Evaluation of the clearance characteristics of liposomes in the human nose by gamma-scintigraphy

Abstract

The nasal cavity possesses many advantages as a site for drug delivery, such as, ease of administration, applicability for long term treatments and a large surface area for absorption. One important limiting factor for nasal drug delivery is the limited time available for absorption within the nasal cavity due to mucociliary clearance. Several drug delivery systems including different kinds of microspheres and liposomes have been tried for encapsulation of drugs and increasing the residence time in nasal cavity. In this study the clearance rate of three kinds of liposomes: neutral [phosphatidylcholin (PC) and cholesterol (Chol)], cationic (PC, Chol and stearylamine) and fusogenic (PC, Chol, dioleoylphosphatidylethanolamine) was determined by gamma scintigraphy with lactose powder being used as negative control.