Drug carrier

About: Drug carrier is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 18276 publications have been published within this topic receiving 997718 citations. The topic is also known as: drug carriers & drug vehicle.

Rapid Delivery of Drug Carriers Propelled and Navigated by Catalytic Nanoshuttles

Abstract: This paper reports the first proof-of-concept of using catalytic nanoshuttles to pick up, transport, and release common drug carriers including biocompatible and biodegradable polymeric particles and liposomes. The rapid transport of a wide size range of drug-loaded particles (100 nm-3.0 μm) with a speed approximately three orders of magnitude faster than that of the particles transported by Brownian motion demonstrates the high propulsion power of the nanoshuttles. The nanoshuttles' navigation ability is illustrated by the transport of the drug carriers through a microchannel from the pick-up to the release microwell. Such ability of nanomotors to rapidly deliver drug-loaded polymeric particles and liposomes to their target destination represents a novel approach towards transporting drug carriers in a target-specific manner. This also potentially addresses the obstacles of current nanoparticle drug delivery, such as off-targeting of particles. While an initial concept of actively transporting therapeutic particles is demonstrated in vitro in this paper, future efforts will focus on practical in vivo motor-based targeted drug delivery in connection to fuel-free nanovehicles.

The effect of type and concentration of vehicles on the dissolution rate of a poorly soluble drug (indomethacin) from liquisolid compacts.

Abstract: PURPOSE: For poorly soluble, highly permeable (Class II) drugs, such as indomethacin, the rate of oral absorption is often controlled by the dissolution rate in the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore together with the permeability, the solubility and dissolution behaviour of a drug are key determinants of its oral bioavailability. The object of the present study is to increase dissolution rate of indomethacin using liquisolid compacts. METHODS: Several formulations of liquisolid compacts containing various ratios of drug: propylene glycol (ranging from 1:1 to 1:4) was prepared. In this study the ratio of microcrystalline cellulose (carrier) to silica (coating powder material) was 20 in all formulations. The dissolution behaviour of indomethacin from liquisolid compacts and conventional formulations was investigated at different pHs (1.2 and 7.2). RESULTS: The results showed that liquisolid compacts demonstrated considerably higher drug dissolution rates than those of conventionally made capsules and directly compressed tablets containing indomethacin. This was due to increased wetting properties and surface of drug available for dissolution. Also it has been shown that the fraction of molecularly dispersed drug (FM) in the liquid medication of liquisolid systems was directly proportional to their indomethacin dissolution rates (DR). An attempt was made to correlate the percentage drug dissolved in 10-min with the solubility of indomethacin in different vehicles. A plot of the percentage drug dissolved against the solubility of indomethacin showed that the amount of drug dissolved increased linearly (correlation coefficient of 0.9994 and 0.996 at pH 7.2 and 1.2 respectively) with an increase in solubility of indomethacin in the vehicles. CONCLUSION: The liquisolid compacts technique can be a promising alternative for the formulation of water insoluble drugs, such as indomethacin into rapid release tablets.

Preparation, characterization, and in vitro targeted delivery of folate-decorated paclitaxel-loaded bovine serum albumin nanoparticles

Abstract: Paclitaxel (Taxol(®)) is an important anticancer drug in clinical use for treatment of a variety of cancers. Because of its low solubility, it is formulated in high concentration in Cremophor EL(®) which induces hypersensitivity reactions. In this study, targeted delivery of paclitaxel-loaded nanoparticles was prepared by a desolvation procedure, crosslinked on the wall material of bovine serum albumin, and subsequently decorated by folic acid. The characteristics of the nanoparticles, such as amount of folate conjugation, surface morphology, drug entrapment efficiency, drug loading efficiency, and release kinetics were investigated in vitro. The targeting effect was investigated in vitro by cancer cell uptake of fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled nanoparticles. The spherical nanoparticles obtained were negatively charged with a zeta potential of about -30 mV, and characterized around 210 nm with a narrow size distribution. Drug entrapment efficiency and drug loading efficiency were approximately 95.3% and 27.2%, respectively. The amount of folate conjugation was 9.22 μg/mg of bovine serum albumin. The folate-decorated nanoparticles targeted a human prostate cancer cell line effectively.

Chitosan derivatives with antimicrobial, antitumour and antioxidant activities--a review.

Abstract: Chitosan is a linear polysaccharide with a good biodegradability, biocompatibility, and no toxicity, which provide it with huge potential for future development. The chitosan molecule appears to be a suitable polymeric complex for many biomedical applications. This review gathers current findings on the antibacterial, antifungal, antitumour and antioxidant activities of chitosan derivatives and concurs with our previous review presenting data collected up to 2008. Antibacterial activity is based on molecular weight, the degree of deacetylation, the type of substitutents, which can be cationic or easily form cations, and the type of bacterium. In general, high molecular weight chitosan cannot pass through cell membranes and forms a film that protects cells against nutrient transport through the microbial cell membrane. Low molecular weight chitosan derivatives are water soluble and can better incorporate the active molecule into the cell. Gram-negative bacteria, often represented by Escherichia coli, have an anionic bacterial surface on which cationic chitosan derivatives interact electrostatically. Thus, many chitosan conjugates have cationic components such as ammonium, pyridinium or piperazinium substituents introduced into their molecules to increase their positive charge. Gram-positive bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus are inhibited by the binding of lower molecular weight chitosan derivatives to DNA or RNA. Chitosan nanoparticles exhibit an increase in loading capacity and efficacy. Antitumour active compounds such as doxorubicin, paclitaxel, docetaxel and norcantharidin are used as drug carriers. It is evident that chitosan, with its low molecular weight, is a useful carrier for molecular drugs requiring targeted delivery. The antioxidant scavenging activity of chitosan has been established by the strong hydrogen-donating ability of chitosan. The low molecular weight and greater degree of quarternization have a positive influence on the antioxidant activity of chitosan. Phenolic and polyphenolic compounds with antioxidant effects are condensed with chitosan to form mutual prodrugs.