Drug loaded erythrocytes: as novel drug delivery system

Novel drug delivery systems are one of the widely used delivery systems. In the present scenario, amongst them, "Drug Loaded Erythrocytes" is one of the growing and potential systems for delivery of drugs and enzymes. Erythrocytes are biocompatible, biodegradable, possess long circulation half-life and can be loaded with variety of biologically active substances. Carrier erythrocytes are prepared by collecting blood sample from the organism of interest and separating erythrocytes from plasma. By using various physical and chemical methods the cells are broken and the drug is entrapped into the erythrocytes, finally they are resealed and the resultant carriers are then called "resealed erythrocytes". Surface modification with glutaraldehyde, antibodies, carbohydrates like sialic acid and biotinylation of loaded erythrocytes (biotinylated erythrocytes) is possible to improve their target specificity and to increase their circulation half-life. Upon reinjection the drug loaded erythrocytes serve as slow circulation depots, targets the drug to the reticuloendothelial system (RES), prevents degradation of loaded drug from inactivation by endogenous chemicals, attain steady state concentration of drug and decrease the side-effects of loaded drug. Nowadays, Nanoerythrosomes based drug delivery systems have excellent potential for clinical application.