Spray-Dried, Nanoencapsulated, Multi-Drug Anti-Tuberculosis Therapy Aimed at Once Weekly Administration for the Duration of Treatment.

Aiming to improve the treatment outcomes of current daily tuberculosis (TB) chemotherapy over several months, we investigated whether nanoencapsulation of existing drugs would allow decreasing the treatment frequency to weekly, thereby ultimately improving patient compliance. Nanoencapsulation of three first-line anti-TB drugs was achieved by a unique, scalable spray-drying technology forming free-flowing powders in the nanometer range with encapsulation efficiencies of 82, 75, and 62% respectively for rifampicin, pyrazinamide, and isoniazid. In a pre-clinical study on TB infected mice, we demonstrate that the encapsulated drugs, administered once weekly for nine weeks, showed comparable efficacy to daily treatment with free drugs over the same experimental period.

Effects of protein binding on the biodistribution of PEGylated PLGA nanoparticles post oral administration.

The surface of nanoparticles is often functionalised with polymeric surfactants, in order to increase systemic circulation time. This has been investigated mainly for intravenously administered nanoparticles. This study aims to elucidate the effect of surface coating with various concentrations of polymeric surfactants (PEG and Pluronics F127) on the in vitro protein binding as well as the tissue biodistribution, post oral administration, of PLGA nanoparticles.

In vivo evaluation of the biodistribution and safety of PLGA nanoparticles as drug delivery systems.

Unlabelled: The remarkable physicochemical properties of particles in the nanometer range have been proven to address many challenges in the field of science. However, the possible toxic effects of these particles have raised some concerns. The aim of this article is to evaluate the effects of poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) nanoparticles in vitro and in vivo compared to industrial nanoparticles of a similar size range such as zinc oxide, ferrous oxide, and fumed silica.