Meliha Ekinci
Meliha Ekinci completed with the highest GPA her bachelor’s degree at Ege University, Faculty of Pharmacy, Turkey in 2013. Afterwards, she completed her master's degree in Radiopharmacy Department of Ege University, Faculty of Pharmacy in 2015 and her doctorate education in 2021. She is currently working as associate professor in the Department of Radiopharmacy. She has published over 50 research articles and review articles. She has been serving as an editorial board member and a reviewer of reputed journals. Her main research interest focuses on radiolabeling and evaluating newly developed radiopharmaceuticals for diagnosis of different cancer types, especially breast and lung cancer, and novel drug delivery systems (nanoparticles, microemulsions, etc.). She has completed 20 scientific research projects, and she is currently working on 5 projects about new radiopharmaceuticals.
Supervisors: Derya İlem-Özdemir
Phone: 00902323113282
Address: Ege University, Faculty of Pharmacy
Department of Radiopharmacy, Room:304
35100 Bornova, Izmir, Turkey
Supervisors: Derya İlem-Özdemir
Phone: 00902323113282
Address: Ege University, Faculty of Pharmacy
Department of Radiopharmacy, Room:304
35100 Bornova, Izmir, Turkey
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Papers by Meliha Ekinci
in cancer consist of radiation therapy, surgery, chemotherapy,
immunotherapy and hormonal therapy. Ionizing radiation therapy,
which deprives cancer cells of its ability to reproduce, remains an
important component of cancer treatment, with about 50% of all
cancer patients receiving radiation therapy during the disease, and
contributes to 40% of curative treatment for cancer. Due to the side
effects of these routine cancer treatments, the need for new therapeutic
strategies has increased. With the development of oncolytic viruses
in the last 20 years, a new area called virotherapy has been created
in the treatment of cancer. Oncolytic viruses are a new biological
therapeutic group with a wide spectrum of anticancer activity, with
low human toxicity. Studies have shown that oncolytic viruses, which
can be designed to selectively infect and / or multiply in cancer cells,
have an increased antitumoral effect on tumor xenografts combined
with ionizing radiation. In this review, treatment methods with
ionizing radiation and oncolytic viruses are described and examples
from current studies are presented.
The purpose of this study was to develop lipid-water based drug delivery system of Alendronate Sodium (ALD) in liquid and solid form obtained by using spray drying method and compare these two forms with radioactive cell culture studies.
METHODS:
This study included the development of liquid and solid form obtained by spray drying method, radiolabelling of ALD with 99mTc, preparation of formulations containing 99mTc -ALD and evaluation of their permeability with Caco-2 cell. The liquid formulations have been developed by using various surfactants, co-surfactants, oil and water phases. Physicochemical characterizations like droplet size, polydispersity index (PDI) and zeta potential measurements and short term stability studies were investigated.
RESULTS:
According to the measurement results, two oil in water formulations (F1-L and F2-L) were selected and spray dried with Buchi mini spray dryer apparatus to provide solid formulations (F1-S and F2-S). ALD was labeled with 99mTc and added to formulations. The effect of experimental conditions on radiolabeling efficiency of ALD and stability of all formulations containing 99mTc-ALD were investigated through Radio Thin Layer Chromatography (RTLC). It was observed that the labeling efficiency of ALD was greater than 90% and all formulations were found to be stable up to 6 h at room temperature. Permeability of radiolabeled ALD from all formulations was performed by using Caco-2 cells. According to the cell culture studies, permeability from spray dried formulations of ALD was found higher than liquid formulations.
CONCLUSION:
As a conclusion, spray dried formulations could be a promising drug delivery system for enhancing the permeability of ALD. Furthermore, this study is a good example of the use of radiolabeled compounds in drug development.
Alendronate sodium (ALD) is used orally but it is poorly absorbed from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. For this reason, microemulsion system was chosen to evaluate ALD from the GI tract after oral delivery.
OBJECTIVE:
This study was aimed to prepare water-in-oil (w/o) microemulsion formulation of ALD and evaluate the permeability of ALD microemulsion from Caco-2 cell lines with radioactive and nonradioactive studies.
