Liposomes for the targeted delivery of superoxide dismutase to arthritic sites

摘要

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory polyarthritis, known for a long time. Its cause remains unknown and its treatment is empiric and often not fully sucessful. It is one of the diseases where a role for the hazardous effect of oxygen free radicals, for example the superoxide radical has been proposed. This explains the use of Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) as a therapeutic agent in rheumatoid arthritis. However, the utility of SOD is strongly hampered by its rapid elimination from the circulation. One of the strategies of interest for increasing SOD therapeutic efficacy is its encapsulation in liposomes. Taking into account the versatility of methods of preparation and the choice of a large variety of lipid compositions, very different formulations can be obtained, from the point of view of their blood half-life. One possible way of increasing liposomes blood half-life is the use of polyethyleneglycol (PEG) covalently linked to the phospholipids.