Jun Shao
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Professions, St. John's University, Queens, NY, USA
With the advancement of biotechnology, severalhundredbiotechnologicalproducts are developed and approved as drugs. However, most of them are administered by injection which is painful and inconvenient although the absorption through such route is good. Safety is also a concern when dealing with needles. Therefore, for a long time, the demand for non-invasive delivery of these drugs is great. However, low permeability through biological mucosa due to their large size and hydrophilic nature restricts them from being absorbed sufficiently through those non-invasive routes. In addition, most of these drugs will face extensive pre-absorption degradation, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract (GIT), presents another major difficulty for non-invasive delivery. Non-invasive delivery means the drug is administered by routes other than injection, which usually include oral, pulmonary, nasal, vaginal and transdermal routes. Tremendous efforts have been placed on the development of non-invasive delivery of biotechnological drugs in the past several decades around the world. The most successful case is the inhalation of insulin. Otherwise, there has been not much success. Even though, many studies do shed light for future success. In this presentation, the following aspects will be discussed: general physicochemical properties of biotechnological drugs relevant to absorption through non-invasive routes, the physiological features of the various routes related to absorption and their respective advantages and disadvantages, and some advanced delivery systems showing promising results. The focus of this presentation will be on the various delivery systems such as micro-, nano-particles, nanoemulsions, microneedles, and probiotic bacteria. Several case studies will be presented as well.