Publications by authors named "Henderik Frijlink"

: In many parts of the world, pharmacists hold the primary responsibility for providing safe and effective pharmacotherapy. A key aspect is the availability of appropriate medicines for each individual patient. When industrially manufactured medicines are unsuitable or unavailable, pharmacists can prepare tailor-made medicines.

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Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by irreversible airflow limitation and progressive lung function decline, with a critical need for innovative treatments that can repair damaged lung tissue. The active fragment of osteoglycin (OGN) has previously shown significant regenerative potential in activating growth of alveolar epithelial cells, making it a promising candidate for therapeutic development. In this study, we developed an inhalable dry powder formulation of the OGN fragment using spray drying, incorporating inulin or mannitol as excipients and leucine as a dispersion enhancer.

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() is the predominant pulmonary pathogen in persons with Cystic Fibrosis (CF). Nebulization with tobramycin or colistin is mostly applied but has a significant treatment burden. Dry powder (DP) inhalation may offer an attractive alternative.

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There is an urgent need for innovative therapies targeting defective epithelial repair in chronic diseases like COPD. The mesenchymal niche is a critical regulator in epithelial stem cell activation, suggesting that their secreted factors are possible potent drug targets. Utilizing a proteomics-guided drug discovery strategy, we explored the lung fibroblast secretome to uncover impactful drug targets.

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Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death worldwide, with a significant impact on low- and middle-income countries, making it a critical challenge for global health equity and sustainable development goals. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are emerging as a promising treatment for COPD, but conventional storage at -80 °C limits their global accessibility. This study explores alternative storage methods to enhance EV stability and accessibility, particularly in low-resource settings.

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Background: Adjunctive host-directed therapies that modulate host immune responses to reduce excessive inflammation and prevent tissue damage in tuberculosis are being investigated. Macrolides, including azithromycin, were shown to possess anti-inflammatory and immune-modulatory effects in addition to their antibacterial effects. In the current trial, we investigated whether azithromycin enhances resolution of systemic and pulmonary inflammation and decreases extracellular matrix-related tissue turnover in tuberculosis patients.

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The application of dissolving microneedle arrays (DMNAs) is an emerging trend in drug and vaccine delivery as an alternative for hypodermic needles or other less convenient drug administration methods. The major benefits include, amongst others, that no trained healthcare personnel is required and that the recipient experiences hardly any pain during administration. However, for a successful drug or vaccine delivery from the DMNA, the microneedles should be inserted intact into the skin.

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Article Synopsis
  • Increasing resistance to current antiviral drugs for influenza highlights the need for new treatments, focusing on both drug development and administration methods.
  • CD-6'SLN, a novel entry inhibitor that mimics sialic acid, was formulated into a dry powder using spray drying with a dispersion enhancer, ensuring stability and efficacy in a dry powder inhaler.
  • In tests on infected mice, the aerosolized CD-6'SLN significantly reduced disease severity and inflammation compared to control groups, demonstrating its potential as a new treatment for influenza.
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Introduction: The pharmaceutical industry is gradually changing batch-wise manufacturing processes to continuous manufacturing processes, due to the advantages it has to offer. The final product quality and process efficiency of continuous manufacturing processes is among others impacted by the properties of the raw materials. Existing knowledge on the role of raw material properties in batch processing is however not directly transferable to continuous processes, due to the inherent differences between batch and continuous processes.

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The stability of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and β-galactosidase (β-gal), incorporated in arginine/pullulan (A/P) mixtures at various weight ratios by lyophilization, was determined. The physicochemical characteristics of various A/P mixtures were assessed. With decreasing A/P ratios, the glass transition temperature of the formulations increased.

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Article Synopsis
  • Many respiratory viruses are behind current pandemic threats, yet most vaccines and antiviral drugs don't use the respiratory route for administration.
  • Focusing on administering therapies via the pulmonary route could enhance immune responses and increase drug effectiveness at the infection site, allowing for lower doses and fewer side effects.
  • The pulmonary route might be more beneficial than intranasal methods, and dry powder inhalers could offer significant advantages over liquid formulations in treating respiratory infections.
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In a previous attempt to achieve ileo-colonic targeting of bovine intestinal alkaline phosphatase (BIAP), we applied a pH-dependent coating, the ColoPulse coating, directly on powder bed printed (PBP) tablets. However, the high surface roughness necessitated an additional sub-coating layer [Nguyen, K. T.

