Could multiple sclerosis patients be spared the needle? A team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem thinks it's possible. The team, headed by Prof. Elka Touitou, has developed a way to transmit medications to the brain through the nose. This breakthrough could change the way drugs to treat MS, an incurable disease, are administered, addressing a potential market worth $6 billion a year.
The team, including doctoral student Shaher Duchi and Prof. Haim Ovadia, will be presenting their nasal drug delivery method at the Biomed Israel Conference 2008 this week. Touitou says the carrier they developed contains particles mere hundreds of nanometers in size that are found in biological membranes. These particles open a path for the drug to penetrate the nasal mucous membranes, whence they reach the brain.
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She sees Copaxone, the multiple sclerosis drug made by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, as also potentially being administered using their nanoparticulate carriers.
Today, multiple sclerosis drugs are delivered by injection. Efforts to develop oral versions have so far not gone well.
Aside from sparing patients a jab, nasal delivery could also expedite the drug's effect, which could be a huge advantage in delivery of drugs such as painkillers, sleep agents, and medications to treat serious diseases, such as Parkinson's, that impair functioning.
Moreover, all the substances used in making the nasal carriers have already been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, which should expedite the process of gaining approval for the nanoparticulate delivery system itself.
Touitou also claimed that delivering Copaxone in combination with another drug - though she refused to say which - resulted in neuron growth in the brain. No such effect has been achieved by any of the drugs currently sold for MS.
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