INEB RECENT PUBLICATIONS: Precise engineering of dapivirine-loaded nanoparticles for the development of anti-HIV vaginal microbicides

INEB researchers recently published an article in the Acta Biomaterialia, available online since 17 February 2015. The article is entitled "Precise engineering of dapivirine-loaded nanoparticles for the development of anti-HIV vaginal microbicides" and is authored by José das Neves and Bruno Sarmento.

Polymeric nanoparticles have the potential to provide effective and safe delivery of antiretroviral drugs in the context of prophylactic anti-HIV vaginal microbicides. This study describes the use of a Box-Behnken experimental design in the precise engineering of dapivirine-loaded PLGA nanoparticles. Furthermore, optimized nanoparticles (170 nm) were evaluated in vitro for their performance as potential vaginal microbicides. Nanoparticles were shown safe and helpful when considering their ability to decrease drug permeability and increase dapivirine cpncentrations at genital cell monolayers, even in the presence of a vaginal mucus surrogate. Overall, dapivirine-loaded PLGA NPs were shown to possess interesting technological and biological features that may contribute to their use in the development of novel vaginal microbicides.