Single compartment drug delivery

Abstract

Drug design is built on the concept that key molecular targets of disease are isolated in the diseased tissue. Systemic drug administration would be sufficient for targeting in such a case. It is, however, common for enzymes or receptors that are integral to disease to be structurally similar or identical to those that play important biological roles in normal tissues of the body. Additionally, systemic administration may not lead to local drug concentrations high enough to yield disease modification because of rapid systemic metabolism or lack of sufficient partitioning into the diseased tissue compartment. This review focuses on drug delivery methods that physically target drugs to individual compartments of the body. Compartments such as the bladder, peritoneum, brain, eye and skin are often sites of disease and can sometimes be viewed as “privileged,” since they intrinsically hinder partitioning of systemically administered agents. These compartments have become the focus of a wide array of procedures and devices for direct administration of drugs. We discuss the rationale behind single compartment drug delivery for each of these compartments, and give an overview of examples at different development stages, from the lab bench to phase III clinical trials to clinical practice. We approach single compartment drug delivery from both a translational and a technological perspective.

Microfabricated Drug Delivery Devices: Design, Fabrication, and Applications

“…[122][123][124] The representative samples in this section are summarized in Table 1. According to specific physiological structures, features, and functions of different tissues, organs, and systems in body, various devices have been engineered and fabricated to adapt to and meet requirements of different drug administration routes in applications.…”

Pharmacological approaches to retinitis pigmentosa: A laboratory perspective

“…The implant is inserted in the vitreous body by injection and the drug stocked locally until "demand". Delivery is achieved by perforating the wall of the bar with a brief pulse of a retinal photocoagulation laser, therefore controlling time, amount and duration of the drug administered (Cima et al, 2014). The device is non erodible and ensures delivery of active molecules for as long as one year of sustained use.…”

Retentive drug delivery systems based on shape memory materials

“…However, while prolongation of drug release over time through proper formulation strategies is invariably required for a reduced dosing frequency, it may alone be insufficient to address such issues. For instance, this might occur when it is necessary to establish persisting effective drug concentrations within a specific compartment of the body, often because a local action is sought and systemic exposure is deliberately prevented . Otherwise, preferential entryways to the systemic circulation, such as absorption windows in the upper gastrointestinal tract, may need to be exploited.…”

“…The dosage unit would thus be expected to possess adequate mechanical resistance characteristics when taking on the cumbersome retentive configuration. Evolution from a smaller to a larger size may result from differing physical phenomena, such as water‐swelling occurring on glass‐rubber transition, osmotically‐induced water uptake or return to an originally bulkier shape, for example, because of unfolding and/or elastic behavior upon discontinuation of a compressive external force, or else on account of inherent shape memory properties of component materials …”