IDEA AG - Glossary

<h1 align="left">Glossary</h1> <p align="center" style="text-align: center;"><font size="-1" style="font-size:9pt; font-family: Courier, Courier New, mono">| <a href="index-a.html#a" >A</a> | B | <a href="index-c.html#c" >C</a> | <a href="index-d.html#d" >D</a> | <a href="index-e.html#e" >E</a> | F | <a href="index-g.html#g" >G</a> | <a href="index-h.html#h" >H</a> | <a href="index-i.html#i" >I</a> | J | <a href="index-k.html#k" >K</a> | <a href="index-l.html#l" >L</a> | <a href="index-m.html#m" >M</a> |<br> | <a href="index-n.html#n" >N</a> | O | <a href="index-p.html#p" >P</a> | Q | R | <a href="index-s.html#s" >S</a> | <a href="index-t.html#t" >T</a> | U | <a href="index-v.html#v">V</a> | W | X | Y | Z |</font></p> <p><a name="a"></a><a name="amphiphilic"></a><b>Amphiphilic</b> means preferring a different surrounding on either end, as implied by the Greek prefix <i>amphi</i>, denoting 'on both sides'. Amphiphilic molecules referred to in this document have one water-loving (<i>hydrophilic</i>) and one fat-loving (<i>liphophilic</i>) end, for example. </p> <p> <a name="association"></a><b>Association </b>(of an agent with a carrier), can either rely on encapsulation into the interior of a vesicle-like carrier or else results from molecular attachment to a carrier surface. Such molecular attachment preferably is due to simple adsorption (<i>physisorpis</i>) but also can involve chemical attachment, if required. </p> <p><a name="c"></a><a name="corneocyte"></a><b>Corneocyte</b> denotes a keratine filled cell, which die off in the horny layer of the skin.</p> <p><a name="corticosteroid"></a><b>Corticosteroid</b>, or corticoid, is a biologically active steroid produced in the interrenal, i. e. cortical, tissue of adrenal cortex.</p> <p><a name="d"></a><a name="dermis"></a><b>Dermis</b>, or in Latin <i>corium</i>, is the skin region below epidermis. Mammalian dermis is approx. 10-20-times thicker than epidermis. The dermis shelters blood capillaries, certain glands, immunologically active cells, nerve endings, etc.. This region of the skin is thus the main site for dermatological drug delivery.</p> <p><a name="diffusion"></a><b>Diffusion</b> describes motion of individual entities, most frequently of single molecules, in a field. The latter is often caused by molecular concentration gradient, but can also stem from an electrical potential gradient (electro-diffusion), from thermal gradient (thermo-diffusion), etc..</p> <p><a name="drug-delivery"></a><b>Drug delivery</b> Drug delivery, generally, describes the art of applying a therapeutic agent. </p> <p><a name="e"></a><a name="epicutaneous"></a><b>Epicutaneous</b> means on the skin.</p> <p><a name="epidermis"></a><b>Epidermis</b> is the outer, protective, non-vascular layer of the skin, and comprises the dead horny layer (the <i>stratum corneum</i>) and the underlying living epidermis. The latter is located between the horny layer and the basal layer, which represents the boundary between epidermis and the deeper living skin layer, the <i>dermis</i>. In humans, epidermis is normally between 30 micrometer and, very seldom, up to 4 mm thick.</p> <p><a name="g"></a><a name="galenic"></a><b>Galenic</b>: pertaining to formulating therapeutic agents into palatable or otherwise practicaly useful formulations.</p> <p><a name="glucocorticosteroid"></a><b>Glucocorticosteroid</b>, or glucocorticoid, is a corticosteroid with an effect on glucose metabolism in a body.</p> <p><a name="h"></a><a name="hydrophilic"></a><b>Hydrophilic</b> means 'water loving'.</p> <p><a name="hydrophobic"></a><b>Hydrophobic</b> means water disliking, or water repelling.</p> <p> <a name="i"></a><a name="interferon"></a><b>Interferon</b> is a protein, produced in virus-infected animal cells. Interferon inhibits, non-specifically, the replication of viruses.</p> <p><a name="k"></a><a name="keratinocyte"></a><b>Keratinocyte</b> is the precursor cell to corneocyte, found in the living epidermis.</p> <p><a name="l"></a><a name="lamella"></a><b>Lamella</b>: a thin plate, or a planar layer (plural: lamellae).</p> <p><a name="lamellar"></a><b>Lamellar</b>: in the form of a thin plate or a planar layer.