drug loading. Expanding the membranes of red blood cells and slip drugs inside, researchers believe they can deliver them more efficiently.
Scientists use own red blood cells of a patient to deliver needed drugs directly to cells in the body. A new test of the art suggests that effectively delivers steroids in the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis; In addition, a single dose lasts for at least a month. In the long term, scientists hope the technique could also be applied for uses as diverse as gene therapy and HIV treatments.
Many treatments, such as modified genes and new drugs are too heavy to cross cell membranes and do their job. Mauro Magnani and colleagues at the University of Urbino, Italy, wanted to overcome this problem. To do this, immersed blood cells in saline. Differences in osmotic pressure between the solution inside of the elongated cells in the pores in the cell membranes, allowing large molecules to be pressed. When the cells were removed from the solution, they chewed their usual size with the medicament sealed within. A pilot study found that cells released the steroid dexamethasone in the blood of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and remained in the circulating blood for 7 days.
Now, a second study found similar success with cystic fibrosis. In the June issue of Gene Therapy , Magnani's team reports that this method of delivery offers dexamethasone, which is also used to treat this disease, for the blood of patients for 1 month. In both studies the drug was sealed in RBCs of patients in an inactive form, before being decomposed by enzymes in the cell to a size that may leak into the blood. Magnani believes that the technique has far-reaching applications. Red blood cells can carry new compounds such as modified genes and cells can also be modified to attract specific immune cells that may harbor germs such as HIV and tuberculosis.
"There is a great strategy," says biochemist Philip Low, Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. "He should certainly be able to achieve the [cache] virus that is not accessible to conventional therapy. "
Related Sites
The homepage of Philip Low
NIH brochure cystic fibrosis
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