action of drugs. A variety of IL tools for control over the liquid salt state of matter are discussed including choice of counterion to produce an IL from a given API; the concept of oligomeric ions that enables liquefaction of solid ILs by changing the stoichiometry or complexity of the ions; formation of 'liquid co-crystals' where hydrogen bonding is the driving force in the liquefaction of a neutral acid-base complex; combining an IL strategy with the prodrug strategy to improve the delivery of solid APIs; using ILs as delivery agents via trapping a drug in a micelle and finally ILs designed with tunable hydrophilic-lipophilic balance that matches the structural requirements needed to solubilize poorly water-soluble APIs. The authors believe that API-IL approaches may save failed lead candidates, extend the patent life of current APIs, lead to new delivery options or even new pharmaceutical action. They encourage the pharmaceutical industry to invest more research into the API-IL platform as it could lead to fast-tracked approval based on similarities to the APIs already approved.
Bachu, Rinda Devi; Chowdhury, Pallabitha; Al-Saedi, Zahraa H. F.; Karla, Pradeep K.; Boddu, Sai H. S.
Ocular drug delivery is challenging due to the presence of anatomical and physiological barriers. These barriers can affect drug entry into the eye following multiple routes of administration (e.g., topical, systemic, and injectable). Topical administration in the form of eye drops is preferred for treating anterior segment diseases, as it is convenient and provides local delivery of drugs. Major concerns with topical delivery include poor drug absorption and low bioavailability. To improve the bioavailability of topically administered drugs, novel drug delivery systems are being investigated. Nanocarrier delivery systems demonstrate enhanced drug permeation and prolonged drug release. This review provides an overview of ocular barriers to anterior segment delivery, along with ways to overcome these barriers using nanocarrier systems. The disposition of nanocarriers following topical administration, their safety, toxicity and clinical trials involving nanocarrier systems are also discussed. PMID:29495528
Hwang, Tae Heon; Kim, Jin Bum; Yang, Da Som; Ryu, WonHyoung; Park, Yong-il
Microfluidic drug delivery systems consisting of a drug reservoir and microfluidic channels have shown the possibility of simple and robust modulation of drug release rate. However, the difficulty of loading a small quantity of drug into drug reservoirs at a micro-scale limited further development of such systems. Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printing was employed to fill micro-reservoirs with controlled amount of drugs in the range of a few hundreds of picograms to tens of micrograms with spatial resolution of as small as 20 µm. Unlike most EHD systems, this system was configured in combination with an inverted microscope that allows in situ targeting of drug loading at micrometer scale accuracy. Methylene blue and rhodamine B were used as model drugs in distilled water, isopropanol and a polymer solution of a biodegradable polymer and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Also tetracycline-HCl/DI water was used as actual drug ink. The optimal parameters of EHD printing to load an extremely small quantity of drug into microscale drug reservoirs were investigated by changing pumping rates, the strength of an electric field and drug concentration. This targeted EHD technique was used to load drugs into the microreservoirs of PDMS microfluidic drug delivery devices and their drug release performance was demonstrated in vitro. (paper)
Oliveira, Maria J.A.; Lugao, Ademar B.; Parra, Duclerc F., E-mail: email@example.com [Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares (IPEN/CNEN-SP), Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil); Amato, Valdir S. [Universidade de Sao Paulo (DMIP/FM/USP), Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil). Faculdade de Medicina. Departamento de Molestias Infecciosas e Parasitarias
The current study of polymer science considers the area of biomedical application very important to establish developments in 