Current Drug Delivery - Volume 1, Issue 3, 2004

In the last decade, polymer based technologies have found wide biomedical applications. Polymers, whether synthetic (e.g. polylactide-co-glycolide or PLG) or natural (e.g. alginate, chitosan etc.), have the property of encapsulating a diverse range of molecules of biological interest and bear distinct therapeutic advantages such as controlled release of drugs, protection against the premature degradation of drugs and reductio Read More

Variations in drug uptake and efflux, as well as changes in intracellular drug entrapment and distribution may represent important resistance mechanisms to cancer therapy. A variety of ATP binding cassette transporters (ABC) localised in multiple cell membranes is implied in those phenomena, representing a mechanism of protection of cells against xenobiotics. Many cancer cell lines over express some ABC transp Read More

Passive transport properties of drug molecules are of utmost importance for their pharmacological and biopharmaceutical effectiveness. Diffusion in different media and through lipid bilayers is in many cases the ratedetermining step for the distribution in the body. In the present review an attempt is made to demonstrate the importance of solvation of drug molecules for the diffusion and partition / distribution in phases of d Read More

A new route to obtain chitosan derivatives containing cyclodextrin moieties as pendant groups was developed. The chitosan microspheres, obtained through crosslinking with glutaraldehyde of an acetic acid solution of chitosan, in an organic suspension medium, were reacted with chloroacyl cyclodextrins in organic basic solvents. The acyl cyclodextrin moieties are linked to the chitosan microspheres through C-N bonds, with t Read More

Many therapeutic agents have intracellular compartments as their site of action. Targeted delivery of these agents to their specific intracellular targets could result in enhanced therapeutic efficacy and reduced toxicity. Various carriers have been shown useful in targeted delivery of different classes of therapeutic agents. Among these carriers, biodegradable nanoparticles formulated from biocompatible polymers poly(D,L-lac Read More

In this review, the concepts of chronobiology, circadian rhythm, chronopharmacology, homeostasis and chronotherapy are taken into account to approach the optimal drug therapy, in which the timing of drug administration plays an important role. Based on these considerations, our laboratory has developed a thermo-responsive membrane by entrapping a single or binary liquid crystal to achieve an on-off switching d Read More

Casein entrapped within gel microbeads using alginate, amidated LM pectin, gellan gum and a system containing a mixture of these polysaccharides (pectin:gellan:alginate, 1 / 3: 1 / 3: 1 / 3), were obtained by ionic gelation in a high-pressure capillary apparatus. Hydrogenated vegetable fat was also added to produce the gel microbeads and protein release in all the systems was measured, including from freeze Read More

The placenta has traditionally been considered as a highly permeable organ for a large variety of substances with diverse molecular structures that are readily able to cross it from the maternal blood to reach the foetus. This has recommended limiting the use of drugs during pregnancy as far as possible. However, our present knowledge points to the existence of different systems, including plasma membrane carriers, biotransfor Read More

Captive Asian elephants have been maintained in captivity by humans for over 4000 years. Despite this association, there is little published literature on the treatment of elephant diseases or methods of drug administration to these animals. Elephants in captivity are generally healthy and require few therapeutic interventions over the course of their lifetime. However, when they become acutely ill, treatment becomes Read More

Liposomes sustain considerable interest to develop ways to fabricate drug delivery systems that would provide a good release without inducing any systemic reactions into the host. However, in many cases, liposomes injected into the blood stream are rapidly cleared from the system and only a fraction reaches the target site even when poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-coated liposomes are used. Composite drug delivery systems wit Read More