Nyhetsbrev 12/2022 Newsletter |
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Pharmaceutical Sciences Laboratory, Åbo Akademi |
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I årets sista nyhetsbrev får du läsa om en lång rad evenemang och möten som har ägt rum under hösten. Äntligen kan vi börja träffas igen! Alla läsare önskas en god jul och ett gott nytt år! In the last newsletter of 2022, you will primarily read about the many events and meetings, which have taken place during the fall. Finally, we are able to meet each other again! Season's greetings to all readers! Trevlig läsning! | Happy reading! |
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Innehåll | Table of Contents |
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Studentnytt Kommande evenemang Hälsningar från möten Nya PSL-medlemmar Nya publikationer
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Student news Upcoming events Greetings from meetings New PSL members New publications
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Studentnytt | Student news |
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Amanda Mansner fick pris från Farmaceutiska föreningen i Finland Provisorsstuderande Amanda Mansner som fick titeln "årets farmaceut" vid Åbo Akademi i våras erhöll sitt pris den 10 november i Helsingfors vid det årliga FinPharmSci-mötet som ordnas av Farmaceutiska föreningen i Finland. |
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Kommande evenemang | Upcoming events |
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Professorsinstallation. Vår FinPharma professor Tapani "Tappi" Viitala (50% Åbo Akademi-50% Helsingfors universitet) kommer att installeras som professor vid Helsingfors universitet den 7 december. Lyssna till Tappis installationsföreläsning (på finska). Läs mera om evenemanget. |
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Professor inauguration ceremony. Our FinPharma professor Tapani "Tappi" Viitala (50% Åbo Akademi University-50% University of Helsinki) will be celebrated in a inauguration ceremony at the University of Helsinki on December 7th. Listen to Tappi's inauguration lecture (in Finnish). Read more about the event. |
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Hälsningar från möten | Greetings from meetings |
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After a break of approximately 2½ years of virtually no physical meetings, this autumn has kicked off with a broad range of different seminars and other face-to-face events! We are super happy to be able to network in person again, so below a summary of a few of the events we have attended since the last Newsletter. |
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Human Digestion and Absorption - a Mechanistic Understanding, 21-25th November, Copenhagen Alaa Mahran took the opportunity to participate in a course held on 21-25th November at University of Copenhagen entitled “Human Digestion and Absorption - a Mechanistic Understanding”. "This course gave me am detailed insights about the Gastrointestinal tract (GIT) from different points of view. It was wonderful opportunity to advance my knowledge and to utilise the learnings in my doctoral research." says Alaa. |
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Synthesis, Pharmacy and Radiochemistry seminar, 17th Nov, Turku In the afternoon of the cloudy November day, we had a joint research seminar together with the chemistry and pharmacy groups of the University of Turku (UTU) and Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU). This was the kick-off for a continuous joint effort to bring together the synthetic/medicinal/materials chemistry activities at ÅAU & UTU with pharmaceutical sciences as well as radiochemistry at the Turku PET Centre, and it was organized within the frames of ÅAUs strategic research profiling area “Solutions for Health”. Prof. Pasi Virta (Dept of Chemistry, UTU) started the seminar by introducing their intriguing work on developing spherical nucleic acids. After Adj. Prof. Outi Salo-Ahen’s (Pharmacy, ÅAU) overview of the chemistry-related research done at the Pharmaceutical Sciences Laboratory, Prof. Ari Lehtonen guided us through fascinating new compounds ranging from haartmanites and non-innocent ligands to metallocycles and metal-organic frameworks. Prof. Anu Airaksinen (UTU, Turku PET Centre) ended the first session with an informative overview of the Turku PET Centre facilities and functions as well as their research activities. After the coffee break, the second session started with Prof. Tapani Viitala’s (ÅAU/ University of Helsinki, Pharmacy) convincing talk about the various applications of the multiparametric surface plasmon resonance technique. Dr. Alex Dickens (UTU, Turku Bioscience Centre) then continued by first introducing us the open access platform of large instruments such as NMR and mass spectrometers at the Turku Centre for Chemical and Molecular Analytics. Thereafter we heard about his interesting metabolomics-based research investigating the correlation between psychoses-related obesity/diabetes type II and the endocannabinoid system. Adj. Prof. Patrik Eklund (ÅAU, Organic Chemistry) crowned the day by presenting their synthetic work based on nature-derived substances such as polyphenols and carbohydrates. The day ended in a relaxed atmosphere at the late lunch at Kårkafé Aurum. Next year our joint seminar will give the opportunity for the younger generation of scientists to present their on-going research. Looking forward to that! |
