The present invention relates to a method for obtaining improved photostability of a sunscreen compn. that contains at least two sunscreen active ingredients, which are photo-unstable when formulated together, by microencapsulating at least one of said active ingredients in an encapsulating material suitable for holding the encapsulated active ingredient material, thus reducing or preventing its leaching out of the capsules; and adding other acceptable components and additives needed for the prepn. of said compn. The sunscreen active ingredients can be selected from UVA and UVB absorbers, preferably a combination thereof. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention said active ingredients are encapsulated in sep. sol-gel microcapsules. Examples are given for prepn. of microcapsules by a sol-gel method and an oil-in-water sunscreen compn. contg. encapsulated sunscreen actives. [on SciFinder(R)]

The present invention generally relates to safe and stable sunscreen compns. comprising at least one sunscreen active ingredient in the form of an inert sol-gel microcapsules encapsulating UV absorbing compds. in any acceptable cosmetic vehicle. The compn. according to the present invention can comprise several UV absorbers that may be encapsulated in the same sol-gel microcapsule or in different capsules. The encapsulation of the UV absorbers reduces or even prevents the contact between the sunscreen compds. and the human tissue, thus reducing various adverse effects that are assocd. with the use of sunscreens. The encapsulation also reduces or even prevents cross reactivity between the sunscreen compds. and the packaging material and between the sunscreen compds. and any other component present in the compn., thus enhancing the compns. stability. The hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity character of the sol-gel microcapsules can be controlled by selecting suitable sol-gel precursors and suitable reaction conditions and can be chosen to be compatible with the cosmetic vehicle to be used in the sunscreen compn. The sunscreen compns. of the present invention can comprise any acceptable UVA and/or UVB absorbing compds. at any desired ratio to obtain a desired accumulative UV screening spectrum. [on SciFinder(R)]

Structural rearrangements and aggregation resulting from covalent modification of human IgG by caprylic ester of N-hydroxysuccinimide were studied by differential scanning calorimetry, dynamic light scattering, and ANS-binding spectrofluorimetry. The thermogram for the native IgG displays only one transition peak (Tmax = 68°, ΔH = 20.9 J/g). For the chem. modified IgG the temps. corresponding to the initial and maximal deviations of the heat flow as well as the area under the transition peak decreased as the no. of attached alkyl groups increases. This finding may be explained by weakening the intramol. interactions responsible for the rigidity of the IgG mol. structure and by an increase in the protein-protein interactions for the modified IgG. Dynamic light scattering data indicate spontaneous aggregation of the modified IgG mols. in aq. soln.; the size of aggregates depends on the modification degree. These data correlate with a drastic increase in the surface hydrophobicity index for IgG mols. with an increase in the no. of attached alkyl chains. [on SciFinder(R)]

The present invention relates to a pharmaceutical cream composition for topical application for the treatment of skin disorders and skin diseases, comprising 1-6 wt.% Dead Sea Mud as an active ingredient. Said composition is for use in treating skin disorders and skin diseases such as psoriasis, saborrehic dermatitis, xerosis, atopic dermatitis, eczema, diaper rash, skin burns of state I and sensitive skin. Said cream composition is also for use as a leave-on cosmetic cream for beautifying and enhancing the skin appearance. In addition to Dead Sea Mud said composition comprises ingredients suitable for the preparation of cosmetic cream. Said cream can further comprise up to 4 wt.% Dead Sea water. [on SciFinder(R)]

A novel fluorescence immunoassay based on specific interaction of an antibody with an antigen preadsorbed onto fluorescer (perylene) microparticles (mean diam. 0.8-1.0 μm) is described. The microparticles of perylene are formed by pptn. in IgG soln., and the obtained dispersion is stable in the protein at concns. higher than 1 mg ml-1. Dissolving the particles in a suitable solvent leads to fluorescence when exciting by light of a proper wavelength. The dependencies of the fluorescence intensity on the concns. of antigen, antibody and fluorescer were studied. [on SciFinder(R)]

