This multifunctional system can send drugs where they can be effective in body's tissues, organs

• Published date: 10 April 2024
• Author: JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The scientists said, overcoming previous obstacles, that this advancement has the potential to revolutionize drug delivery, offering enhanced treatment efficacy with minimized side effects. Prof. Meital Reches, her doctoral student Daniel Boas, and their colleagues pioneered the groundbreaking drug delivery system

They have just published their findings in the journal Cell Press, titled "A multifunctional drug delivery system based on switchable peptide-stabilized emulsions."

Scientists and companies develop new drugs constantly, but for them to be useful, they must reach the organs and tissues that need to be treated. Drug delivery is a broad field of research that involves the development of new carrier systems and materials for effective therapeutic conveyance.

Drug delivery can be controlled, steady, or targeted. Since the introduction of medical application systems, many medications have been administered through various conventional drug-delivery dosage forms, including injectables, pills, lotions, immediate-release capsules, mixtures, creams, pastes, ointments, powders, suppositories, suspensions, and more, to treat various diseases.

More recently, new devices with greatly improved therapeutic potential include oral controlled release systems, fast-dispersing dosage forms, liposomes, taste-masking systems, transdermal patches, aerosols, and site-specific delivery systems have been introduced.

Traditionally, emulsions have served as reliable carriers for drug delivery, but their efficacy was hindered by the inability to encapsulate both types of drugs within the same vehicle. The HU team tackled this challenge by devising a short peptide – a short chain of only four amino acids – that was capable of stabilizing emulsions and accommodating both hydrophilic and hydrophobic compounds.

The heart of this innovation lies in the peptide's remarkable ability to alter its shape upon binding specific metal ions, transforming...