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Polymers in Pharma course, 7-11th November, Gothenburg |
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Four enthusiastic Ph.D. students, namely Alaa Mahran, Jyoti, Vishal Kumar, and Rathna Mathiyalagan, from PSL enrolled for a new Ph.D. course called “Polymers in Pharma (4 ECTS)“ held on 7-11th November at Chalmers Technical University, Gothenburg, Sweden. The students write: "The course mainly focused on polymer characterization and applications in drug delivery: polymers in solution, semi-solid, and solid; including melt-prepared formulations of macro, micro, and nano size. The University of Oslo and Chalmers University students also joined us in this course. In addition, we had a chance to visit AstraZeneca and Chalmers Materials Analysis Laboratory (CMAL). It was the most fantastic opportunity through NordicPOP to take part in this insightful course, where we learned fundamentals and different characterization techniques that we can use to characterize active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), polymers, and the final formulations. Additionally, they bridged us to collaborate with their various sophisticated techniques. Besides this, we had a project presentation where we divided into two companies. The main task is to bring new formulations that can be designed for cardiovascular diseases with the provided data from the professors. We thus warmly recommend everybody to make use of these possibilities to join the Nordic POP events, now running until the end of 2025 since the project got 2 years extension due to Corona! :) " |
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3rd Virtual European Polymer Conference, 9–10th November 2022 For three consecutive years (2020-2022) the Virtual European Polymer Conference has been arranged by our visiting professor Sergey Filippov (University of Reading, UK) with collaegues. The practicalities were realized within the frames of Nordic POP, and the speakers featured amongst others Drug Delivery Guru Dr. Nicholas Peppas (University of Texas at Austin, USA) and from PSL Dr. Kuldeep Bansal presented the Jasmine PRO technology. Read more about the conference and access the recorded talks at the dedicated YouTube channel: https://www.abo.fi/en/news/virtual-european-polymer-conference-a-success/ |
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FinPharmSci, 10th November, Helsinki |
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The annual FinPharmSci event arranged by the Finnish Pharmaceutical Society was arranged 10.11. in Helsinki. About 40 participants from University of Helsinki, University of Eastern Finland and ÅAU attended the event. At the event, prizes were awarded and presentations were given by the major grant recipients as well as the Albert Wuokko Awardee. Amanda Mansner from ÅAU recieved the ”Best Pharmacist (BSc) prize” from ÅAU 2022. Former chair and Professor in Pharmaceutical Technology (ÅAU 2009-2020) Niklas Sandler gave a inspring talk about his career as he was thanked by the Society for his efforts. |
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Turku Biomaterials Days, 27-28th October, Turku The annual Turku Biomaterials Days ”Glass technology a cross healthcare industry and science” were arranged by the BioCity Turku research program Biomaterials and Medical Devices Research Program (BioMed), that PSL since this year are also part of! The event followed the very convenient lunch-to-lunch format with evening programme and mingling in between, so we had a good opportunity to catch up with old colleagues as well as with industry that is frequently also parttaking in this meeting. Aurum Day, 21st October, Turku After a few years’ break due to obvious reasons, the ”FNT Faculty Day” was once again arranged this time under the name Aurum Day! Among the five young researchers showing us the future of FNT, we also had PSL PhD student Oliver Koivisto presenting his research on ”Delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 system with MOFs and functionalized MSNs”. The day further featured an open-door hour duing which we got to visit ÅAU’s most expensive curtain, and during the mingling sessions with drinks and snacks there was also a ”speed dating” event arranged for doctoral students to learn about each other’s research! The event page on the ÅAU intranet: https://abofi.sharepoint.com/sites/intra-en-fnt/SitePages/Aurum-Day-on-October-21.aspx Physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling workshop, 11-12th October, Kuopio A new workshop on physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling (PBPK) was organised at the University of Eastern Finland School of Pharmacy in October. Main lecturers were Professor Leon Aarons from the University of Manchester