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Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM) is an inherited heart muscle disease caused by heterozygous missense mutations within the gene encoding for the nuclear envelope protein transmembrane protein 43 (TMEM43). The disease is characterized by myocyte loss and fibro-fatty replacement, leading to life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. However, the role of TMEM43 in the pathogenesis of ACM remains poorly understood. In this study, we generated cardiomyocyte-restricted transgenic zebrafish lines that overexpress eGFP-linked full-length human wild-type (WT) TMEM43 and two genetic variants (c.1073C>T, p.S358L; c.332C>T, p.P111L) using the Tol2-system. Overexpression of WT and p.P111L-mutant TMEM43 was associated with transcriptional activation of the mTOR pathway and ribosome biogenesis, and resulted in enlarged hearts with cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Intriguingly, mutant p.S358L TMEM43 was found to be unstable and partially redistributed into the cytoplasm in embryonic and adult hearts. Moreover, both TMEM43 variants displayed cardiac morphological defects at juvenile stages and ultrastructural changes within the myocardium, accompanied by dysregulated gene expression profiles in adulthood. Finally, CRISPR/Cas9 mutants demonstrated an age-dependent cardiac phenotype characterized by heart enlargement in adulthood. In conclusion, our findings suggest ultrastructural remodeling and transcriptomic alterations underlying the development of structural and functional cardiac defects in TMEM43-associated cardiomyopathy.
Graphs provide a key means to model relationships between entities.
They consist of vertices representing the entities,
and edges representing relationships between pairs of entities.
To make people conceive the structure of a graph,
it is almost inevitable to visualize the graph.
We call such a visualization a graph drawing.
Moreover, we have a straight-line graph drawing
if each vertex is represented as a point
(or a small geometric object, e.g., a rectangle)
and each edge is represented as a line segment between its two vertices.
A polyline is a very simple straight-line graph drawing,
where the vertices form a sequence according to which the vertices are connected by edges.
An example of a polyline in practice is a GPS trajectory.
The underlying road network, in turn, can be modeled as a graph.
This book addresses problems that arise
when working with straight-line graph drawings and polylines.
In particular, we study algorithms
for recognizing certain graphs representable with line segments,
for generating straight-line graph drawings,
and for abstracting polylines.
In the first part, we first examine,
how and in which time we can decide
whether a given graph is a stick graph,
that is, whether its vertices can be represented as
vertical and horizontal line segments on a diagonal line,
which intersect if and only if there is an edge between them.
We then consider the visual complexity of graphs.
Specifically, we investigate, for certain classes of graphs,
how many line segments are necessary for any straight-line graph drawing,
and whether three (or more) different slopes of the line segments
are sufficient to draw all edges.
Last, we study the question,
how to assign (ordered) colors to the vertices of a graph
with both directed and undirected edges
such that no neighboring vertices get the same color
and colors are ascending along directed edges.
Here, the special property of the considered graph is
that the vertices can be represented as intervals
that overlap if and only if there is an edge between them.
The latter problem is motivated by an application
in automated drawing of cable plans with vertical and horizontal line segments,
which we cover in the second part.
We describe an algorithm that
gets the abstract description of a cable plan as input,
and generates a drawing that takes into account
the special properties of these cable plans,
like plugs and groups of wires.
We then experimentally evaluate the quality of the resulting drawings.
In the third part, we study the problem of abstracting (or simplifying)
a single polyline and a bundle of polylines.
In this problem, the objective is to remove as many vertices as possible from the given polyline(s)
while keeping each resulting polyline sufficiently similar to its original course
(according to a given similarity measure).
A total of 36 Escherichia coli urinary tract isolates (UTI) of serotype 06, with different combinations of capsule ( K) and flagellin ( H) antigens, were analysed according to the outer membrane pattern (OMP), serum resistance properties, mannose-resistant hemagglutination using various types of erythrocytes, and also for the genetic presence and the expression of Pfimbriae. S fimbriae/F1 C fimbriae, Type 1 fimbriae, aerobactin and hemolysin. Twenty selected strains were further analysed by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), elaborating genomic profilas by Xba I cleavage and subsequent Southern hybridization to virulence-associated DNA probes. lt could be shown that 06 UTI isolates represent a highly heterogeneaus group of strains according to the occurrence and combination of these traits. Relatedness an the genetic and the phenotypic Ievei was found for some of the strains exhibiting the same 0: K: H: F serotype. DNA Iang-range mapping further indicated some interesting features, according to the copy number and the genomic linkage of virulence genes.
