DECENT AID · Novel drug delivery system produced by centrifugal technologies – composed to minimize adverse immune reactions and designed for optimised therapeutic effects

Drug delivery systems are a matter of intensive scientific investigation and technological developments. They are necessary since many active pharmaceutical ingredients to be employed in therapy, diagnostics or vaccination cause serious side effects when distributed non-specifically. Without a drug delivery system, the active pharmaceutical ingredients may accumulate in healthy and sensitive tissue, provoke adverse immune reactions, have poor solubility, low bioavailability and inefficient targeting.To meet these challenges, the key objectives of the proposed project are the development and testing of an innovative production technology for nanocapsules as a drug delivery system using centrifugation, colloidal and fluid mechanical techniques. These novel nanocapsules should be especially suited for proteins and other sensitive biomolecules which are vulnerable to degradation by existing encapsulation technologies. An immune protection consisting of a suitable polymer cover of the nanocapsules has to be developed to enable long circulation in human blood without provoking innate immune reactions by the complement, the coagulation and the phagocytic systems. Other than established polymer protection systems, the novel polymer protection should not be immunogenic to avoid accelerated blood clearance upon repeated administration. The nanocapsules have to prove to be sufficiently stable in human blood ex vivo. In vitro and in vivo tests in cancer models will be performed to compare drug efficiency, immune reactions and organ distribution of encapsulated and non encapsulated active pharmaceutical ingredients. Multidisciplinary research and innovation for nanomedicine is aimed for by collaboration in an intersectoral research team comprising mechanical and process engineering, pharmaceutical technology, immunology and cancer research.