and Assistant Professor Adam Darwich from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. National presenters included Dr. Timo Korjamo from Orion Pharma, Dr. Anne Filppula from Åbo Akademi and Dr. Aki Heikkinen from Certara UK, Simcyp Division. PBPK modeling is extensively used during drug development. European Medicines Agency (EMA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) encourage its use for e.g. predicting initial dose selection, drug-drug interactions, and pharmacokinetics in different populations. The confidence in PBPK models has increased, and knowledge of such tools is beneficial for students and researchers in pharmacy, toxicology, drug discovery and development, as well as clinical research. The workshop was supported by Nordic POP among others. (modified text from here) |
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Nya PSL-medlemmar | New PSL members |
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Vishal Kumar. Vishal presents himself: "I am Vishal Kumar, a PhD student in PSL at Ǻbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland. I will work under the supervision of Prof. Jessica Rosenholm and Dr. Kuldeep K. Bansal. I earned my master's degree in pharmacy (M. Pharm ‑Pharmacology) in 2021. My master's thesis was on “Antiproliferative effect of Pyrimethamine against dimethylhydrazine induced colorectal carcinoma in albino Wistar rats.” I intend to work on poly (jasmine lactone) based drugs delivery systems for improving the pharmacological efficiency of herbal drugs for example Vincristine, Podophylotoxin, (Anticancer), Berberin (anticancer, antihypertensive, antidiabetic) and Mangolol (anticancer, antiviral, immunomodulator). My work involves synthesis and characterization of drug loaded/conjugated multifunctional poly (jasmine lactone) polymers and their in vitro and in vivo evaluations." |
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Dr. Shengyi Wang. Shengyi Wang received his bachelor and master degree in Jiangxi Science and Technology Normal University and Nanchang University in China. Then, he started working in EYE & Hospital of Fudan University and focus on gene editing and treatment for hereditary deafness. |
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Nya projekt | New projects |
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One Health drugs against parasitic vector borne diseases in Europe and beyond (OneHealthdrugs) |
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Outi Salo-Ahen is the Finnish representative and management committee member of the new European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action project OneHealthdrugs. OneHealthdrugs aims at coordinating the discovery of drugs halting human and animal vector-borne diseases keeping with the principles of optimal profile for both organisms, increasing the quality and delivery technologies. The COST Action is the ideal platform aiming at the integration and generation of synergies among drug R&D experts from the chemical/biological/human/veterinary and earth science within academies, SMEs, industries, governments. The platform encompasses pre-clinical drug discovery, animal studies, and drug delivery. Strategies such as bioinformatics, PROTAC, nanotechnology will be enhanced. OneHealthdrugs will impact in Europe and in disease-endemic countries. The Action will provide a compounds database and a white chart about the discovery of new drugs for H&A infections. Expected benefits include the transfer of academia-industry and Northern-Southern world knowledge. Conferences, training schools for advanced technologies, and STSMs are planned. Novel communication technologies to disseminate the Action results to a broad audience including scientists, stakeholders, and citizens are planned. Young researchers will be trained on advanced techniques. Read more |
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Nya publikationer | New publications |
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Molecular dynamics (MD) based alchemical free energy calculations have been shown to be very accurate in predicting the free energy change, due to a mutation that could have a deleterious or a stabilizing effect on either the protein itself or its binding affinity to another protein. Here, we investigated the significance of five omicron mutations on the stability of the spike protein binding to ACE2 by free energy calculations using high throughput MD simulations. |
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"I'm taking it. Hydroxychloroquine. ...Because I think it's good. I've heard a lot of good stories." /Donald Trump During the first stages of the Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the old antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) was among the most utilized repurposed therapeutic agents. HCQ has been in clinical use for more than 60 years, but its clinical pharmacology is not well understood, and its metabolism has surprisingly not been studied previously. In this study, we demonstrate that CYP2D6, CYP3A4 and CYP2C8 are the key enzymes involved in HCQ metabolism. Furthermore, we show that HCQ and its metabolites are inhibitors of CYP2D6, which likely explains the previously observed drug-drug interaction between HCQ and metoprolol. |
