Objective
Electrical enhancement of the transport of drugs across the skin opens up a field of applications that not only may lead to the avoidance of notorious side effects in classical administration, such as hepatic first pass and gastrointestinal breakdown, but it also provides ways and means to deliver drugs at a much more controllable rate than hitherto possible, even to the point where biofeedback controlled, i.e. completely robotic, delivery may become a reality.
In order to realize these applications, mechanistic knowledge of the transport phenomena occurring is absolutely necessary, first to allow sensible predictions of the effects of the method, and proper use of the technique, but secondly also to assess the safety of the use of electrical treatments of the human skin in vivo.
It is the aim of this project to tackle this general problem with respect to a range of intermediate field strengths hitherto neglected, subdividing the question in several subquestions, including:
- what will happen to the skin conductivity and how does this relate to local ultrastructural changes in the stratum corneum?
- what pathways are created and how do these lead to increased transport?
- How do the phenomena observed in human stratum corneum relate to ditto phenomena observed in model lipid bilayer membranes?
and finally,
- how can the observed phenomena be adequately described by theory, and modeled mathematically?
Through a unique cooperation, a set of experiences and techniques can be brought together which is very suitable for tackling the problem, combining techniques that observe general changes (conductivity measurements, flux studies, X-ray measurements) with techniques and approaches focusing on local phenomena including SECM, FFEM, AFM, and so on, and making an effort to confront the data with theory.
It is our conviction that this project should bring the desired deepening of insight, and may thereby bring closer the medical application of intermediate and high voltage electric fields to the humans for the purpose of regulated and controlled delivery of drugs, which would otherwise have to be given orally or by injection, and thus would become either ineffective, or produce many unwanted side effects.
Topic(s)
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1200 Brussels
Belgium