Development of a drug delivery system based on chitosan nanoparticles for oral administration of interferon-alpha

CÁNEPA CB; IMPERIALE J; BERINI C; LEWICKI M,; SOSNIK A; BIGLIONE MM

BIOMACROMOLECULES

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Lugar: Washington; Año: 2017

1525-7797

Despite the good clinical efficacy of interferon alpha (IFNα) to treat some types of cancer and viral infections, this biological drug is underused given its severe adverse effects and high dosing parenteral regimens. Aiming to achieve a breakthrough in the therapy with IFNα, this work reports for the first time on the design and full characterization of a novel nanomedicine of IFNα-2b-loaded chitosan nanoparticles (IFN-CT NPs) for oral delivery. IFN-CT NPs produced by ionotropic gelation encapsulated approximately 100% of the drug, showed a size of 36 ± 8 nm, a zeta-potential of +30 mV (dynamic light scattering) and a spherical morphology (transmission electron microscopy). The antiviral activity of IFN-CT NPs in vitro was comparable to the commercial IFNα. Remarkably, both treatments stimulated the expression of IFN genes to a similar extent in both non-infected and infected cells with the Human Lymphotropic-T Virus type 1 (HLTV-1). Finally, oral administration of IFN-CT NPs (0.3MIU) to CF1 mice showed detectable levels of IFN in plasma after 1 h, while no IFNα was detected with a commercial formulation. These results are encouraging and open a new avenue for the administration of this biological drug in a minimally-invasive, safer and more patient-compliant way.