Enhancing the Mass Transport across Biological Membranes

Noninvasive drug delivery and sensing methods has been the focus of research for many years. These methods provide greater patient compliance and in some cases greater safety to the patient. In order to achieve this goal, my research has focused on increasing mass transport across a variety of biological membranes and on developing drug delivery systems. First, ultrasound (US) was used to enhance the mass transport transdermally. Then, US in tandem with chemical penetration enhancers (CPEs) were used to enhance the mass transport across the amniotic membrane for amniotic fluid sensing and administration of drugs or gene therapy directly to the fetus. It was found that certain combinations of US and CPEs results in an antagonistic effect while other combination result in a synergistic effect. The same was observed for CPEs mixtures where certain mixtures gave an antagonistic effect while others a synergistic effect. Nanoparticles were also applied to minimize the concentration of CPEs, and thus, the fetus exposure to them. Encapsulating the CPEs has resulted in a greater effect even though the concentration was reduced by almost 3 orders of magnitude. Mechanisms of action would also be presented and briefly discussed. Last, a short introductory to the application of biomimicking, bioengineering, and bioinspiration concepts to noninvasive drug delivery would be presented.