The Ainslie Lab College of Pharmacy Division of Phrmaceutics The Ohio State University

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vaccine
     
 

Vaccines can be used to skew the immune system towards a desired response. For some diseases, like polio and small pox, an attenuated or similar disease can be used to train the immune system to attack the pathogen when it sees it again.  However, for other diseases attenuated pathogens can be dangerous or impracticable.  By using polymeric carriers we can more aptly target the immune cells of interest as well as specifically activate them to propagate the desired immune response.  These carriers are eaten by immune cells to create an immune response.  We use acid-responsive polymers (such as acetalated dextran aka Ac-Dex) that breakdown in the acidic environment of the cell, once eaten. Both needled and needle-free (e.g. pulmonary delivery, nasal delivery) vaccines can be formulated from Ac-DEX nanoparticles for vaccination against intracellular bacteria (e.g. anthrax, Francisella sp., Burkholderia sp.), viruses and cancer.

 
     
  pulmonary_del  
     
  Pulmonary Delivery is a facile route for the delivery of pharmaceuticals (drugs). It can enable delivery of drugs directly to the site of infection (e.g. for the treatment of tuberculosis) or disease (e.g. for the delivery of chemotherapeutics for lung cancer). By delivering the drugs locally the systemic side effects of the drug can be limited allowing for the drug concentration at disease site to be increased. We have developed a micro particle fabricated from acetalated dextran that is large enough to evade macrophage uptake, and porous to be carried in the inhaled air stream. Both of these features allow for controlled release of drugs in the lung. Our microparticle is unique because it has tunable degradation times that can range from hours to months and because the degradation products are not inflammatory (like liposomes can be) and pH neutral (unlike polyesters like PLGA).  
     

 

Epithelial Cells
     
 

Oral delivery serves as a facile route for the delivery of pharmaceutics.  Instead of traveling to the doctor’s office to receive and injection, the patient can simply administer themselves a pill at home which can reduce healthcare costs as well as lead to increased patient compliance.  There are of course several barriers to drug delivery.  These barriers are linked to the function of the digestive tract: to digest food.  Barriers such as a stringent epithelial cell filter as well as changes in pH can affect the delivery of pharmaceutics through the intestinal wall.  Here we have developed platforms that release asymmetrically, directly at the intestinal wall.  Asymmetric release can not only enhance permeation of drug through the epithelial wall, but also protect the therapeutic from the intestinal enzymes.

  
     
 
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