Nanoparticles for Therapeutic Cargos — Protein Drugs
Most of proteins are potent and specific in their physiological activities and have become drugs of choice for the treatment of numerous diseases as a result of their striking selectivity and their ability to provide effective and potent action on disease treatment. Major issues in protein drug delivery include the stabilization of proteins in delivery devices and the design of appropriate protein carriers. CD Bioparticles is experienced in offering custom products and services to deliver your protein drugs by appropriate and effective nanocarriers.
Protein Drugs Introduction
Protein drugs represent an irreplaceable part of the pharmaceuticals coming on the market every year and are now widely applied to treat or relieve symptoms related to many metabolic and oncologic diseases. Most proteins cannot be delivered orally due to their degradation in the acidic environment of the gastrointestinal tract. Protein drugs are commonly administrated by intravenous injections, which are usually not well tolerated by the recipient. In addition, the transportation of protein drugs in the body is limited by their high molecular weight, which prevents the crossing of tissue barriers, and by their short lifetime due to immune response and enzymatic degradation. However, the short half-lives and wide tissue distribution of protein drugs in the blood stream lead to frequent and high doses of drugs in order to obtain therapeutic efficacy. Systemic administration in high doses can lead to side effects and can also be toxic. Also, physiochemical properties like fragile molecules, complex structure, protein denaturation, and change in spatial characteristics as well as potential for immunogenicity limited the development of proteins drugs as therapeutic agents. Thus, advanced drug delivery strategy - nanocarriers show great superiority in maintaining structure and activity of protein drugs during preparation and delivery as well as during shipping and long-term storage.
Nanocarriers allow for the encapsulation of proteins inside a matrix of great biocompatibility, thus protecting them against hydrolysis and enzymatic degradation. They can be designed to control the dispatch of the loaded drug to different areas, increasing its local concentration and therapeutic efficiency, while prolonging its retention, half-life, and effectiveness. They can also avoid diffusion of the protein drugs into normal organs, thus avoiding negative side effects. Moreover, nanocarriers can be targeted to certain sites based on particle size, surface charge, surface modification, and hydrophobicity.
Carriers such as biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles (poly-lactic acid, poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid), polycaprolactone), chitosan nanoparticles and solid lipid nanoparticles, as well as liposomes, have shown great potential in the delivery of proteins drugs. Many well-established nanocarrier systems have been developed for controllable delivery of protein drugs.
Figure 1. Proteins were encapsulated in a nanosized matrix prepared with monomers and a bisacrylated peptide cross-linker which can be specifically recognized and cleaved by furin and then release encapsulated cargos. In this research, protein cargos of different sizes and tertiary structures can be encapsulated and released reversibly without loss of bioactivity. (Biswas, A., et al. ACS nano, 2011, 5(2), 1385-1394.)
Our Featured Services
CD Bioparticles is specialized in the development of drug delivery systems and customizing nanoparticles for protein drug delivery utilizing our core technologies. With our high-quality products and services, the efficacy of your protein drug delivery can be tremendously improved.
We offer well-designed protein drug (native proteins, recombinant proteins, and others) production together with its loaded products in biodegradable polymer, chitosan and lipid matrix. We are experienced in providing protein drugs and can also help you choose appropriate carriers for protein drugs given. Carrier properties such as molecular weight, surface charges and charge density, solubility, and hydrophobicity could be designed and engineered at your will; as well as the addition of desired chemical groups or targeting moieties for further functionalization.
References:
1. Dai, C., Wang, B., Zhao, H. Microencapsulation peptide and protein drugs delivery system. Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, 2005, 41(2-3), 117-120.
2. Jain, A., Jain, A., Gulbake, A., Shilpi, S., Hurkat, P., Jain, S. K. Peptide and protein delivery using new drug delivery systems. Critical Reviews™ in Therapeutic Drug Carrier Systems, 2013, 30(4).
3. Bruno, B. J., Miller, G. D., Lim, C. S. Basics and recent advances in peptide and protein drug delivery. Therapeutic delivery, 2013, 4(11), 1443-1467.
4. Solaro, R., Chiellini, F., Battisti, A. Targeted delivery of protein drugs by nanocarriers. Materials, 2010, 3(3), 1928-1980.
