerance angle within which a patient can maneuver and still gas completely covers the tear(s). Computational fluid dynamics calculations were conducted to describe PR procedure. The geometrical model was constructed based on the rabbit and human eye dimensions. SF6 in the form of pure and diluted with air was considered as the injected gas. The presented results indicated that the composition of the injected gas affected the gas absorption rate and gas... 

Mechanical stress caused by agitation is one of the factors that can affect hematopoietic stem cell expansion in suspension bioreactors. Therefore, we have investigated the effects of agitation on umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cell (UCB-HSC) growth and differentiation. A comparison was made between various agitation rates (20, 40 and 60 rpm) in spinner-flask and cells cultured in glass petri dish as a static culture. Moreover, the fluid dynamic at various agitation rates of spinner-flask was analyzed to determine shear stress. The spinner-flask contained a rotational moving mixer with glass ball and was kept in tissue culture incubator. To reduce consumption of cytokines, UCB-serum... 

The present study demonstrates HEMA-grafted nanodiamond (ND-HEMA)/acrylate-terminated polyurethane-acrylate diluents (APUA) composites as promising materials for bone implant applications. Neat APUA and APUA composites containing ND-HEMA at different loadings up to 2 wt% were prepared by an in situ polymerization method. Morphological analysis demonstrated that ND-HEMAs were actually in the form of tightly bound aggregates which led to formation of big agglomerates at a concentration of 2 wt%. It was also suggested that ND-HEMAs were preferentially localized in the continuous soft domain of APUA; however it interacted by both soft and hard domains. Moreover, ND-HEMAs caused considerable... 

Mechanical stress caused by agitation is one of the factors that can affect hematopoietic stem cell expansion in suspension bioreactors. Therefore, we have investigated the effects of agitation on umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cell (UCB-HSC) growth and differentiation. A comparison was made between various agitation rates (20, 40 and 60 rpm) in spinner-flask and cells cultured in glass petri dish as a static culture. Moreover, the fluid dynamic at various agitation rates of spinner-flask was analyzed to determine shear stress. The spinner-flask contained a rotational moving mixer with glass ball and was kept in tissue culture incubator. To reduce consumption of cytokines, UCB-serum... 

A unique method was used to facilitate ocular drug delivery from periocular route by drug loaded magnetic sensitive particles. Injection of particles in periocular space along the eye axis followed by application of magnetic field in front of the eye would trigger the magnetic polymeric particles to move along the direction of magnetic force and reside against the outer surface of the sclera. This technique prevents removal of drug in the periocular space, observed in conventional transscleral drug delivery systems and hence higher amount of drug can enter the eye in a longer period of time. The experiments were performed by fresh human sclera and an experimental setup. Experimental setup... 

We describe here a theoretical framework to model the bulk degradation of hydrogels, which are prepared by chemical cross-linking of pendant functional groups on long polymer chains. The random order of the cleavage of degradable bonds was described by stochastic Monte Carlo simulation. The events of bond cleavage were related to the macroscopic changes of hydrogel by the Bray-Merrill equation. Next, the time for the gel to disintegrate was predicted by considering the relation between the recursive nature in breaking the cross-link nodes and gel-to-sol transition. To start the simulation, initial network properties including the number of active functional groups on the polymer chain and... 

Coronaviruses are a group of envelop viruses which lead to diseases in birds and mammals as well as human. Seven coronaviruses have been discovered in humans that can cause mild to lethal respiratory tract infections. HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-NL63, and HCoV-HKU1 are the low-risk members of this family and the reason for some common colds. Besides, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and newly identified SARS-CoV-2, which is also known as 2019-nCoV, are the more dangerous viruses. Due to the rapid spread of this novel coronavirus and its related disease, COVID-19, a reliable, simple, fast, and low-cost detection method is necessary for patient diagnosis and tracking worldwide. Human coronaviruses detection... 

Coronaviruses (CoV) are a family of viral pathogens that infect both birds and mammals, including humans. Seven human coronaviruses (HCoV) have been recognized so far. HCoV-229E, -OC43, -NL63, and -HKU1 account for one-third of common colds with mild symptoms. The other three members are severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2. These viruses are responsible for SARS, MERS, and CoV disease 2019 (COVID-19), respectively. A variety of diagnostic techniques, including chest X-rays, computer tomography (CT) scans, analysis of viral nucleic acids, proteins, or whole virions, and host antibody detection using serological assays have... 

Coronaviruses are a group of envelop viruses which lead to diseases in birds and mammals as well as human. Seven coronaviruses have been discovered in humans that can cause mild to lethal respiratory tract infections. HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-NL63, and HCoV-HKU1 are the low-risk members of this family and the reason for some common colds. Besides, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and newly identified SARS-CoV-2, which is also known as 2019-nCoV, are the more dangerous viruses. Due to the rapid spread of this novel coronavirus and its related disease, COVID-19, a reliable, simple, fast, and low-cost detection method is necessary for patient diagnosis and tracking worldwide. Human coronaviruses detection...