METHOD:
The ALD microemulsion was developed by using pseudo-ternary phase diagram and composed of Soybean oil, Colliphor EL, Tween 80, Transcutol and distilled water. The prepared ALD microemulsion was characterized by physical appearance, droplet size, viscosity, pH, electrical conductivity and refractive index. The stability of the formulation was investigated for 6 months at 25±2°C/60±5% of relative humidity (RH) as well as at 40±2°C/75±5% RH. After that 1 mg of ALD was radiolabeled with 99mTc and added to microemulsion. The permeability studies were performed with both 99mTc-ALD microemulsion and ALD microemulsion.
RESULTS:
The experimental results suggested that ALD microemulsion presented adequate stability with droplet size varying from 37.8±0.9 to 39.9±1.2 nm during incubation time. In addition, ALD microemulsion was radiolabeled with high labeling efficiency (>95%). In a non-radioactive study, ALD permeability was found to be 45 µg.mL-1 and microemulsion has high permeability percentage when compared to another study.
CONCLUSION:
The novel w/o microemulsion formulation has been developed for oral delivery of ALD. Based on the results, permeability of ALD could be significantly improved by the microemulsion formulation. In addition, 99mTc-ALD microemulsion in capsule can be used for bone disease treatment and diagnosis.
cause, exceeded only by heart disease. Still, the current clinical
imaging methods and treatments are in many situations unable
to provide timely detection and curative therapy. The field of drug
delivery stands to be significant advances in nanotechnology and
benefits of novel nanotechnology in oncology already starts. New
strategies are being designed to deliver chemotherapeutic drugs
or imaging agents to the tumor at higher concentrations with
minimal damage to normal tissues. This review will focus on how
nanoparticles are able to function as carriers for chemotherapeutic
drugs to increase their therapeutic index; how can be used as
imaging agents to detect and monitor cancer progression.
discovery, diagnosis of human disease and molecular therapeutics
for a wide variety of medical conditions. With the increasingly central
role of radiotracers for non-invasive imaging of animal models
and human research, small animal imaging centers are likely to
have a growing interest in development of radiopharmaceutical
science. Although animal experiments are giving the most valuable
information about the drug behavior in the biological system. Also
every year, millions of experimental animals are used all over the
world. The pain, distress and death experienced by the animals
during scientific experiments have been a debating issue for a long
time.
Use of cell culture techniques play a key role in new drug
development studies by giving information about receptor
interaction, drug uptake/efflux or interaction with other cellular
receptors and cellular metabolism.
This review will focus on how cell culture techniques are able to
use to estimate the uptake of developed radiopharmaceutical by
targeted receptor-bearing cells.
with high labeling yield by a new simple and easy formulation
method. According to cell culture studies, 99mTc-
MTX incorporated with both MCF-7 and CRL8798 cells,
with significant differences in the uptake percentages. Since
99mTc-MTX highly uptake in cancer cell line, the results
demonstrated that radiolabeled MTX may be promising for
breast cancer diagnosis of oncological patients.
in cancer consist of radiation therapy, surgery, chemotherapy,
immunotherapy and hormonal therapy. Ionizing radiation therapy,
which deprives cancer cells of its ability to reproduce, remains an
important component of cancer treatment, with about 50% of all
cancer patients receiving radiation therapy during the disease, and
contributes to 40% of curative treatment for cancer. Due to the side
effects of these routine cancer treatments, the need for new therapeutic
strategies has increased. With the development of oncolytic viruses
in the last 20 years, a new area called virotherapy has been created
in the treatment of cancer. Oncolytic viruses are a new biological
therapeutic group with a wide spectrum of anticancer activity, with
low human toxicity. Studies have shown that oncolytic viruses, which
can be designed to selectively infect and / or multiply in cancer cells,
have an increased antitumoral effect on tumor xenografts combined
with ionizing radiation. In this review, treatment methods with
ionizing radiation and oncolytic viruses are described and examples
from current studies are presented.
The purpose of this study was to develop lipid-water based drug delivery system of Alendronate Sodium (ALD) in liquid and solid form obtained by using spray drying method and compare these two forms with radioactive cell culture studies.
METHODS:
This study included the development of liquid and solid form obtained by spray drying method, radiolabelling of ALD with 99mTc, preparation of formulations containing 99mTc -ALD and evaluation of their permeability with Caco-2 cell. The liquid formulations have been developed by using various surfactants, co-surfactants, oil and water phases. Physicochemical characterizations like droplet size, polydispersity index (PDI) and zeta potential measurements and short term stability studies were investigated.
