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In this study we tested the hypothesis that magainin, a peptide known to form pores in bacterial cell membranes, can increase skin permeability by disrupting stratum corneum lipid structure. We further hypothesized that magainin's enhancement requires co-administration with a surfactant chemical enhancer to increase magainin penetration into the skin. In support of these hypotheses, exposure to a known surfactant chemical enhancer, N-lauroyl sarcosine (NLS), in 50% ethanol solution increased in vitro skin permeability to fluorescein 15 fold and the combination of magainin and NLS-ethanol synergistically increased skin permeability 47 fold. In contrast, skin permeability was unaffected by exposure to magainin without co-enhancement by NLS-ethanol. Furthermore, confocal microscopy showed that magainin in the presence of NLS-ethanol penetrated deeply and extensively into stratum corneum, whereas magainin alone penetrated poorly into the skin. Additional analysis by Fouriertransform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and differential scanning calorimetry showed that NLS-ethanol disrupted stratum corneum lipid structure and that the combination of magainin and NLS-ethanol disrupted stratum corneum lipids even further. Altogether, these data suggest that NLSethanol increased magainin penetration into stratum corneum, which further increased stratum corneum lipid disruption and skin permeability. We believe this is the first study to demonstrate the use of a pore-forming peptide to increase skin permeability. This study also introduces the novel concept of using a first chemical enhancer to increase penetration of a second chemical enhancer into the skin to synergistically increase skin permeability to a model drug.

A new force field has been customized for the variation of polynorbornene that contains a bicycloheptane group in the backbone structure. The force field was developed from ab initio density functional theory (DFT), and semiempirical electronic structure calculations for both stereochemical dimers of the 2,3 exoexo isomer of polynorbornene. The bond length and bond angle parameters were determined using the HF/ 6-311G** ab initio SCF method. The intrinsic torsion potential was determined using the AM1 semiempirical method and the van der Waals parameters are kept same as in the Dreiding 2.21 force field. Both the bonded and torsional energy functions compared well to DFT calculations. The equilibrium geometry and the torsional energetics of the customized force field differ significantly from generic force fields such as Dreiding. Comparisons to experimentally determined geometry and infrared and Raman spectra were used to determine the optimum ab initio and semiempirical method to use for force field parametrization. The new force field reproduces a polynorbornene dimer crystal structure to a high degree of accuracy.

The surface area of MCM-41 mesoporous silica, estimated by several models in the literature, is significantly less than the value derived from BET analysis of nitrogen adsorption at 77.4 K. In the past, the difference has been attributed to several reasons including the errors involved in the BET analysis of the multilayer-capillary condensation region and the heterogeneity of the walls. In the present work, we present an alternate model of MCM-41 based on molecular simulations that gives surface area values that are in closer agreement to those determined by experiment. The model incorporates bulk heterogeneity of the material, surface hydroxyls, and most importantly, physical deformations or indentations of the pore surface. The model predicts small-angle X-ray diffraction (XRD) and wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) results that are consistent with experimental data as well as surface areas and pore volumes that compare favorably with published experimental results. The simulation results are consistent with the hypothesis that the interstitial space in MCM-41 is relatively amorphous despite the regular arrangement of the mesopores. The surface roughness associated with the amorphous structure increases the surface area beyond the nominal value produced by assuming smooth cylindrical pores.