Inorganic carriers of bioactive substances: development, characterization, toxicity evaluation of in vitro delivery and in vivo absorption after oral administration

Abstract

The health field interest in studies related to the use of carriers for the confinement of biological active molecules such as drugs has increased exponentially in recent years. Among the reasons for such studies is the increase in solubility, photochemical and thermal stability, sustained delivery and/or specific target and the possible decrease of side effects of these bioactive molecules. In this context, it is observed the importance assigned to Layered Double Hydroxides (LDHs) for these purposes due to some important properties of these inorganic nanoparticles, such as low toxicity, high biocompatibility and antacid character. The elucidation of the behavior of these host matrices in the biological environment through in vitro and in vivo assays is extremely important but still emerging. This project aims to investigate the behavior of the LDHs in biological environment by in vitro and in vivo tests to follow the process of interaction with the intestinal epithelium and subsequent incorporation through the lymphatic and hematological pathways up to the systemic circulation and the successive via of the carriers excretion in rats. Therefore, the LDHs (containing species with the followed biological activities: dyslipidemia, anti-inflammatory and/or antioxidant) will be previously characterized using a wide set of physicochemical techniques: XRD; Thermal Analysis; Chemical Elemental Analysis; Eletronic Microscopy; Particle Size and Zeta Potential; IR, Raman and 13C NMR Spectroscopies (the experimental spectroscopic data will be supported by computational calculation using the DFT method). (AU)