Faculty of Physics - University of Bucharest

UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST
FACULTY OF PHYSICS

Guest
2024-11-22 1:54

HOME CONFERENCES SEARCH LOGIN NEW USER IMAGES

Conference: Bucharest University Faculty of Physics 2015 Meeting

Section: Optics, Spectroscopy, Plasma and Lasers

Title:

Biomedical applications of laser exposed medicines containing solutions in interaction with target surfaces: ESA “Spin Your Thesis!” programme

Authors:

Agota SIMON (1,2), Tatiana TOZAR (1,2), Alexandru STOICU (1,3), Mihai BONI (1,2), Victor DAMIAN (1), Mihail-Lucian PASCU (1,2)

Affiliation:

1) Laser Department, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, 409 Atomistilor, 077125, Magurele, Ilfov, Romania

2) Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, 405 Atomistilor, 077125, Magurele, Ilfov, Romania

3) Faculty of Chemistry, University of Bucharest, 90-92 Sos. Panduri, 030018, Bucharest, Romania

E-mail

agota.simon@inflpr.ro

Keywords:

multiple drug resistance, laser exposed medicines solutions, target surfaces wettability, hypergravity conditions

Abstract:

Since time spent in space by humans increased with the advancement of explorations and multiple drug resistance evolved, the interest in developing new methods to treat human patients and to decontaminate spacecraft’s surfaces in case of infections significantly increased. On one hand, human immune responses are weakened in space, therefore the body is more susceptible to infections [1-3]; on the other, microbes can survive, proliferate and exhibit enhanced virulence and resistance to environmental stresses in micro- and hypergravity conditions [3-5]. For this reason, humans and spacecraft components may need special treatments during space missions. A solution designed to overcome these challenges related to microbial infections onboard consists in the use of UV laser beams in interaction with medicine containing solutions to induce structural changes at their molecular level and to obtain new photoproducts with possible antimicrobial effects [6-9]. Impregnation of target surfaces with such solutions is relevant for developing new tools in targeted drug delivery. The main scientific objective is to investigate the interaction of unexposed and exposed to UV laser radiation medicine solutions with surfaces. The wettability of surfaces in terms of contact angles were determined under terrestrial gravity conditions at the liquid-solid-air interface of a sessile drop containing medicine solutions. The results showed that drug solutions have better than water wetting properties on the target surfaces; the contact angles of drug containing droplets exhibited values less than 90 degrees which indicates favorable surface wettability [10]. Within ESA “Spin Your Thesis!” 2015 programme, the wettability of target surfaces by medicine solutions will be studied under hypergravity conditions.

References:

[1] Gueguinou et al., Could spaceflight-associated immune system weakening preclude the expansion of human presence beyond Earth’s orbit? J. Leukoc. Biol. 86, 1027-1038N, 2009.

[2] Taylor et al., Toll Mediated Infection Response Is Altered by Gravity and Spaceflight in Drosophila, PLoS ONE 9(1), 1-12, 2014.

[3] Wilson et al., Space flight alters bacterial gene expression and virulence and reveals a role for global regulator Hfq. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104, 16299-16304, 2007.

[4] Deguchi et al., Microbial growth at hyperaccelerations up to 403,627 × g, PNAS 108(19), 7997-8002, 2011.

[5] Cabral et al., Variation in Microbial Growth under Hypergravity, http://arxiv.org/abs/1407.5586?context=q-bio, 2014.

[6] Pascu et al., Direct modification of bioactive phenothiazines by exposure to laser radiation, Recent Pat. Antiinfect. Drug Discov. 6(2), 1-13, 2011.

[7] Pascu et al., Exposure of chlorpromazine to 266 nm laser beam generates new species with antibacterial properties: contributions to development of a new process for drug discovery, PLoS ONE 8(2), 1-16, 2013.

[8] Alexandru et al., Biological evaluation of products formed from the irradiation of chlorpromazine with a 266 nm laser beam, Biochem. Pharmacol. 2(1), 1-4, 2013.

[9] Alexandru et al., Characterization of mixtures of compounds produced in chlorpromazine aqueous solutions by UV laser irradiation: their applications in antimicrobial assays, JBO 20(5):051002, 2015.

[10] Simon et al., Interaction of solutions containing phenothiazines exposed to laser radiation with materials surfaces, in view of biomedical applications, Int. J. Pharm. 475, 270-281, 2014.

Acknowledgement:

The research is funded by CNCS - UEFISCDI – projects PN0939/2009 and PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0922 and by COST network MP1106. Tatiana Tozar is financed by strategic grant POSDRU/159/1.5/S/137750. The hypergravity related research is funded by ESA Education Office too.