Sustained release drug carrier - Patents

Sustained release drug carrier
Agent: Browdy And Neimark, P.l.l.c. 624 Ninth Street, Nw - Washington, DC, US
Inventors: Sei Kwang Hahn, Teruo Nakamura, Tsuyoshi Shimoboji
Class: 424488000 (USPTO), (Intl Class)
#20060110458
05/25/06 |

The present invention aims to provide completely biodegradable and biocompatible sustained-release carriers for proteins or peptides, which allow encapsulation of the proteins or peptides at high encapsulation rates without inhibiting their biological activity. The present invention provides a method for preparing a sustained-release carrier, wherein in a solution in the presence of a protein or a peptide, a hyaluronic acid derivative having an unsaturated bond(s) or a mercapto group(s) introduced into hyaluronic acid is chemically crosslinked with a mercapto group-containing compound or an unsaturated bond-containing compound, respectively, to give a hydrogel. The method of the present invention enables efficient encapsulation of proteins or peptides while retaining their biological activity.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The present invention relates to sustained-release drug carriers based on a hyaluronic acid hydrogel, which allow sustained release of proteins or peptides.