Anshuman Shukla

Oral immunization against hepatitis B using bile salt stabilized vesicles (bilosomes)

PURPOSEnMost of the presently available vaccines including hepatitis B vaccines administered through parenteral route, fail to induce a mucosal antibody response. Therefore, oral immunization appears to be an effective and attractive alternative to parenteral immunization. However, the problem of degradation of antigen in the harsh and hostile environment of the gastrointestinal tract consequently requires larger doses and more frequent dosing of antigen. Furthermore, much larger doses can induce antigen tolerance. Therefore the purpose of the present study was firstly to overcome these problems by the use of bile salt stabilized vesicles (bilosomes) and HBsAg as the model antigen,which could provide both protection to the antigen as well as enable transmucosal uptake and subsequent immunization. Another purpose of this study was to determine the dose that could produce serum antibody titres against hepatitis B via the oral route compared to those following intramuscular immunization.nnnMETHODSnIn the present study bilosomes containing recombinant hepatitis B surface antigen were prepared by a lipid cast film method. HBsAg loaded bilosomeswere characterized in vitro for their shape, size, percent antigen entrapment and stability. Fluorescence microscopy was carried out to confirm the uptake of bilosomes by gut associated lymphoid tissues (GALT). The in vivo part of the study comprised estimation of anti-HBsAg IgG response in serum and anti-HBsAg sIgA in various body secretions using specific ELISA techniques following oral immunization with low dose loaded bilosomes (B1, 10 microg), intermediate dose loaded bilosomes (B2, 20 microg) and high dose loaded bilosomes (B3, 50 microg) in BALB/c mice.nnnRESULTSnFluorescence microscopy suggested that there was an increase in fluorescence intensity following the uptake of bilosomes entrapped FITC-BSA in gut associated lymphoid tissues. The high dose HBsAg bilosomes (B3, 50 microg) produced comparable anti-HBsAg IgG levels in serum to those observed in the case of intramuscular administration of alum adsorbed HBsAg (10 microg). In addition, the bilosomal preparations elicited measurable sIgA in mucosal secretions, where the highest responses were observed with high dose HBsAg bilosomes (B3,50 microg) and as expected, intramuscular administered alum adsorbed HBsAg (10 microg) failed to elicit such responses.nnnCONCLUSIONSnHBsAg loaded bilosomes produced both systemic as well as mucosal antibody responses upon oral administration. Furthermore, bilosomes with a five times higher dose upon oral administration produced comparable serum antibody titres to those obtained after intramuscular immunization without the induction of systemic tolerance.

M-cell targeted delivery of recombinant hepatitis B surface antigen using cholera toxin B subunit conjugated bilosomes

The present study aims to improve upon our earlier findings with bilosomes as potential delivery vehicle through oral route for recombinant hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). The work entails the conjugation of bilosomal system with cholera toxin B subunit (CTB) to increase transmucosal uptake via M-cell specific delivery approach. The study encompasses the development and characterization of HBsAg-loaded CTB-conjugated system for percent antigen entrapment, size, shape, and stability in SGF (USP, pH 1.2), SIF (USP, pH 7.5) and in bile salt solutions. Biological activity of CTB, subsequent to conjugation, was verified by hemagglutination test. Anti-HBsAg IgG response in serum and anti-HBsAg sIgA in various body secretions were estimated using ELISA, following oral immunization with 10 microg dose-loaded CTB-conjugated bilosomes (CTB2) and 20 microg dose-loaded CTB-conjugated bilosomes (CTB1) in BALB/c mice. The results showed that CTB1 produced anti-HBsAg IgG antibody titre response comparable to that of the intramuscular (i.m.) injection of 10 microg of alum-adsorbed HBsAg. Moreover, all the bilosomal preparations elicited measurable sIgA vis-à-vis negligible response with i.m. administered HBsAg. Thus, HBsAg-loaded CTB-conjugated bilosomes provide a promising potential for targeted oral immunization against hepatitis B.

Novel dithranol phospholipid microemulsion for topical application: development, characterization and percutaneous absorption studies

The objective of this study was to develop and characterize a novel dithranol-containing phospholipid microemulsion systems for enhanced skin permeation and retention. Based on the solubility of dithranol, the selected oils were isopropyl myristate (IPM) and tocopherol acetate (TA), and the surfactants were Tween 80 (T80) and Tween 20 (T20). The ratios of cosurfactants comprising of phospholipids and ethanol (1u2009:u200910) and surfactant to co-surfactant (1u2009:u20091 and 2.75u2009:u20091) were fixed for the phase diagram construction. Selected microemulsions were evaluated for globule size, zeta potential, viscosity, refractive index, per cent transmittance, stability (freeze thaw and centrifugation), ex vivo skin permeation and retention. The microemulsion systems composed of IPM and T80 with mean particle diameter of 72.8u2009nm showed maximum skin permeation (82.23%), skin permeation flux (0.281u2009mg/cm2/h) along with skin retention (8.31%) vis-à-vis systems containing TA and T20. The results suggest that the developed novel lecithinized microemulsion systems have a promising potential for the improved topical delivery of dithranol.