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We developed a nanocomposite (AuNR@DOX-MS@p(NIPAM-co-MAA)) that could respond to these stimuli, by utilizing dual pH-temperature responsive polymer poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-methacrylic acid) (p(NIPAM-co-MAA)) as a gatekeeper on the surface of mesoporous silica coated gold nanorods, which were loaded with Doxorubicin (AuNR@DOX-MS). Upon localized NIR radiation at the tumor site, the AuNR core generated heat increases the ambient temperature of the polymer to exceed CPT, which results in acceleration of DOX release from the porous silica shell acting as a drug reservoir. Since drug release is not triggered at normal physiological conditions, the nanocomposite should exhibit lower toxic side effects at physiologic pH and temperature (7.4 and 37°C) and provide biocompatible and efficacious synergistic chemo-photothermal treatment in vivo and in vitro. |
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This review herein focuses on bacterial monitoring and combating using QDs for application which oriented from interaction mechanisms. First and foremost, the classification of QDs was demonstrated, and followed by modifying strategies. Next, mechanisms of monitoring and combating were emphatically summarized, which may provide several general principles or strategies. As for monitoring mechanisms, electrostatic interactions and specific-binding interactions were first discussed, following by the formation and operating mechanisms of sensing elements for complicated monitoring requirements. In addition, we also discussed the bacterial combating mechanisms include combination of antibacterial substances, ROS-induced sterilizing process, electrostatic interactions, and physical structural destruction. Furthermore, corresponding applications of the QDs-based sensing, imaging, and combating are critically reviewed in detail. Finally, problems and perspectives of bacterial monitoring and imaging via QDs have been pointed out. |
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Paclitaxel (PTX) is still among the most generally prescribed chemotherapeutics in oncology but is restricted by poor solubility. Although photodynamic therapy, with its noninvasive features and barely developed drug resistance, signifies an alternative tool to suppress life-threatening cancer, sole use hardly fulfills its potential. To this end, a reduction-activatable heterotetrameric prodrug with the photosensitizer is synthesized, then formulated into self-assembled nanoparticles (NPs) for tumor imaging and combined chemo- and photodynamic therapy. Coating the NPs with amphiphilic polymer distearyl-phosphatidyl-ethanolamine-polyethylene glycol-arginine-glycine-aspartate (DSPE-PEG-RGD) offers high stability and enables cancer tissue targeting. |
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Herein, a microfluidic-assisted metal–organic framework (MOF) based biomineralization strategy is designed and utilized for the efficient delivery and remote regulation of CRISPR/Cas9 RNP gene editing. The strategy is realized by biomimetic growing of thermo-responsive EuMOFs onto photothermal template Prussian blue (PB). The RNP is loaded during MOFs crystallization in microfluidic channels. |
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In this study, we preliminarily compared the carbohydrate content of lignin fractions that were extracted alone by several commonly used organic solvents in lignin chemistry. Whereafter, a new solvent sequence is proposed to separate narrow molar mass lignin fractions with trace/large amounts of carbohydrates. We also discuss the characteristics variation of lignin in the thermal properties and in the formation of lignin nanoparticles. |
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Here, we have designed a disulfide-bonded PTX-based prodrug to be loaded in to DSPE-PEG nanoparticles with GEM and THPP, which provide PDT, in the suitable proportions, to enable the effective and targeted treatment of pancreatic cancer. |
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In clinical practice, we noticed that triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients had higher shear-wave elasticity (SWE) stiffness than non-TNBC patients and a higher α-SMA expression was found in TNBC tissues than the non-TNBC tissues. Moreover, SWE stiffness also shows a clear correlation to neoadjuvant response efficiency. To elaborate this phenomenon, TNBC cell membrane-modified polylactide acid-glycolic acid (PLGA) nanoparticle was fabricated to specifically deliver artesunate to regulate SWE stiffness through inhibiting CAFs functional status. As tested in MDA-MB-231 and E0771 orthotopic tumor models, CAFs functional status inhibited by 231M-ARS@PLGA nanoparticles (231M-AP NPs) had reduced the SWE stiffness as well as attenuated hypoxia of tumor as tumor soil loosening agent which amplified the antitumor effects of paclitaxel and PD1 inhibitor. |
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