Chapter category: Drug Design
Red Blood Cells as Carriers of Antiviral Agents
Erythrocyte Engineering for Drug Delivery and Targeting
Edited by: Mauro MagnaniISBN: 0-306-47691-6
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Chapter authors:
A. Fraternale, A. Casabianca and M. Magnani
In an attempt to overcome the problems of nucleoside analogue toxicity and of their limited efficacy and short plasma half-life we have investigated the possibility of using erythrocytes both as a slow delivery system and as a targeting system for the release of drugs at specific sites. Herein we report some successful examples of using loaded erythrocytes as a delivery system for antiviral agents. Introduction Erythrocytes possess the singular ability to swell and to become leaky when placed in hypo-osmotic solutions. Extracellular substances can enter the red cell at this stage, after which membrane resealing can be performed using hyper-osmotic solutions. Resealed erythrocytes show normal shape, membrane permeability and biochemical characteristics; moreover, they can survive in circulation with a nearly normal life span.1-4 The procedure of encapsulation based on hypotonic dialysis, isotonic resealing and reannealing has also been used to load erythrocytes with antiviral drugs. Three different experimental conditions can develop: if the encapsulated drug is diffusible it can permeate the erythrocyte membrane and be released slowly into the circulation; if the drug is not diffusible it may be metabolized by erythrocyte enzymes into diffusible molecules; if the encapsulated drug is neither diffusible nor metabolized, it remains entrapped in the carrier cells and can be targeted to selective organs or cells by appropriate manipulations of the erythrocyte.
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Red Blood Cells as Carriers of Antiviral Agents
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In an attempt to overcome the problems of nucleoside analogue toxicity and of their limited efficacy and short plasma half-life we have investigated the possibility of using erythrocytes both ...
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