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Article Synopsis
  • The current devices for administering dry powder formulations to small animals have issues due to simultaneously dispersing and delivering the powder, leading to inconsistent results.
  • To address this, a new aerosol generator has been developed which allows for controlled delivery of aerosolized powder, optimizing airflow and dosage.
  • Despite improvements in aerosol generation and consistency, biological variations among mice still affect how the powder is deposited in their lungs.
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Recombinant human deoxyribonuclease I (rhDNase, Pulmozyme®) is the most frequently used mucolytic agent for the symptomatic treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease. Conjugation of rhDNase to polyethylene glycol (PEG) has been shown to greatly prolong its residence time in the lungs and improve its therapeutic efficacy in mice. To present an added value over current rhDNase treatment, PEGylated rhDNase needs to be efficiently and less frequently administrated by aerosolization and possibly at higher concentrations than existing rhDNase.

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Background: Therapeutic drug monitoring provides important guidance for treatment of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and could help to early identify treatment failure. This study aimed to validate a finger prick-based capillary blood sampling technique to measure biological trough levels and C-reactive protein (CRP) and evaluate patient performance and -support.

Methods: In this prospective cohort study, patients with IBD receiving infliximab (IFX) or vedolizumab (VEDO) therapy performed finger prick-based capillary blood sampling at home.

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The ileocolonic-targeted delivery of vitamins can establish beneficial alterations in gut microbial composition. Here, we describe the development of capsules containing riboflavin, nicotinic acid, and ascorbic acid covered with a pH-sensitive coating (ColoVit) to establish site-specific release in the ileocolon. Ingredient properties (particle size distribution, morphology) relevant for formulation and product quality were determined.

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Article Synopsis
  • Respiratory viruses like RSV contribute significantly to health issues globally, and entry inhibitors show promise as antiviral treatments that could block these viruses in the respiratory tract.
  • A new entry inhibitor, CD-MUS, has been developed that can inactivate various viruses by binding to their attachment proteins, and initial tests on mice show it's well-tolerated.
  • The research has led to the creation of an inhalable powder formulation of CD-MUS, which maintains its effectiveness against RSV and is set for further testing in live animal models.
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Over the past few decades, there has been a tremendous increase in the utilization of therapeutic peptides. Therapeutic peptides are usually administered via the parenteral route, requiring an aqueous formulation. Unfortunately, peptides are often unstable in aqueous solutions, affecting stability and bioactivity.

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The specifications of excipients are important to pharmaceutical manufacturers to ensure that the final product can be manufactured robustly over the entire lifecycle of a drug product. Particle size specifications are key for dry powder inhalation excipients and they should be agreed between users and suppliers. The current paper evaluates two development strategies to set particle size specifications.

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Although vaccination is still considered to be the cornerstone of public health care, the increase in vaccination coverage has stagnated for many diseases. Most of these vaccines require two or three doses to be administered across several months or years. Single-injection vaccine formulations are an effective method to overcome the logistical barrier to immunization that is posed by these multiple-injection schedules.

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Introduction: Injected mRNA vaccines have been proven effective and safe in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Using the machinery of the cell, mRNA vaccines translate into an antigen, which triggers an adaptive immune response. The effectiveness of intramuscular administered mRNA vaccines wanes in the months post-vaccination, which makes frequent booster administrations necessary.

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Powder bed printing is a 3D-printing process that creates freeform geometries from powders, with increasing traction for personalized medicine potential. Little is known about its applications for biopharmaceuticals. In this study, the production of tablets containing alkaline phosphatase using powder bed printing for the potential treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC) was investigated, as was the coating of these tablets to obtain ileo-colonic targeting.

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Article Synopsis
  • Viral subunit vaccines are safer than whole inactivated virus vaccines but usually require adjuvants due to limited efficacy.
  • A study examined how the size of viral antigens, when conjugated to different-sized polystyrene particles, affects their uptake by human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (Mo-DCs) and subsequent T cell stimulation.
  • Results showed that conjugating antigens to 500 nm and 3 μm particles significantly improved their uptake by Mo-DCs and increased cytokine production in CD4 T cells, but the effect varied for different antigens, like hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg).
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Swallowing problems and the required dose adaptations needed to obtain optimal pharmacotherapy may be a hurdle in the use of tablets in daily clinical practice. Tablet splitting, crushing, or grinding is often applied to personalise medication, especially for the elderly and children. In this study, the performance of different types of (commercially available) devices was studied.

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