A recent Formulation Forum column penned by Ascendia Founder and CEO Jim Huang, PhD, discussed how lipid-based colloidal nanocarriers administered by a parenteral route hold great promise in safely delivering therapeutic agents. The article was published on Drug Development & Delivery, a leading trade media property.
The guest editorial explains that the promise is due to lipid-based colloidal nanocarriers’ advantageous properties with respect to having excellent biocompatibility, potential for sustained drug delivery, ability to encapsulate hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs, and site-specific active or passive targeting. Examples of lipid-based dosage forms include liposomes, lipoplexes, solid lipid nanoparticles, and nano-structure lipid carriers.
The opinion was supported by a study of parenteral sustained delivery of ASD-005 liposomal formulation. The study showed encapsulation of ASD-005 into a liposomal formulation with a nano-size range of 100 nm to 150 nm and with good physical stability. A differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) thermogram indicated that ASD-005 is present inside the liposomal formulation as an amorphous form.
The study indicated that parenteral administration of liposomal ASD-005 has a rapid onset effect of lowering hypertension followed by sustained release of the drug inside an animal body for at least 24 hours. Thus, the ASD-005 liposomal formulation avoids the rapid clearance that was experienced with an IV solution of the ASD-005 compound. Results suggest that the liposomal form of ASD-005 present an attractive sustained drug delivery for effective parenteral treatment of acute hypertension and congestive heart failure.