Transport of conjugated delivery system from the subcutaneous injection site to the lymphatic system

Research scientist: Rojita Jadhari, doktorand
Principal investigator: Professor Per Hansson, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Uppsala University

Scientific and industrial context. Injection into the tissue under the skin is an attractive administration route for many biomolecular drugs available as a result of recent biotechnological progress. The development of drug formulations for this route is challenged by the difficulty to predict the fate of drug formulations after injection due to the complexity of the subcutaneous (SC) environment, the large variability between patients and biomolecular drug properties.

Aim. To investigate the physicochemical properties, interactions, partitioning, and transport behavior of drug-carrier conjugates at the subcutaneous injection site and their uptake into the lymphatic system using an in vitro extracellular matrix (ECM) mimetic hydrogel model based on passive targeting mechanisms. The study will further establish in vitro-in vivo correlations and identify key model parameters to enable predictive and AI-based tools for estimating subcutaneous bioavailability in clinical settings.

Outcome. To increase our knowledge of drug-carrier conjugates and enable improved estimations of subcutaneous bioavailability in clinical settings.