New environmental sensitive system for colon-specific delivery of peptidic drugs.

Colon specific drug delivery systems have gained increased importance for systemic and local delivery of protein and peptide drugs. Vancomycin, a peptidic drug, in the treatment of pseudomembranous colitis must be given orally to reach the site of infection. To achieve successful colonic delivery, vancomycin needs to be protected from degradation in the environment of the upper gastrointestinal tract and then be abruptly released into the colon. This work describes the use of thermally crosslinked bovine serum albumin (BSA) nanospheres (NS) coated with different fatty acids as carriers able to control the release of vancomycin (Vanco) in the colon environment responding strongly to stimuli such as pH, mucin interactions and enzyme digestion.