New hope for TB with nano drug delivery

"nanoparticles are submicron-sized polymeric colloidal particles within which the therapeutic agent is encapsulated, or adsorbed or conjugated into the surface..."

What? Oh, well, I'm just glad to see progress with a new technology...

South African researchers have provided a glimmer of hope for the millions of people in the developing world struck down by tuberculosis (TB) by developing a nano-sized drug delivery platform that could make all the difference in the battle against drug resistant forms of the disease.

The consortium of researchers, lead by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has successfully managed to encapsulate four first-line anti-TB drugs within a nano-sized polymeric shell, which could revolutionise the delivery of TB drugs and have a significant impact on the efficacy of therapeutic treatments in developing countries.

One of the major advantages of the new technique is that it would reduce the drug regimen for TB sufferers from four different drugs every day for up to six months, to a single treatment every seven days for just six weeks.

"The difficulty in treating TB results from patient non-compliance to the treatment regime," lead researcher on the project at CSIR, Dr Hulda Swai, explained to in-PharmaTechnologist.com.

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