Escherichia coli isolates of serotype 06: K5 are the most common causative agents of cystitis and pyelonephritis in adults. To answer the question, as to whether strains of this particular serotype represent one special clonal group, out of a collection of 34 serotype 06: K5 isolates [Zingler et al. ( 1990) Zentralbl. Bakteriol Mikrobiol Hyg [A] 274:372-381] 15 strains were selected andanalyzed in detail. The flagellar (H) antigen and the outer membrane protein (OMP) pattern were determined. Furtherserum resistance properties and the genetic presence and expression of other virulence factors, including hemolysin, aerobactin, P fimbriae, S/F1C fimbriae and type 1 fimbriae was evaluated. In~laddition the Xbalmacrorestriction pattern of ten representative isolates was elaborated and the fimbrial (F) antigentype ofthe P fimbriae was determined, to obtain the complete 0: K: H: F pattern. These analyses could clearly show that the 06: K5 isolates do not represent one clonal group. The Xbal-macrorestriction profiles were heterogeneaus and marked differences in the hybridization patterns, using virulenceassociated gene probes in Southern hybridization of long-range-separated genomic DNA, were observed among the strains. However, some of strains showed similarities in the genomic profiles, arguing for clonal groupings among the 06: K5 isolates. lnterstingly the strains grouped tagether exhibited the same fimbrial F typethat many indicate a coincidence of this phenotypic trait with clonality.
Bile salts accumulating during cholestatic liver disease are believed to promote liver fibrosis. We have recently shown that chenodeoxycholate (CDC) induces expansion of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) in vivo, thereby promoting liver fibrosis. Mechanisms underlying bile salt-induced fibrogenesis remain elusive. We aimed to characterize the effects of different bile salts on HSC biology and investigated underlying signaling pathways. Murine HSCs (mHSCs) were stimulated with hydrophilic and hydrophobic bile salts. Proliferation, cell mass, collagen deposition, and activation of signaling pathways were determined. Activation of the human HSC cell line LX 2 was assessed by quantification of α-smooth muscle actin (αSMA) expression. Phosphatidyl-inositol-3-kinase (PI3K)-dependent signaling was inhibited both pharmacologically and by siRNA. CDC, the most abundant bile salt accumulating in human cholestasis, but no other bile salt tested, induced Protein kinase B (PKB) phosphorylation and promoted HSC proliferation and subsequent collagen deposition. Pharmacological inhibition of the upstream target PI3K-inhibited activation of PKB and pro-fibrogenic proliferation of HSCs. The PI3K p110α-specific inhibitor Alpelisib and siRNA-mediated knockdown of p110α ameliorated pro-fibrogenic activation of mHSC and LX 2 cells, respectively. In summary, pro-fibrogenic signaling in mHSCs is selectively induced by CDC. PI3K p110α may be a potential therapeutic target for the inhibition of bile salt-induced fibrogenesis in cholestasis.
To circumvent time-consuming clinical trials, testing whether existing drugs are effective inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2, has led to the discovery of Remdesivir. We decided to follow this path and screened approved medications "off-label" against SARS-CoV-2. Fluoxetine inhibited SARS-CoV-2 at a concentration of 0.8 mu g/ml significantly in these screenings, and the EC50 was determined with 387 ng/ml. Furthermore, Fluoxetine reduced viral infectivity in precision-cut human lung slices showing its activity in relevant human tissue targeted in severe infections. Fluoxetine treatment resulted in a decrease in viral protein expression. Fluoxetine is a racemate consisting of both stereoisomers, while the S-form is the dominant serotonin reuptake inhibitor. We found that both isomers show similar activity on the virus, indicating that the R-form might specifically be used for SARS-CoV-2 treatment. Fluoxetine inhibited neither Rabies virus, human respiratory syncytial virus replication nor the Human Herpesvirus 8 or Herpes simplex virus type 1 gene expression, indicating that it acts virus-specific. Moreover, since it is known that Fluoxetine inhibits cytokine release, we see the role of Fluoxetine in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients of risk groups.