</p> <p><a name="lipid"></a><b>Lipid</b>, most generally, is synonimous with fat. In case of simple lipids it consists of mixtures of glycerides of fatty acids. The latter are monobasic organic acids with the general formula R-COOH, where R is a hydrogen or a group of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Glycerides are esters of glycerol with organic acids.</p> <p><a name="lipid-bilayer"></a><b>Lipid bilayer</b> comprises two layers of, typically amphiphilic, molecular arrays arranged oposite to each other with a common hydrophobic bilayer interior and two hydrophilic surfaces.</p> <p><a name="lipophilic"></a><b>Lipophilic</b> means 'fat loving'.</p> <p><a name="liposome"></a><b>Liposome</b> (a 'lipid body'), most generally speaking, is a (quasi)stable lipid vesicle with an aqueous core and at least one surrounding bilayer.</p> <p><a name="m"></a><a name="micelle"></a><b>Micelle</b> is an aggregate with a water-loving (hydrophilic) surface and a fatty core, consisting of a few dozen and up to many thousand molecules, the precise number being given by the aggregation number. Most micelles are spherical, disk-like, or thread-like, but other forms are possible.</p> <p><a name="mixed-micelle"></a><b>Mixed micelle</b> is a micelle comprising at least two different molecular species.</p> <p><a name="multilamellar"></a><b>Multilamellar</b> means (quasi)flat and multi-layered.</p> <p><a name="n"></a><a name="non-invasive"></a><b>Non-invasive</b> means lesion-free.</p> <p><a name="non-steroids"></a><b>Non-steroids</b> are molecules with similar action but different structure than steroids. Typically they exhibit anti-proliferative and anti-inflammatory action, which is common to non-steroidal drugs and glucocorticosteroids, for example.</p> <p><a name="p"></a><a name="penetrability"></a><b>Penetrability</b> is the rate of transport through a barrier that is being penetrated. When used in conjunction with particulate transport through a nano-porous barrier, the term penetrability defines the ability of a given particulate to penetrate the barrier, which also partly determines such ability.</p> <p><a name="penetration"></a><b>Penetration</b>, generally, denotes the act or process of piercing, or penetrating, a body or object. Penetration of a barrier thus involves a forcefull creation of a passage through an object, and thus it should not be used for describing diffusion-driven transport.</p> <p><a name="permeability"></a><b>Permeability</b> is the rate of diffusion through a porous material.</p> <p><a name="permeation"></a><b>Permeation</b> (through a barrier) typically describes diffusion-based transport through an, at least semi-permeable, obstacle. Sometimes, the term "barrier penetration" is incorrectly used instead.</p> <p><a name="phospholipid"></a><b>Phospholipid</b> is a lipid with at least one phosphate group in the hydrophilic part of the molecule. Phosphatidylcholine (most often a di-chain-glycerophosphorylcholine) is the most common phospholipid found in nature.</p> <p><a name="pulmonary"></a><b>Pulmonary</b> of, or pertaining, to the lungs. </p> <p><a name="s"></a><a name="solubilisation"></a><b>Solubilisation</b> concentration, in this document, denotes the minimum amount of a surface active ingredient that suffices to diminish the size of lipid aggregates down to that of corresponding mixed micelles.</p> <p><a name="steroids"></a><b>Steroids</b>: chemically similar but biologically diverse molecules, such as bile salts and corticosteroids. In general, saturated hydrocarbons containing seventeen carbon atoms in a system of rings, three six-membered and one five-membered, condensed together (six atoms being shared between rings).</p> <p><a name="stratum-corneum"></a><b>Stratum corneum</b>, or the horny layer, is the outermost part of the skin, consisting of some thirty layers of flattened, biologically dead but biochemically still active cells. The narrow regions between these corneocyte cells are filled nearly completely with quasi-lamellar structures consisting of appr. 80%, mainly saturated lipids. The corneocyte interior is filled with keratine fillaments, by and large. The stratum corneum, consequently, is mechanically very rigid and acid resistant. It is extremely impermeable to water and aqueous solutions and also efficiently precludes diffusion of lipophilic substances. The stratum corneum thus prevents both, a significant loss of the body fluids, lipids and macromolecules from the skin depth, as well as the counterdirected transport of the superficially applied pathogens, toxins, but also agents, into the skin.