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Biomedical subjects

L Van Vooren

Publications and source records attributed to L Van Vooren.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

The importance of the cosolvent propylene glycol on the antimicrobial preservative efficacy of a pharmaceutical formulation by DOE-ruggedness testing.

The aim of this study was to statistically evaluate the influence of the concentration of the co-solvent propylene glycol on the preservative efficacy of a complex pharmaceutical suspension-emulsion formulation containing methyl- and propylparaben. Preservative Efficacy Tests (PETs) were performed using the validated pharmacopoeial methodology with five test organisms over 1 month on lab-scale test formulations. These were independently prepared according to a Box-Behnken experimental design with a triplicate central point at 0.22% m/m methylparaben, 0.22% m/m propylparaben, and 2.75% m/m propylene glycol, and with an additional corner point of the Box-Behnken cube. We evaluated the preservative efficacies against the criteria of the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) and European Pharmacopoeias (PhEur) for formulations for oral use, as well as by the statistical comparison of the slopes obtained by linear regression of log (CFU/g) vs. time. With an initial bacterial challenge of 10(6) CFU/g for each of the three bacterial strains, no survivals were detected after 7 days. For the two fungal strains, box plots and analysis of variance showed significant, concentration-dependent, main effects: the three variables significantly influenced the kill-rate of C. albicans, while A. niger was predominantly influenced by the cosolvent propylene glycol, and only to a minor extent by methylparaben and not at all by propylparaben. These findings were confirmed by taking the pharmacopoeial criteria as the evaluation basis, where the dominant influence of propylene glycol concentration is apparent. It was concluded that the cosolvent propylene glycol is at least of equal preservative importance than both parabens.

Anti-Infective Agents↗

Characterisation of a preservative system in an oily preparation.

The influence of three variables, i.e. the concentrations of benzyl alcohol (BA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and tert-butyl-4-hydroxyanisol (BHA), on the preservative efficacy and antioxidant activity of an oily veterinary formulation was investigated using quantitative experimental designs and applying pharmacopoeial methods as part of the robustness-evaluation. Preservative Efficacy Tests (PETs) were performed using the validated European Pharmacpoeia (EP) methodology with 7 test-organisms over one month on lab-scale test-formulations. These were independently prepared according to a Box-Behnken experimental design with a triplicate central point at 0.75% m/V BA, 0.05% mN BHT and 0.05% m/V BHA, and with an additional control-point outside the Box-Behnken cube containing no preservative ingredient. The preservative efficacies were evaluated against the USP and EP criteria for formulations for oral use, as well as by the statistical comparison of the slopes obtained by linear regression of the log of CFU/g versus time. The peroxide values were determined after two months storage at 50 degrees C, using the EP titrimetric method. No interactions between the preservatives were observed for any of the seven tested micro-organisms in the PETs. BA had a very significant preservative effect against several of the tested microorganisms, while no antimicrobial effect for BHT and BHA was observed. Aspergillus niger was the most preservative-resistant micro-organism, while Staphylococcus aureus was the most sensitive test-germ. Compliance with USP-PET criteria was found for all formulations tested, even those without preservatives, while the EP-PET criteria showed compliance for those formulations with the highest BA concentration only. Stored in glass vials, a statistically significant antioxidant effect was demonstrated for BA only, although all tested formulations showed acceptable anti-oxidative properties. No significant antioxidant effects were shown for BHT or BHA.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗

Determination of the relative amounts of three crystal forms of a benzimidazole drug in complex finished formulations by FT-Raman spectroscopy.

A 5% (m/m) premix for animal use was quantitatively characterized for the polymorph composition of its benzimidazole drug substance. Raman spectra of reference samples (pure polymorphs A, B and C in lactose at a concentration of 5%, m/m) were compared with the spectra of benzimidazole samples with a known polymorph composition and with the spectra of uncharacterized premixes. The raw intensities of 78 selected wavenumbers were vector-normalized and application of stepwise linear regression models estimated the relative quantities of the benzimidazole-drug polymorphs A, B and C in the different samples. Modelling results of the samples with known polymorph composition were in compliance with the expected concentrations, validating the proposed methodology. The benzimidazole drug substance in the premixes was predominantly polymorph B. Although statistically not significant, some traces of polymorph A could not be ruled out. Similar analyses were performed to evaluate the solid-state stability of the benzimidazole drug substance in another drug formulation, i.e. a suspension-emulsion. Suspension-emulsions originally determined as containing polymorph B benzimidazole drug substance were stored for 12 months at 25 degrees C/60%RH. FT-Raman spectroscopy revealed that no polymorph transformations occurred during this storage.

Benzimidazoles↗

Automatic buffer capacity model building for advanced interpretation of titration curves.

An automatic buffer capacity model building algorithm was developed. The objective of this algorithm is to characterize multiple buffer systems from experimental titration curves. Starting from a simple mathematical model that incorporates the available prior knowledge on the buffer system, the model is sequentially extended by incorporating additional monoprotic buffer equations. To select the most appropriate model from the resulting set of automatically built models, a model structure selection technique was constructed from existing methods.

Algorithms↗

A novel bending point criterion for dissolution profile interpretation.

A novel bending point criterion was developed and compared with a number of existing criteria for the interpretation of certain dissolution profiles; these comparison criteria were the percentage dissolved at a fixed time point, the fitted Weibull parameters, and the area under the dissolution curve (AUC). The statistical bending point model was applied to dissolution curves that showed linear dissolution. The bending point model is based on a general linear model, and its confidence information is obtained using the variance-covariance matrix of the parameter estimates. Practically, three time points in the linear part and two time points on the plateau level are used for a reliable bending point estimation. A comparative study with three batches and three storage conditions of slow-release mucoadhesive buccal tablets was performed. The relative standard deviation (RSD) values of the bending point were typically between 1% and 5% which are considerably lower than the corresponding values of the other criteria (typically between 3% and 15%). The bending point criterion is considered robust and stable for the characterization of certain dissolution profiles. Moreover, the bending point has a particular physical interpretation that is helpful in the framework of the slow-release application of this buccal tablet.

Adhesives↗

Automatic buffer capacity model building for the purpose of water quality monitoring.

In this paper, buffer capacity profiles are used in the framework of automatic monitoring of water quality. The aim of the proposed methodology is to automatically and stepwise build buffer capacity models for each particular titrated sample, and to quantify the individual buffer systems that constitute the total buffer capacity. An automatic and robust model building algorithm has been developed and applied to many titration curves of effluent and river water samples. It is illustrated that the application of automatically built buffer capacity models mostly results in similar or better estimations of ammonium and ortho-phosphate in the samples compared to a priori fixed buffer capacity models. The automatic modelling approach is also advantageous for alarm generating purposes on e.g. river waters, because unexpected buffers are easily detected.

Automation↗