The aim of the present work was to improve drug monitoring in patients with various diseases in the context of precision medicine. This was pursued through the development and validation of mass spectrometric methods for determining the drug concentrations of kinase inhibitors and their clinical application. Besides conventional approaches to determine plasma level concentrations, the focus was also on alternative sampling techniques using volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS).
A conventional LC-MS/MS method was developed for the determination of cabozantinib in human EDTA plasma and validated according to the guidelines of the European and United States drug authorities (EMA, FDA). The method met the required criteria for linearity, accuracy and precision, selectivity, sensitivity, and stability of the analyte. Validation was also performed for dilution integrity, matrix effect, recovery, and carry-over, with results also in accordance with the requirements. The importance of monitoring the exposure of cabozantinib was demonstrated by a clinical case report of a 34-year-old female patient with advanced adrenocortical carcinoma who also required hemodialysis due to chronic kidney failure. Expected cabozantinib plasma concentrations were simulated for this off-label use based on a population pharmacokinetic model. It was shown that the steady state trough levels were much lower than expected but could not be explained by hemodialysis. Considering the critical condition and potential drug-drug interaction with metyrapone, a substance the patient had taken among several others during the observation period, individual pharmacokinetics could consequently not be estimated without drug monitoring.
In addition, a VAMS method for simultaneous determination of ten kinase inhibitors from capillary blood was developed. This microsampling technique was mainly characterized by the collection of a defined volume of blood, which could be dried and subsequently analyzed. The guidelines for bioanalytical method validation of the EMA and FDA were also used for this evaluation. As the nature of dried blood samples differs from liquid matrices, further parameters were investigated. These include the investigation of the hematocrit effect, process efficiency, and various stability conditions, for example at increased storage temperatures. The validation showed that the developed method is suitable to analyze dried matrix samples accurate, precise, and selective for all analytes. Apart from the stability tests, all acceptance criteria were met. The decreased stability of two analytes was probably due to the reproducible but reduced recovery. In vitro studies provided results on the VAMS-to-plasma correlation to predict the analyte distribution between both matrices, at least in an exploratory manner. It revealed a heterogeneous picture of analytes with different VAMS-to-plasma distributions. Furthermore, the analysis of 24 patient samples indicated the applicability of at-home VAMS. Both should be confirmed later as part of the clinical validation.
The clinical investigation of the VAMS method pursued two objectives. On the one hand, the simultaneous collection of VAMS and serum samples should enable a conversion of the determined concentrations and, on the other hand, the feasibility of autonomous microsampling at home should be examined more closely. For the former, it could be shown that different conversion methods are suitable for converting VAMS concentrations into serum levels. The type of conversion was secondary for the prediction. However, the previously defined criteria could not be fulfilled for all five kinase inhibitors investigated. The framework conditions of the study led to increased variability, especially for analytes with short half-life. A low and varying hematocrit, caused by the underlying disease, also made prediction difficult for a specific patient collective. For the second objective, investigating the feasibility of VAMS, different aspects were considered. It could be shown that the majority of patients support home-based microsampling. The acceptance is likely to increase even further when microsampling is no longer part of a non-interventional study, but participation is accompanied by targeted monitoring and subsequent adjustment of the therapy. The fact that additional training increases understanding of the correct sampling procedure is also a source of confidence. Demonstrated stability during storage under real-life conditions underlines the practicality of this sampling technique.
Taken together, mass spectrometric methods for both plasma and VAMS could be developed and validated, and their clinical application could be successfully demonstrated. The availability of simple bioanalytical methods to determine kinase inhibitor exposure could improve access to prospective studies and thus facilitate the implementation of routine therapeutic drug monitoring.
In locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy is regarded as standard treatment. We assessed acute toxicities in patients receiving conventional 3D-conformal radiotherapy (3D-RT) and correlated them with dosimetric parameters after re-planning with volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT). Patients were randomized within the multicenter CAO/ARO/AIO-12 trial and received 50.4 Gy in 28 fractions and simultaneous chemotherapy with fluorouracil and oxaliplatin. Organs at risk (OAR) were contoured in a standardized approach. Acute toxicities and dose volume histogram parameters of 3D-RT plans were compared to retrospectively calculated VMAT plans. From 08/2015 to 01/2018, 35 patients with LARC were treated at one study center. Thirty-four patients were analyzed of whom 1 (3%) was UICC stage II and 33 (97%) patients were UICC stage III. Grade 3 acute toxicities occurred in 5 patients (15%). Patients with acute grade 1 cystitis (n = 9) had significantly higher D\(_{mean}\) values for bladder (29.4 Gy vs. 25.2 Gy, p < 0.01) compared to patients without bladder toxicities. Acute diarrhea was associated with small bowel volume (grade 2: 870.1 ccm vs. grade 0–1: 647.3 ccm; p < 0.01) and with the irradiated volumes V5 to V50. Using VMAT planning, we could reduce mean doses and irradiated volumes for all OAR: D\(_{mean}\) bladder (21.9 Gy vs. 26.3 Gy, p < 0.01), small bowel volumes V5–V45 (p < 0.01), D\(_{mean}\) anal sphincter (34.6 Gy vs. 35.6 Gy, p < 0.01) and D\(_{mean}\) femoral heads (right 11.4 Gy vs. 25.9 Gy, left 12.5 Gy vs. 26.6 Gy, p < 0.01). Acute small bowel and bladder toxicities were dose and volume dependent. Dose and volume sparing for all OAR could be achieved through VMAT planning and might result in less acute toxicities.
For persistent infections of the mammalian host, African trypanosomes limit their population size by quorum sensing of the parasite-excreted stumpy induction factor (SIF), which induces development to the tsetse-infective stumpy stage. We found that besides this cell density-dependent mechanism, there exists a second path to the stumpy stage that is linked to antigenic variation, the main instrument of parasite virulence. The expression of a second variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) leads to transcriptional attenuation of the VSG expression site (ES) and immediate development to tsetse fly infective stumpy parasites. This path is independent of SIF and solely controlled by the transcriptional status of the ES. In pleomorphic trypanosomes varying degrees of ES-attenuation result in phenotypic plasticity. While full ES-attenuation causes irreversible stumpy development, milder attenuation may open a time window for rescuing an unsuccessful antigenic switch, a scenario that so far has not been considered as important for parasite survival.
The eukaryotic parasite Trypanosoma brucei has evolved sophisticated strategies to persist within its mammalian host. Trypanosomes evade the hosts' immune system by antigenic variation of their surface coat, consisting of variant surface glycoproteins (VSGs). Out of a repertoire of thousands of VSG genes, only one is expressed at any given time from one of the 15 telomeric expression sites (ES). The VSG is stochastically exchanged either by a transcriptional switch of the active ES (in situ switch) or by a recombinational exchange of the VSG within the active ES. However, for infections to persist, the parasite burden has to be limited. The slender (sl) bloodstream form secretes the stumpy induction factor (SIF), which accumulates with rising parasitemia. SIF induces the irreversible developmental transition from the proliferative sl to the cell cycle-arrested but fly-infective stumpy (st) stage once a concentration threshold is reached. Thus, antigenic variation and st development ensure persistent infections and transmissibility. A previous study in monomorphic cells indicated that the attenuation of the active ES could be relevant for the development of trypanosomes. The present thesis investigated this hypothesis using the inducible overexpression of an ectopic VSG in pleomorphic trypanosomes, which possess full developmental competence. These studies revealed a surprising phenotypic plasticity: while the endogenous VSG was always down-regulated upon induction, the ESactivity determined whether the VSG overexpressors arrested in growth or kept proliferating. Full ES-attenuation induced the differentiation of bona fide st parasites independent of the cell density and thus represents the sole natural SIF-independent differentiation trigger to date. A milder decrease of the ES-activity did not induce phenotypic changes, but appeared to prime the parasites for SIF-induced differentiation. These results demonstrate that antigenic variation and development are linked and indicated that the ES and the VSG are independently regulated. Therefore, I investigated in the second part of my thesis how ES-attenuation and VSG-silencing can be mediated. Integration of reporters with a functional or defective VSG 3'UTR into different genomic loci showed that the maintenance of the active state of the ES depends on a conserved motif within the VSG 3'UTR. In situ switching was only triggered when the telomere-proximal motif was partially deleted, suggesting that it serves as a DNA-binding motif for a telomere-associated protein. The VSG levels seem to be additionally regulated in trans based on the VSG 3'UTR independent of the genomic context, which was reinforced by the regulation of a constitutively expressed reporter with VSG 3' UTR upon ectopic VSG overexpression.
