Nanoscale self-assembling prodrugs of sulfapyridine for treatment of arthritis: Harnessing the dual approach

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, autoimmune, inflammatory joint disease, affecting mainly joints of hands, wrists, and knees. Although a number of potent drugs are available for the treatment of arthritis, the management of this life-long disease becomes challenging because of their poor bioavailability, frequent administration, toxicity, instability and limitations related to their formulation development. Self-assembling nanoparticles are the emerging class of therapeutic drug delivery systems that have been explored in past few years for the treatment of various diseases. Intra-articular administration of these systems prolongs the retention of drug in the target site by virtue of their size as well as two-steps release of the entrapped drugs (disassembly and then lysis of prodrug to release the active drug) and provide a sustained action which is desirable in this condition. Based on the prior reports, it is hypothesized that self-assembly delivery systems of sulfapyridine will provide an effective and sustained treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Promoieties including saturated, unsaturated fatty acids and amino acids are proposed.