Liposome Formulation with High Drug Capacity

Researchers at Purdue University have developed a method for encapsulating drugs in liposomes with higher efficiency than competing methods. Liposomal encapsulation of chemotherapeutic agents is widely used to reduce nonspecific side effects, because liposomes will preferentially target the tumor's leaky vasculature. Liposomes are typically loaded with drugs using pH gradients. However, some drugs, such as gemcitabine, a first-line treatment for pancreatic cancer, have proven difficult to load into liposomes with reasonable efficiency. In a proof-of-concept study using this new method, gemcitabine had a loading efficiency of 9.4 - 10.3 wt% compared to 0.14 - 3.8 wt% by conventional methods. Applications for this technology include in the development of novel drug formulations for the treatment of cancer.

Advantages:

-Higher drug loading efficiency

-Good stability and sustained release of drug

Potential Applications:

-Pharmaceutical formulations

Publications:

Development of Liposomal Gemcitabine with High Drug Loading Capacity

Hassan Tamam, Jinho Park, Hytham H. Gadalla, Andrea R. Masters, Jelan A. Abdel-Aleem, Sayed I. Abdelrahman, Aly A. Abdelrahman, L. Tiffany Lyle, and Yoon Yeo

Molecular Pharmaceutics 2019 16 (7), 2858-2871

DOI: 10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.8b01284

TRL: 3

Intellectual Property:

Keywords: Liposomal encapsulation, high efficiency drug loading, chemotherapeutic agents, gemcitabine formulation, pancreatic cancer treatment, novel drug delivery, sustained release drug, pharmaceutical formulations, pH gradients, leaky vasculature targeting