Ischemia-reperfusion injury (I/R injury) is a common complication in ischemic stroke (IS) treatment, which is characterized by a paradoxical perpetuation of tissue damage despite the successful re-establishment of vascular perfusion. This phenomenon is known to be facilitated by the detrimental interplay of platelets and inflammatory cells at the vascular interface. However, the spatio-temporal and molecular mechanisms underlying these cellular interactions and their contribution to infarct progression are still incompletely understood. Therefore, this study intended to clarify the temporal mechanisms of infarct growth after cerebral vessel recanalization. The data presented here could show that infarct progression is driven by early blood-brain-barrier perturbation and is independent of secondary thrombus formation. Since previous studies unravelled the secretion of platelet granules as a molecular mechanism of how platelets contribute to I/R injury, special emphasis was placed on the role of platelet granule secretion in the process of barrier dysfunction. By combining an in vitro approach with a murine IS model, it could be shown that platelet α-granules exerted endothelial-damaging properties, whereas their absence (NBEAL2-deficiency) translated into improved microvascular integrity. Hence, targeting platelet α-granules might serve as a novel treatment option to reduce vascular integrity loss and diminish infarct growth despite recanalization.
Recent evidence revealed that pathomechanisms underlying I/R injury are already instrumental during large vessel occlusion. This indicates that penumbral tissue loss under occlusion and I/R injury during reperfusion share an intertwined relationship. In accordance with this notion, human observational data disclosed the presence of a neutrophil dominated immune response and local platelet activation and secretion, by the detection of the main components of platelet α-granules, within the secluded vasculature of IS patients. These initial observations of immune cells and platelets could be further expanded within this thesis by flow cytometric analysis of local ischemic blood samples. Phenotyping of immune cells disclosed a yet unknown shift in the lymphocyte population towards CD4+ T cells and additionally corroborated the concept of an immediate intravascular immune response that is dominated by granulocytes. Furthermore, this thesis provides first-time evidence for the increased appearance of platelet-leukocyte-aggregates within the secluded human vasculature. Thus, interfering with immune cells and/or platelets already under occlusion might serve as a potential strategy to diminish infarct expansion and ameliorate clinical outcome after IS.
Semantic Fusion for Natural Multimodal Interfaces using Concurrent Augmented Transition Networks
(2018)
Semantic fusion is a central requirement of many multimodal interfaces. Procedural methods like finite-state transducers and augmented transition networks have proven to be beneficial to implement semantic fusion. They are compliant with rapid development cycles that are common for the development of user interfaces, in contrast to machine-learning approaches that require time-costly training and optimization. We identify seven fundamental requirements for the implementation of semantic fusion: Action derivation, continuous feedback, context-sensitivity, temporal relation support, access to the interaction context, as well as the support of chronologically unsorted and probabilistic input. A subsequent analysis reveals, however, that there is currently no solution for fulfilling the latter two requirements. As the main contribution of this article, we thus present the Concurrent Cursor concept to compensate these shortcomings. In addition, we showcase a reference implementation, the Concurrent Augmented Transition Network (cATN), that validates the concept’s feasibility in a series of proof of concept demonstrations as well as through a comparative benchmark. The cATN fulfills all identified requirements and fills the lack amongst previous solutions. It supports the rapid prototyping of multimodal interfaces by means of five concrete traits: Its declarative nature, the recursiveness of the underlying transition network, the network abstraction constructs of its description language, the utilized semantic queries, and an abstraction layer for lexical information. Our reference implementation was and is used in various student projects, theses, as well as master-level courses. It is openly available and showcases that non-experts can effectively implement multimodal interfaces, even for non-trivial applications in mixed and virtual reality.
