Targeted drug delivery with PEGylated immuno-niosomes

Abstract

Targeted drug delivery provides an effective means of delivering high concentrations of a therapeutic agent to its sites of action. Bilayer vesicles composed of nonionic surfactants (niosomes) can be manufactured to both attach to specific endothelial cell receptors expressed and upregulated by a disease process and encapsuate a therapeutic agent to treat the disease. One such receptor, CD44, is upregulated by vascular inflammation associated with atherosclerosis. Niosomes can be specifically targeted to the CD44 receptor by conjugation of the niosome with an antibody to CD44 (KM-201), creating immune-niosomes (INs). INs have an encapsulation scheme that mimics the design of cells. IN shelf stability and circulation time in vivo can be improved by covalently linking a polymer chain comprised of polyethylene glycol to the surfactant layer. Vesicle size stability is measured by time-dependent dynamic light scattering data. In static conditions the PEG modifications resulted in an increase in vesicle binding up to 17%, confirmation of binding in a laminar flow field is shown using fluorescent microscopy. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.