Delivery of Macromolecular Drugs using Microsphere Technology

Abstract

Introduction-Resent years have witnessed development of protein-based therapeutic agent as the main focus of biotechnology industry. Progress made in biotechnology, genomics and combinatorial chemistry have led to the discovery of a wide variety of active moiety for specific therapeutics application. However, the common problems associated with these active moieties such as poor stability, low solubility, high potency etc, have paved way for developing a new method of drug delivery system. Considerable attention was made for the development of new drug delivery technology in recent research. The reason for developing a new drug delivery system is to apply in some clinical situations, where a constant drug delivery rate is insufficient, like delivery of insulin for patients with diabetes mellitus, gastric acid inhibitors for ulcer control, anti arrhythmic for patients with heart rhythm disorders, nitrates for patients with angina pectoris, birth control, immunization, cancer chemotherapy, selective β-blockade and general hormone replacement. The treatment for these clinical conditions could be optimized through the use of a novel delivery system (NDDS) (1). For delivering genetically engineered pharmaceuticals like peptides and proteins to the site of action, without incurring biological inactivation, need new system of delivery. Targeting the active moiety for better therapeutic efficacy can improve patient compliance by reducing the size and number of doses. Over the past decades major development were made in systemic delivery of protein and peptides by oral, transdermal and pulmonary routes (2-3).