Protein Delivery

Abstract

A major challenge confronting pharmaceutical scientists in the future will be to design successful dosage forms for the next generation of drugs. Many of these drugs will be complex polymers of amino acids (e.g., peptides, proteins), nucleosides (e.g., antisense molecules), carbohydrates (e.g., polysaccharides), or complex lipids.Through rational drug design, synthetic medicinal chemists are preparing very potent and very specific peptides and antisense drug candidates. These molecules are being developed with molecular characteristics that permit optimal interaction with the specific macromolecules (e.g., receptors, enzymes, RNA, DNA) that mediate their therapeutic effects. Rational drug design does not necessarily mean rational drug delivery, however, which strives to incorporate into a molecule the molecular properties necessary for optimal transfer between the point of administration and the pharmacological target site in the body.Like rational drug design, molecular biology is having a significant impact on the pharmaceutical industry. For the first time, it is possible to produce large quantities of highly pure proteins, polysaccharides, and lipids for possible pharmaceutical applications. Like peptides and antisense molecules, the design of successful dosage forms for these complex biotechnology products represents a major challenge to pharmaceutical scientists.Development of an acceptable drug dosage form is a complex process requiring strong interactions between scientists from many different divisions in a pharmaceutical company, including discovery, development, and manufacturing. The series editor, the editors of the individual volumes, and the publisher hope that this new series will be particularly helpful to scientists in the development areas of a pharmaceutical company (e.g., drug metabolism, toxicology, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, drug ix x Preface to the Series delivery, preformulation, formulation, and physical and analytical chemistry). In addition, we hope this series will help to build bridges between the development scientists and scientists in discovery (e.g., medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, immunology, cell biology, molecular biology) and in manufacturing (e.g., process chemistry, engineering). The design of successful dosage forms for the next generation of drugs will require not only a high level of expertise by individual scientists, but also a high degree of interaction between scientists in these different divisions of a pharmaceutical company.Finally, everyone involved with this series hopes that these volumes will also be useful to the educators who are training the next generation of pharmaceutical scientists. In addition to having a high level of expertise in their respective disciplines, these young scientists will need to have the scientific skills necessary to communicate with their peers in other scientific disciplines. RONALD T. BORCHARLDT Series Editorxi xii Preface sometimes unanticipated formulation challenges. Such problems have plagued efforts to develop ...