Significant systemic and mucosal immune response induced on oral delivery of diphtheria toxoid using nano-bilosomes

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Over the last decade apprehension has been growing over the effectiveness of existing parenteral vaccines for diphtheria and has created an interest in the development of a mucosally active vaccine. Oral immunization appears to be an effective alternative, but is not without the inherent disadvantages of antigen destruction and tolerance. Therefore, our objective was to investigate the incorporation of diphtheria toxoid (DTx) into bilosomes, which could provide protection as well as aid transmucosal uptake and subsequent immunization. Another objective was to determine the oral dose that will produce serum antibody titres comparable with those produced by i.m. doses of DTx.

Tamoxifen-loaded novel liposomal formulations: evaluation of anticancer activity on DMBA-TPA induced mouse skin carcinogenesis

Purpose: Tamoxifen (TAM) is a non-steroidal estrogen receptor modulator known for its anticancer activity. Apart from marked breast cancer activity, this drug has also shown potential in treating other types of cancers including skin cancers. TAM is reported to be associated with serious side effects primarily due to its systemic distribution. The localized delivery of this drug in this regard would be highly beneficial with respect to safety as well as efficacy. Methods: In the current studies, an endeavor has been made to investigate the efficacy of topically applied liposome-encapsulated TAM on skin cancer model. The drug was encapsulated in phospholipid-based vesicular systems viz. conventional liposomes and elastic liposomes. Incidence of papillomas and histopathological examination were employed to determine the efficacy of the tested formulations. Results: The results demonstrated carrier-dependent strong inhibition of skin carcinogenesis with encapsulated drug vis-à-vis drug in the solution form. The encouraging findings from the current work construe immense potential of the TAM-loaded liposomal systems in the management of skin cancer.

Bilosomes in the context of oral immunization: development, challenges and opportunities

Oral administration remains the most favored means of drug administration as far as patient compliance is concerned. For the majority of vaccines and biologics, the oral route is not a good choice because of diminished uptake of the administered dose. Vesicular carriers like liposomes and niosomes are among the potential candidates for vaccine delivery by the oral route but their instability in the gastrointestinal environment is a problem. Bilosomes represent a key advance in oral vaccine delivery because they are more resistant to disruption by gastric acid as well as enzymes. Here, we focus on different aspects of bilosomes including composition, developmental techniques, stability, transitional modifications and scale-up - emphasizing their biomedical potential in oral immunization against various diseases.

Alginate coated chitosan microparticles mediated oral delivery of diphtheria toxoid. Part A. Systematic optimization, development and characterization.

The current study was embarked upon to develop optimized alginate coated chitosan microparticles (ACMs) loaded with Diphtheria toxoid (DTx) employing formulation by design approach. The developed system was characterized for particle size, zeta potential, surface morphology, acidic degradation protection studies, in process stability studies, storage stability studies and in-vivo uptake studies. Microparticles with minimum of average size of 5 μm (PDI, 0.184) were chosen after optimizing the composition and process conditions. The optimized chitosan microparticles were subjected to alginate coating for better protection of loaded antigen till it reached to uptake site i.e. M cells in the Peyers patches (PPs) and transport of higher amount antigen to the PPs. The zeta-potential values for uncoated chitosan microparticles and ACMs were found to be +29 ± 3.3 mV and -32.6 ± 4.2 mV, respectively. This change of zeta potential, for uncoated to coated, can be explained by the fact that the coating of alginate on chitosan microparticles led to negative side of the zeta potential by virtue of its predominance on the surface. The developed ACMs were able to transport the antigen effectively to the M cell as revealed by confocal laser scanning microscopy. Further, DTx-loaded ACMs demonstrated significant immune responses at serum IgG as well as mucosal sIgA level.

Novel stain-free lecithinized coal tar formulation for psoriasis

Backgroundu2002 Coal tar has been a very popular traditional treatment for various types of psoriasis for over a century. It is the first‐line treatment for scalp, hand, and foot psoriasis. However, the application of coal tar on hair invariably causes staining, which results in a high degree of patient non‐compliance, especially in patients with non‐black hair. Thus, the treatment of scalp psoriasis with a topical coal tar formulation requires that special concern be paid to product esthetics.

Quality by design (QbD) approaches in current pharmaceutical set-up

ABSTRACT Introduction: Quality by design (QbD) encourages the pharmaceutical industry to use risk management and science-based manufacturing principles to gain process and product understanding and thus assures quality of the product. With the objective to curb the rising costs for development and regulatory barriers to innovation and creativity, QbD is being widely promoted by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and International Conference on Harmonization (ICH). Areas covered: This review describes the elements, different design and tools of QbD as well as multidimensional applications of QbD ranging from dosage form and method development to meeting latest regulatory requirements. Expert opinion: The understanding of a process is facilitated by proper identification of sources of variation, management of variability by process design, and prediction of product quality attributes using design space. The pharmaceutical industry is rapidly adopting the QbD principles for fabrication of safe, effective and quality products; however, we are still on a journey and the process of gathering all experience and metrics required for connecting and demonstrating QbD benefits to all stakeholders is still in progress. Understanding the formulation and process parameters with the philosophy of QbD will be useful for the optimization of complex drug delivery systems in the near future.