Direct drug delivery system based on thermally responsive biopolymers
AssigneeDuke University
InventorsLori A. SETTON, Ashutosh Chilkoti, Virginia B. Kraus, Helawe Betre, Matthew R. Dreher
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Abstract
A method for delivering a drug depot of a compound of interest to a selected region in a subject. The method comprises administering a composition directly to said region of interest, the composition comprising the compound of interest to be delivered (such as an antiinflammatory agent or a chemotherapeutic agent) and a polymer (such as an elastin-like peptide or ELP) that undergoes an inverse temperature phase transition, so that a sustained release of the compound of interest at the selected region is provided. Compositions useful for carrying out the invention are also described.
Claims20
1-29. (canceled)
A method for delivering a therapeutic protein to a subject, said method comprising:
- injecting the subject with a recombinant fusion protein in solution phase at a selected region, said recombinant fusion protein comprising the amino acid sequence of the therapeutic protein and a thermally-responsive amino acid sequence that undergoes an inverse phase transition at the body temperature of the subject, the thermally-responsive amino acid sequence comprising 90 units of VPGXG where X is independently an amino acid other than proline (SEQ ID NO:4);
- such that the recombinant fusion protein aggregates at the selected region by phase transition, and then said recombinant fusion protein gradually separates from the aggregate to provide a sustained release of said therapeutic protein;
- repeating the injecting at a frequency of from one to four times per month.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.