</p> <p><a name="subcutaneous"></a><b>Subcutaneous</b> means below the skin (<i>cutis</i>).</p> <p><a name="surfactant"></a><b>Surfactant</b>, or a surface active agent, is a substance introduced into a liquid in order to affect - usually to increase - its spreading, wetting and similar properties. Many detergents fall into this class. </p> <p><a name="t"></a><a name="transcutaneous"></a><b>Transcutaneous</b> means through the skin (<i>cutis</i>).</p> <p><a name="transdermal"></a><b>Transdermal (delivery)</b>, typically denotes transport through intact skin (<i>cutis</i>) and thus is synonimous with transcutaneous. Strictly speaking, however, transdermal only refers to transport through the inner part of the skin, the sub-epidermal dermis.</p> <p><a name="transfersome"></a><b>Transfersome</b>®, in the broadest sense, denotes any bi- or multi-component aggregate that is capable of crossing and thus of transferring material through semi-permeable barriers. This is enabled by its unique self-regulatory shape adaptability.</p> <p><a name="transpulmonary"></a><b>Transpulmonary</b> (delivery) through the lung.</p> <p><a name="v"></a><a name="vaspid"></a><b>VASPID</b> (Visual Analog Scale Pain Intensity Difference) is a measurement for individually recognized pain, compared to pretreatment.</p> <p><a href="../index.html"><----</a> | <a href=".././index.html" target="_top" onmouseover="putstattext('What is special about IDEA?'); return true;">Home</a> | <a href="../about-us/index.html" target="_top" onmouseover="putstattext('About IDEA history, people, external collaboratory and future plans.'); return true;">About us</a> | <a href="../corporate_factsheet/index.html" target="_top" onmouseover="putstattext('Corporate Factsheet'); return true;">Corporate Factsheet</a> | <a href="../science/index.html" target="_top" onmouseover="putstattext('Academic collaborations, publications, etc.'); return true;">Science</a> | <a href="../publications/index.html" target="_top" onmouseover="putstattext('Publications'); return true;">Publications</a> | <a href="../product_opportunities/index.html" target="_top" onmouseover="putstattext('IDEA offers better compliance, local drug targeting and patent protection.'); return true;">Product opportunities</a> | <a href="../financial/index.html" target="_top" onmouseover="putstattext('Investors and basic financial data.'); return true;">Finance</a> | <a href="../press_releases/index.html" target="_top" onmouseover="putstattext('Original texts.'); return true;">Press releases</a> | <a href="../latest_newsletter/index.html" target="_top" onmouseover="putstattext('IDEAS latest newsletter'); return true;">Latest newsletter</a> | <a href="../press_clippings/index.html" target="_top" onmouseover="putstattext('IDEA in the press.'); return true;">Press clippings</a> | <a href="../conferences/index.html" target="_top" onmouseover="putstattext('Here you will find many dates where you can meet us and where we can talk...'); return true;">Conferences</a> | <a href="../career/index.html" target="_top" onmouseover="putstattext('We constantly seek best talents and dedication, offering much in return.'); return true;">Career</a> | <a href="../contact/index.html" target="_top" onmouseover="putstattext('We would like to hear from you!'); return true;">Contact</a> | <a href="../faq/index.html" target="_top" onmouseover="putstattext('Product bio/acceptability, liposome/Transfersome, ...'); return true;">Scientific FAQ</a> | Glossary | <a href="../sitemap/index.html" target="_top" onmouseover="putstattext('Get an impression on IDEA!'); return true;">Site Map</a> | <a href="../search/index.html" target="_top" onmouseover="putstattext('Find documents based on keywords!'); return true;">Search</a> |  </p>