11^th World Drug Delivery Summit

Biography

Biography: Soline PEERS

Abstract

Statement of the Problem: The property of prolonged release for therapeutic agents from liposomes or biocompatible gels has widely been investigated during the last decade [1, 2]. To overcome classic issues that may be encountered with common drug delivery systems such as the “burst effect” or fast outside diffusion of drugs [3], an “hybrid” system composed of liposomes entrapped within a chitosan physical hydrogel [4] has been developed (Figure and is presented herein. It combines the advantages of both components recognized for the drug delivery applications.

Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: The elaboration process of this “hybrid” system consists in the addition of suspension   of   pre-formed   phosphatitdylcholine liposomes entrapping a model molecule (carboxyfluorescein, CF) to a chitosan solution. The polymer gelation [4] was subsequently carried out according to experimental conditions optimized in this work. The release of this model molecule from “hybrid” system is assayed by fluorescence.

Findings: The release study of water soluble CF entrapped in liposomes, themselves incorporated in a chitosan hydrogel has confirmed the concept of delayed-release. Indeed, the CF release was found to be longer in the “drug-in-hydrogel” systems in comparison with the “drug-in-liposomes-in-hydrogels” ones.

Conclusion & Significance: These first results show that such a “hybrid” system could be a step forward in drug delivery for tissue engineering [6], regenerative medicine or wound healing applications. The next step of this work will be to study the impact of structural parameters of the chitosan (e.g., weight-average molecular weight or acetylation degree) and liposomes on the drug release and the interactions between the two components of this “hybrid” system. The influence of the nature, the charge and the molecular weight of the therapeutic agent could also be investigated.