The present invention relates to a method for obtaining improved photostability of a sunscreen compn. that contains at least two sunscreen active ingredients, which are photo-unstable when formulated together, by microencapsulating at least one of said active ingredients in an encapsulating material suitable for holding the encapsulated active ingredient material, thus reducing or preventing its leaching out of the capsules; and adding other acceptable components and additives needed for the prepn. of said compn. The sunscreen active ingredients can be selected from UVA and UVB absorbers, preferably a combination thereof. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention said active ingredients are encapsulated in sep. sol-gel microcapsules. Examples are given for prepn. of microcapsules by a sol-gel method and an oil-in-water sunscreen compn. contg. encapsulated sunscreen actives. [on SciFinder(R)]

The present invention relates to a novel process for prepg. sol-gel microcapsules loaded with up to 95 % (wt./wt.) functional mols. or substances and to the products obtained by said process. Said process is conducted in two steps: (a) creating an oil-in-water emulsion by emulsification of a water insol. soln. comprising the sol-gel precursors and the mols. to be loaded, in an aq. soln. under appropriate shear forces; (b) mixing and stirring said emulsion with an aq. soln. at a suitably selected pH to obtain loaded sol-gel microcapsules in suspension. The microcapsules so obtained can further be subjected to cycles of isolation and rinsing. Incorporation of the final product, either in the form of a suspension or a powder, in cosmetic formulations affords a transparent cream when applying to skin and has a smooth and pleasant contact. [on SciFinder(R)]

The invention provides a sustained release, polymer-based, water insol. bead, comprising a polymeric matrix contg. a plurality of emulsion droplets, the droplets being formed from at least one surface-active mol., at least one volatile hydrophobic component and water, wherein the volatile component is released from the water-insol. bead in atm. air. The volatile components are insect pheromones or essential oils. [on SciFinder(R)]

Compns. and methods useful for the in vivo delivery of water-insol. drugs (e.g., anticancer paclitaxel) in which the drug agent is delivered in the form of suspended particles coated with protein (which acts as a stabilizer) are described. In particular, protein and the drug in a biocompatible dispersing medium are subjected to high shear, in the absence of any conventional surfactants, and also in the absence of any polymeric core material for the particles. The procedure yields particles with a diam. of <1 μ. The use of specific compn. and prepn. conditions (e.g., addn. of a polar solvent to the org. phase), and careful election of the proper org. phase and phase fraction, enables the reproducible prodn. of unusually small nanoparticles of less than 200 nm diam., which can be sterile-filtered. The particulate system produced can be converted into a redispersible dry powder comprising nanoparticles of water-insol. drug coated with a protein, and free protein to which mols. of the drug are bound. This results in a unique delivery system, in which part of the drug is readily bioavailable (in the form of mols. bound to the protein), and part of the drug is present within particles without any polymeric matrix. Thus, 20 mg paclitaxel is dissolved in 1.0 mL methylene chloride and the soln. mixed with 4.0 mL human serum albumin soln. The mixt. was homogenized in order to form a crude emulsion and then sonicated. The dispersion was further lyophilized for 48 h without adding any cryoprotectant. The particle size after reconstitution was the same as before lyophilization. [on SciFinder(R)]

The dynamic structures of native and hydrophobized (by covalent attachment of palmitoyl chains) glucose oxidase were studied by time-domain dielec. spectroscopy (TDDS). Anal. of the dipole correlation function for both types of the enzyme showed that the decay of the correlation function of the macromol. motion can be presented as a sum of components corresponding to different kinds of protein motion: isotropic rotation of the protein mol. as a whole, anisotropic Brownian tumbling of subunits, and anisotropic intramol. motion of polar groups and substructures. The slowest relaxation time was found to be longer for the modified enzyme than for the native enzyme. The dielec. strengths for all relaxation processes, as well as the dipole moment and the mol. vol., were also larger for the modified glucose oxidase. The obsd. differences between various types of the dipole motion for the native and modified glucose oxidase are discussed. [on SciFinder(R)]