RESULTS:
According to the measurement results, two oil in water formulations (F1-L and F2-L) were selected and spray dried with Buchi mini spray dryer apparatus to provide solid formulations (F1-S and F2-S). ALD was labeled with 99mTc and added to formulations. The effect of experimental conditions on radiolabeling efficiency of ALD and stability of all formulations containing 99mTc-ALD were investigated through Radio Thin Layer Chromatography (RTLC). It was observed that the labeling efficiency of ALD was greater than 90% and all formulations were found to be stable up to 6 h at room temperature. Permeability of radiolabeled ALD from all formulations was performed by using Caco-2 cells. According to the cell culture studies, permeability from spray dried formulations of ALD was found higher than liquid formulations.
CONCLUSION:
As a conclusion, spray dried formulations could be a promising drug delivery system for enhancing the permeability of ALD. Furthermore, this study is a good example of the use of radiolabeled compounds in drug development.
Alendronate sodium (ALD) is used orally but it is poorly absorbed from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. For this reason, microemulsion system was chosen to evaluate ALD from the GI tract after oral delivery.
OBJECTIVE:
This study was aimed to prepare water-in-oil (w/o) microemulsion formulation of ALD and evaluate the permeability of ALD microemulsion from Caco-2 cell lines with radioactive and nonradioactive studies.
METHOD:
The ALD microemulsion was developed by using pseudo-ternary phase diagram and composed of Soybean oil, Colliphor EL, Tween 80, Transcutol and distilled water. The prepared ALD microemulsion was characterized by physical appearance, droplet size, viscosity, pH, electrical conductivity and refractive index. The stability of the formulation was investigated for 6 months at 25±2°C/60±5% of relative humidity (RH) as well as at 40±2°C/75±5% RH. After that 1 mg of ALD was radiolabeled with 99mTc and added to microemulsion. The permeability studies were performed with both 99mTc-ALD microemulsion and ALD microemulsion.
RESULTS:
The experimental results suggested that ALD microemulsion presented adequate stability with droplet size varying from 37.8±0.9 to 39.9±1.2 nm during incubation time. In addition, ALD microemulsion was radiolabeled with high labeling efficiency (>95%). In a non-radioactive study, ALD permeability was found to be 45 µg.mL-1 and microemulsion has high permeability percentage when compared to another study.
CONCLUSION:
The novel w/o microemulsion formulation has been developed for oral delivery of ALD. Based on the results, permeability of ALD could be significantly improved by the microemulsion formulation. In addition, 99mTc-ALD microemulsion in capsule can be used for bone disease treatment and diagnosis.
cause, exceeded only by heart disease. Still, the current clinical
imaging methods and treatments are in many situations unable
to provide timely detection and curative therapy. The field of drug
delivery stands to be significant advances in nanotechnology and
benefits of novel nanotechnology in oncology already starts. New
strategies are being designed to deliver chemotherapeutic drugs
or imaging agents to the tumor at higher concentrations with
minimal damage to normal tissues. This review will focus on how
nanoparticles are able to function as carriers for chemotherapeutic
drugs to increase their therapeutic index; how can be used as
imaging agents to detect and monitor cancer progression.
discovery, diagnosis of human disease and molecular therapeutics
for a wide variety of medical conditions. With the increasingly central
role of radiotracers for non-invasive imaging of animal models
and human research, small animal imaging centers are likely to
have a growing interest in development of radiopharmaceutical
science. Although animal experiments are giving the most valuable
information about the drug behavior in the biological system. Also
every year, millions of experimental animals are used all over the
world. The pain, distress and death experienced by the animals
during scientific experiments have been a debating issue for a long
time.
Use of cell culture techniques play a key role in new drug
development studies by giving information about receptor
interaction, drug uptake/efflux or interaction with other cellular
receptors and cellular metabolism.
This review will focus on how cell culture techniques are able to
use to estimate the uptake of developed radiopharmaceutical by
targeted receptor-bearing cells.
with high labeling yield by a new simple and easy formulation
method. According to cell culture studies, 99mTc-
MTX incorporated with both MCF-7 and CRL8798 cells,
with significant differences in the uptake percentages. Since
99mTc-MTX highly uptake in cancer cell line, the results
demonstrated that radiolabeled MTX may be promising for
breast cancer diagnosis of oncological patients.