Over the past couple of years there has been rapid progress in the development and design of
safe and effective delivery systems for the administration of protein and peptide drugs. The
effective delivery of these type of drugs are not always as simple as one may think, due to
various inherent characteristics of these compounds.
Due to the hydrophilic nature and molecular size of peptide and protein drugs, such as
recombinant human growth hormone, they are poorly absorbed across mucosal epithelia,
both transcellularly and paracellularly. This problem can be overcome by the inclusion of
absorption enhancers in peptide and protein drug formulations but this is not necessarily the
best method to follow.
This investigation focussed specifically on the evaluation of the ability of the PheroidTM
carrier system to transport recombinant human growth hormone across mucosal epithelia
especially when administered via the nasal cavity. The PheroidTM delivery system is a
patented system consisting of a unique submicron emulsion type formulation. The PheroidTM
delivery system, based on PheroidTM technology, will for ease of reading be called Pheroid(s)
only throughout the rest of this dissertation.
The Pheroid carrier system is a unique microcolloidal drug delivery system. A Pheroid is a
stable structure within a novel therapeutic system which can be manipulated in terms of
morphology, structure, size and function. Pheroids consist mainly of plant and essential fatty
acids and can entrap, transport and deliver pharmacologically active compounds and other
useful substances to the desired site of action.
The specific objectives of this study can be summarised as follows:
a literature study on Pheroid technology;
a literature study on chitosan and N-trimethyl chitosan chloride;
a literature study on recombinant human growth hormone (somatropin);
a literature study on nasal drug administration;
formulation of a suitable Pheroid carrier;
entrapment of somatropin in the Pheroid carrier, and
in vivo evaluation of nasal absorption of somatropin in Sprague-Dawley rats. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Pharmaceutics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/1276 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Steyn, Johan Dewald |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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