In this paper, convex approximation methods, suclt as CONLIN, the method of moving asymptotes (MMA) and a stabilized version of MMA (Sequential Convex Programming), are discussed with respect to their convergence behaviour. In an extensive numerical study they are :finally compared with other well-known optimization methods at 72 examples of sizing problems.
The experience of threat was found to result—mostly—in increased pain, however it is still unclear whether the exact opposite, namely the feeling of safety may lead to a reduction of pain. To test this hypothesis, we conducted two between-subject experiments (N = 94; N = 87), investigating whether learned safety relative to a neutral control condition can reduce pain, while threat should lead to increased pain compared to a neutral condition. Therefore, participants first underwent either threat or safety conditioning, before entering an identical test phase, where the previously conditioned threat or safety cue and a newly introduced visual cue were presented simultaneously with heat pain stimuli. Methodological changes were performed in experiment 2 to prevent safety extinction and to facilitate conditioning in the first place: We included additional verbal instructions, increased the maximum length of the ISI and raised CS-US contingency in the threat group from 50% to 75%. In addition to pain ratings and ratings of the visual cues (threat, safety, arousal, valence, and contingency), in both experiments, we collected heart rate and skin conductance. Analysis of the cue ratings during acquisition indicate successful threat and safety induction, however results of the test phase, when also heat pain was administered, demonstrate rapid safety extinction in both experiments. Results suggest rather small modulation of subjective and physiological pain responses following threat or safety cues relative to the neutral condition. However, exploratory analysis revealed reduced pain ratings in later trials of the experiment in the safety group compared to the threat group in both studies, suggesting different temporal dynamics for threat and safety learning and extinction, respectively.
Perspective: The present results demonstrate the challenge to maintain safety in the presence of acute pain and suggest more research on the interaction of affective learning mechanism and pain processing.
Upon approval of a drug, the stability of the API and the FPP has to be studied intensively because it determines the shelf-life. If a drug is found to be stable, the expiry date is arbitrary set to five years at the maximum, if a drug tends to undergo degradation, the expiry date is set shorter. The drug product must comply with predefined specifications in accordance with the ICH guidelines Q6A and Q6B during its entire market life. The content of the active substance is required to be within a specification of 95–105% of its labeled claim until expiry corresponding to the ICH guideline Q1A(R2). However, there is little or scattered literature information addressing the stability of drug products beyond their expiry dates. The objective of this thesis was to study and assess the long-term stability of a collection involving numerous pure drug substances and ampoules manufactured in the 20th century. The content and the impurity profile were examined by means of appropriate analytical methods, mainly using liquid chromatography. The results were compared to data being available in the literature. Assessing the stability regarding the dosage form and the affiliation of the drug class was conducted.
The experimental studies comprise the examination of 50 drug substances manufactured 20–30 years ago and 14 long expired ampoules which were older than 40 years in the time of analysis, exceeding many times the maximum shelf life of five years.
For investigation of the solid drug substances, pharmacopoeial methods were applied as far as possible. Indeed, results of the study showed that 44 tested substances still complied with the specification of the Ph. Eur. with regard to the content and impurity profile, even after more than two decades of storage.
For analysis of the injection solutions, HPLC-UV and HPLC-ESI/MS techniques were applied, commonly based on liquid chromatography methods of the Ph. Eur. for determination of related substances. Each method was further validated for its application to ensure accurate API quantification corresponding to ICH Q2(R1). Quite a few ampoules were identified to show surprisingly high stability. In spite of their age of 53–72 years, APIs such as caffeine, etilefrine, synephrine, metamizole sodium, furosemide, and sodium salicylate complied with the specified content that is valid nowadays, respectively. Nevertheless, typical degradation reaction, e.g. hydrolysis, oxidation, or isomerization, was observed in all remaining ampoules. Various degrees of hydrolysis were revealed for scopolamine, procaine, and adenosine triphosphate, the contents were decreased to 71%, 70%, and 15% of the declared concentrations, respectively. In the epinephrine and dipyridamole ampoules, oxidative degradation has been occurred, finding respective API contents of more or less 70%. For dihydroergotamine, excessive decomposition by epimerization was observed, resulting in an API content of 21% and degradation by isomerization was found in lobeline, still containing 64% of the labeled claim.
