<span style="font-size:17.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Lung specific stealth liposomes as antitubercular drug carriers in guinea pigs</span>

Abstract

<span style="font-size:17.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">The problem of patient non-compliance in the management of tuberculosis (TB) can be overcome by reducing the dosing frequency of antitubercular drugs (ATD) employing drug carriers. This study reports on the intravenous (iv) administration of lung specific stealth liposomes encapsulating ATD (rifampicin and isoniazid in combination) to guinea pigs and the detailed pharmacokinetic/chemotherapeutic studies. Following a single iv administration of liposomal drugs,

<span style="font-size:17.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">the latter were found to exhibit sustained therapeutic levels in plasma for 96- 168 hr with half- lives of 24-70 hr, mean residence time (MRT) of 35-81 hr and organ drug levels up 10 day 7. The relative bioavailability (as compared to oral free drugs) was increased by 5.4-8.9 folds, whereas the absolute bioavailability (as compared to iv free drugs) was increased by

<span style="font-size:17.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman";="" mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:="" en-us;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="">2.9-4.2 folds. Weekly therapy with liposomal ATD fur 6 weeks produced equivalent clearance of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Mycobacterium tuberculosis </i>from organs as did daily therapy with oral free drugs. Hence, intravenous liposomal ATD offer the therapeutic advantage of reducing the dosing frequency and improving the patient compliance in the management ofTB.</span></span></span>