There have been many approaches taken in drug delivery aimed at improving the efficacy of active agents. The way in which drugs are administered could be a key factor for an optimum treatment and hence the delivery system used may be as important as the active drug. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the use of embolic micro spheres as an effective drug delivery system, for treatment of malignant tumours including primary and secondary liver cancer, and benign tumours such as uterine fibroids. Embolisation is a treatment for destroying tumours and other growths found in the body by blocking their blood supply. Chemoembolisation uses a combination of delivered drug and embolisation to provide specific targeting of the drug at the site of the tumour and has been used successfully to treat hypervascular tumours such as hepatocellular carcinoma One of the most challenging aspects of the embolisation procedure is effective post-procedural pain management. Biocompatibles UK Ltd has developed two poly(vinyl alcohol) based nondegradable embolic micro spheres, GelSpheres™ and Bead Block™, This study has demonstrated that GelSpheres have the ability to actively load and release cationic drugs such as doxorubicin and irinotecan in a controlled fashion via an ion-exchange mechanism. The loading and release of both drugs from the GelSphere showed no detrimental effect on the micro spheres in terms of morphology, deliverability and handling or on the stability of the drugs. The loading and release kinetics of both drugs are described together with in vitro-in vivo correlations for these products. In addition, a method was developed to load Bead Block with a non steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), ibuprofen. This system demonstrated sustained release of the ibuprofen and the potential to be used as an embolic agent to control inflammation and pain. These drug delivery systems could provide an alternative to conventional embolisation and chemoembolisation procedures, providing ideal formulations for local and sustained delivery of drugs following embolisation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:639738 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Gonzalez Fajardo, Maria Victoria |
| Publisher | University of Brighton |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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