Drug Delivery

Drug delivery using biomaterial-based carriers is one of the eminent themes of our group. We aim to harness the biocompatibility of various polymers and elemental materials and, use these as carriers for therapeutic purposes. A plethora of materials and chemical modifications allow us to tailor our carriers in ways that suit a wide variety of biological applications. Our group, in particular, has been interested in developing small molecular systems for drug delivery into the eye. The eye is a self-sustained fortress inside the human body. Drug delivery to the eye, remains of utmost interest to research groups across the globe, owing to its complex anatomy and convoluted systems. Earlier, our group has developed polymethylmethacrylate, a biopolymer, based system to deliver chemotherapeutic drugs, like carboplatin, for treatment of retinoblastoma. The animal trials conducted using this system have displayed great potential and can be used to enhance the bioavailability of chemotherapeutic agents. Currently, we are working on a porous silicon-based sustained release system for the delivery of ocular drugs in the posterior segment of the eye. This system is capable of carrying a heavy payload of biologicals, like proteins, and releasing them over longer durations to enhance their bioavailability. Such systems will enable us to reduce frequent invasive procedures and recurring dosing thereby improving patient care outcomes.

Relevant publications:

1. Debraj Shome, Neha Poddar, Vinay Sharma, Uday Sheorey, Girish B. Maru, Arvind Ingle, Rajiv Sarin, Shripad Banavali, Rajesh Dikshit, Vandana Jain, Santosh Honavar, Jayesh Bellare; Does a Nanomolecule of Carboplatin Injected Periocularly Help in Attaining Higher Intravitreal Concentrations?. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2009;50(12):5896-5900. doi: https://doi.org/10.1167/iovs.09-3914.
2. Dhrubajyoti Kalita, Debraj Shome, Viral G. Jain, Kirti Chadha, Jayesh R. Bellare, In Vivo Intraocular Distribution and Safety of Periocular Nanoparticle Carboplatin for Treatment of Advanced Retinoblastoma in Humans, American Journal of Ophthalmology, Volume 157, Issue 5, 2014, Pages 1109-1115.e2,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajo.2014.01.027.
3. Saikat Das, Jayesh R. Bellare, Rinti Banerjee, Protein based nanoparticles as platforms for aspirin delivery for ophthalmologic applications, Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, Volume 93, 2012, Pages 161-168. doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfb.2011.12.033.
4. Shome D, Kalita D, Jain V, Sarin R, Maru GB, Bellare JR. Carboplatin loaded polymethylmethacrylate nano-particles in an adjunctive role in retinoblastoma: an animal trial. Indian Journal of Ophthalmology 2014;62(5):585–589. doi:10.4103/0301-4738.129792.