In conclusion, supported by the data of the present studies and the literature, defining and authorizing a longer shelf-life may be applicable to numerous pharmaceuticals which should be considered by pharmaceutical manufacturers and regulatory authorities, if justified based on stability studies. A general extension of the shelf-lives of drug products and the abolishment or extension of the maximum shelf-life limit of five years would prevent disposing of still potent medications and save a lot of money to the entire health care system.
In this work the synthesis of dendritic macromolecules and small redox cascades was reported and studies of their energy and electron transfer properties discussed.
The chromophores in the dendrimers and the redox cascades are linked via triazoles, which were built up by CuAAC. Thereby, a synthetic concept based on building blocks was implemented, which allowed the exchange of all basic components. Resulting structures include dendrimers composed exclusively of TAAs (G1–G3), dendrimers with an incorporated spirobifluorene core (spiro-G1 and spiro-G2) and the donor-acceptor dendrimer D-A-G1, in which the terminal groups are exchanged by NDIs.
Furthermore, a series of model compounds was synthesised in order to achieve a better understanding of the photophysical processes in the dendrimers.
A modification of the synthetic concept for dendrimers enabled the synthesis of a series of donor-acceptor triads (T-Me, T-Cl and T-CN) consisting of two TAA donors and one NDI acceptor unit. The intermediate TAA chromophore ensured a downhill redox gradient from the NDI to the terminal TAA, which was proved by cyclic voltammetry measurements. The redox potential of the intermediate TAA was adjusted by different redox determining substituents in the “free” p-position of the TAA. Additionally, two dyads (Da and Db) were synthesised which differ in the junction of the triazole to the TAA or the NDI, respectively. In these cascades a nodal-plane along the N-N-axes in the NDI and a large twist angle between the NDI and the N-aryl substituent guaranteed a small electronic coupling.
The photophysical investigations of the dendrimers focused on the homo-energy transfer properties in the TAA dendrimers G1–G3. Steady-state emission spectroscopy revealed that the emission takes place from a charge transfer state. The polar excited state resulted in a strong Stokes shift of the emission, which in turn led to a small spectral overlap integral between the absorption of the acceptor and the emission of the donor in the solvent relaxed state. According to the Förster theory, the overlap integral strongly determines the energy transfer rate. Fluorescence up-conversion measurements showed a strong and rapid initial fluorescence anisotropy decay and a much slower decrease on the longer time scale. The experiment revealed a fast energy transfer in the first 2 ps followed by a much slower energy hopping. Time resolved emission spectra (TRES) of the model compound M indicated a solvent relaxation on the same time scale as the fast energy transfer.
The Förster estimation of energy transfer rates in G1 explains fast energy transfer in the vibrotionally relaxed state before solvent relaxation starts. Thereby, the emission spectrum of G1 in cyclohexane served as the time zero spectrum. Thus, solvent relaxation and fast energy transfer compete in the first two ps after excitation and it is crucial to discriminate between energy transfer in the Franck-Condon and in the solvent relaxed state. Furthermore, this finding demonstrates that fast energy transfer occurs even in charge transfer systems where a large Stokes shift prevents an effective spectral overlap integral if there is a sufficient overlap integral in before solvent relaxation.
Energy transfer upon excitation was also observed in the spiro dendrimers spiro-G1 and spiro-G2 and identified by steady-state emission anisotropy measurements. It was assumed that the energy in spiro-G1 is completely distributed over the entire molecule while the energy in spiro-G2 is probably distributed over only one individual branch. This finding was based on a more polarised emission of spiro-G2 compared to spiro-G1. This issue has to be ascertained by e.g. time resolved emission anisotropy measurements in further energy transfer studies.
