Engineered smart nano-micro carriers for oral delivery of proteins, DNA, and RNA

Abstract

Oral drug administration has been regarded as the most convenient mode of drug administration because avoidance of needle related pain, and non-sterile production requirements. Although oral delivery works well for administration of small molecule oral delivery of macromolecules is very challenging. There are several barriers associated with oral delivery of biological, particularly harsh environment associated with gastrointestinal tract and low permeability across the intestinal epithelium. Most of the biological drugs approved for the clinical use in last decade need to be administered by the parenteral route (injection or infusion). Parenteral administration helps in achieving higher bioavailability but there are considerable disadvantages associated with patient compliance and manufacturing requirements. It is crucial to design the smart drug delivery carriers to overcome the several barriers faced by the oral delivery. Here, we tried to address the key challenges and barriers associated with oral delivery of biologicals (Vaccine antigen, adjuvant and Gene) with engineered smart carrier systems. We customized the carrier’s system accordingly need of the macromolecule to be delivered in a safe and controlled manner at the specific site. We characterized the system, studied in-vitro effect with the help of in-vitro models closely mimicking the biological barriers. Finally, we studied the therapeutic effect of our developed system with in-vivo mice model. We believe that, our system could be a promising carrier system for the oral delivery of biological molecules and future clinical translation.