| Project Detail |
Advances in oral drug delivery
Acids and enzymes in the stomach’s digestive system and a drugs inability to cross the intestinal membrane barrier can hinder the effective delivery of oral drugs, especially those that are protein or peptide based. The goal of the EU-funded FREJA project is to overcome these challenges by designing and developing novel approaches that protect the active ingredients until it arrives at the right place in the patients intestines. This will include developing self-configurable, proximity-enabling devices, which deliver drugs by embedding themselves into the bowels tissue (mainly for insulin for diabetic patients). The project will result in a new transferable technology enabling the delivery of vaccines in the form of a pill.
Oral delivery of protein/peptide drugs is extremely challenging and the majority of research in the field is based on exploring new formulations, for instance using permeation enhancers. In recent years, some research has been done on ingestible devices for internal injections. Here I propose an entirely new approach based on what we have named ‘Self-configurable, Proximity Enabling Devices’ (SPEDs). The idea is that these devices (the simplest ones will be rolled-up foils) will unfold in the gut, embed in the mucus layer and align to the intestinal wall. It is essential that the SPED has close proximity to the intestinal wall and is retained for a while in order to ensure efficient drug delivery. The proximity will additionally allow us to study and explore the influence of nanotextures (embedded in the SPED) on the interaction with the intestinal wall as well as micromotor-based delivery. The SPEDs will be developed and characterized with the following specific objectives: (i) understanding the SPED properties needed to penetrate mucus, (ii) investigating the mechanisms for enhanced retention time, (iii) exploring the SPED as a carrier for self-propelling cargo, (iv) unraveling the overall behaviour of SPED and (v) demonstrating anti-diabetic drug formulation delivery with at least 5 % systemic uptake and show feasibility of a wider range of applications (delivering/seeding e.g. peptide and proteins/vaccines/probiotics). The work will include simulations of soft materials, device design, micro/nano fabrication, development and use of techniques for mechanical characterisation of device/tissue interaction, bio imaging and in vitro and in vivo studies. The major novelty lies in the SPED concept, providing tissue alignment/contact and unidirectional drug release. Further, the SPEDs provide a unique platform for studies on micromotors as well as nanotextures interaction with the epithelium. |
