Shuttling medicines via blood cells
People with chronic inflammatory disorders regularly take high doses of steroids over long periods. This anti-inflammatory therapy can relieve symptoms of cystic fibrosis, Crohn’s disease, and other ailments but over time can lead to osteoporosis and diabetes.
If lower steroid doses would fight inflammation, patients could avoid the side effects. Toward that end, researchers have devised a way of encapsulating the drugs inside a patient’s own red blood cells.
“There is no peak of concentration . . . as you would get soon after taking a pill or using an inhaler,” says lead researcher Mauro Magnani of the University of Urbino in Italy. “Instead, the patient always has a low but clinically relevant dose. The total amount of drug administered can be much lower–one-tenth to one-twentieth the oral dose.”