Concerning the electron transfer properties of TAA-triazole systems the radical cations of G1–G2, spiro-G1 and spiro-G2 and of the model compound M were investigated by steady-state absorption spectroscopy. Experiments showed that the triazole bridge exhibits small electronic communication between the adjacent chromophores but still possesses sufficient electronic coupling to allow an effective electron transfer from one chromophore to the other.
Due to the high density of chromophores, their D-A-D structure and their superficial centrosymmetry, the presented dendrimers are prospective candidates for two-photon absorption applications.
The dyads, triads and the donor-acceptor dendrimer D-A-G1 were investigated regarding their photoinduced electron transfer properties and the effects that dominate charge separation and charge recombination in these systems.
The steady-state absorption spectra of all cascades elucidated a superposition of the absorption characteristics of the individual subunits and spectra indicated that the chromophores do not interact in the electronic ground state.
Time resolved transient absorption spectroscopy of the cascades was performed in the fs- and ns-time regime in MeCN and toluene as solvent. Measurements revealed that upon with 28200 cm-1 (355) nm and 26300 cm-1 (380 nm), respectively, an electron is transferred from the TAA towards the NDI unit yielding a CS state. In the triads at first a CS1 state is populated, in which the NDI is reduced and the intermediate TAA1 is oxidised. Subsequently, an additional electron transfer from the terminal TAA2 to TAA1 led to the fully CS2 state. Fully CS states of the dyads and triads exhibit lifetimes in the ns-time regime. In contrast for Db in MeCN, a lifetime of 43 ps was observed for the CS state together with the population of a 3NDI state. The signals of the other CS states decay biexponentially, which is a result of the presence of the 1CS and the 3CS states. While magnetic field dependent measurements of Db did not show an effect due to the large singlet-triplet splitting, T-CN exhibited a strong magnetic field dependence which is an evidence for the 1CS/3CS assignment. Further analysis of the singlet-triplet dynamics are required and are currently in progress.
Charge recombination occurred in the Marcus inverted region for compounds solved in toluene and in the Marcus normal region for MeCN as solvent. However, a significant inverted region effect was observed only for Db. Triads are probably characterised by charge recombination rates in the inverted and in the normal region near to the vertex of the Marcus parabola. Hence the inverted region effect is not pronounced and the rate charge recombination rates are all in the same magnitude. However, compared to the charge recombination rate of Db the enlarged spatial distance between the terminal TAA and the NDI in the fully CS2 states in the triads resulted in reduced charge recombination rates by ca. one order of magnitude.
More important than a small charge recombination rate is an overall lifetime of the CS states and this lifetime can significantly be enhanced by the population of the 3CS state. The reported results reveal that a larger singlet-triplet splitting in the dyads led to a CS state lifetime in the us time regime while a lifetime in the ns-time regime was observed in cases of the triads. Moreover, the singlet-triplet splitting was found to be solvent dependent in the triads, which is a promising starting point for further investigations concerning singlet-triplet splitting.
The donor-acceptor dendrimer D-A-G1 showed similar characteristics to the dyads. The generation of a CS state is assumed due to a clear NDI radical anion band in the transient absorption spectrum. Noteworthy, the typical transient absorption band of the TAA radical cation is absent for D A-G1 in toluene. Bixon-Jortner analysis yielded a similar electronic coupling in D-A-G1 compared to the dyads. However, the charge recombination rate is smaller than of Db due to a more energetic CS state, which in the inverted region slows down charge recombination. In combination a singlet-triplet splitting similar to the dyads prolongs the CS state lifetime up to 14 us in diluted solution. Both effects result in an even better performance of D-A-G1 concerning energy conversion. D A-G1 is therefore a promising key structure for further studies on light harvesting applications. In a prospective study a second generation donor-acceptor dendrimer D-A-G2 might be an attractive structure accessible by “click reaction” of 13 and 8. D-A-G2 is expected to exhibit a downhill oriented gradient of CS states as assumed from the CV studies on G1–G3.