Transferrin coupled liposomes as drug delivery carriers for brain targeting of 5-florouracil

Diseases and disorders of the brain are extremely difficult to treat pharmacologically because most drugs are unable to pass across the blood - brain barriers. Complex multi-strand tight junctions between adjacent cerebral endothelial cells and between choroid plexus epithelial cells form a physical barrier and prevent the passage of water soluble drugs from the blood into the brain, whereas the inward passage of lipid soluble drugs is restricted by drug efflux pumps which act as a functional barrier. In the present work, a transferrin-coupled liposomal system for brain delivery of 5-florouracil has been investigated. 5-florouracil and Tc-99m-DTPA bearing non-coupled liposomes were prepared by cast film method, which were coupled with the transferrin by incubating these liposomes with transferrin in the presence of the 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride in saline phosphate buffer ( pH 7.4). These liposomal systems were characterized for vesicle size, percent drug entrapment, and in vitro drug release. The size of the liposomes was increased on coupling with transferrin while percent drug entrapment reduced. The results of the in vitro release profile demonstrated that non-coupled liposomal formulation releases a comparatively higher percent (i.e. 74.8 +/- 3.21%) of drug than coupled liposomes. Results of in vivo study suggested a selective uptake of the transferrin-coupled liposomes from the brain capillary endothelial cells. In case of coupled liposomes, the level of radioactivity was 17-fold more as compared to the free radioactive agent and 13 times more with the non-coupled liposomes. Therefore, it could be concluded that using transferrin coupled liposomes the brain uptake of the drug could be enhanced.