ALEXANDER · Mucus Permeating Nanoparticulate Drug Delivery Systems

The objective of the ALEXANDER project is the identification of novel strategies (e.g., proteolytic enzyme strategy, thiomer strategy, zeta potential changing systems, SNEDDS strategy) and the optimization of existing strategies (e.g., disulfide breaking strategy and slippery surface strategy) for the efficient transport of nanocarriers through the mucus gel layer (e.g., intestinal, nasal, ocular, vaginal, buccal, pulmonary). In particular, R&D activities will be focused on the synthesis of functionalized nanocarriers capable of permeating the mucus gel layer and delivering their therapeutic payload to the epithelium. The nanocarriers will be characterized with respect to their physicochemical properties, ability to cross the mucus gel layer, in vitro and in vivo cytotoxicity. The potential of the developed nanocarriers as delivery systems for mucosal administration of macromolecules will be demonstrated via the oral delivery of peptides, oligosaccharides and oligonucleotides and the nasal delivery of a plasmid encoding for an antigen.