Cartilage penetrating cationic peptide carriers for applications in drug delivery to avascular negatively charged tissues.

ABSTRACT: Drug delivery to avascular, negatively charged tissues like cartilage remains a challenge. The constant turnover of synovial fluid results in short residence time of administered drugs in the joint space and the dense negatively charged matrix of cartilage hinders their diffusive transport. Drugs are, therefore, unable to reach their cell and matrix targets in sufficient doses, and fail to elicit relevant biological response, which has led to unsuccessful clinical trials. The high negative fixed charge density (FCD) of cartilage, however, can be used to convert cartilage from a barrier to drug entry into a depot by making drugs positively charged. Here we design cartilage penetrating and binding cationic peptide carriers (CPCs) with varying net charge, spatial distribution and hydrophobici

SUBMITTER: Vedadghavami A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6551323 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature