Novel Nano-Therapy Approach of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Laboratory Study

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a very common disease characterized by a chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. The therapy of IBD mainly involves the administration of anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drugs, which suppress the intestinal inflammatory burden and improve the disease-related symptoms. However, these conventional treatment strategies are characterized by a limited therapeutic effect as well as several side effects. Therefore, the purpose of this research project is to develop novel disease-targeted drug delivery strategies based on prebiotics and probiotics as a more effective therapy, which addresses the unmet medical needs.

The laboratory studies conducted by AGYA members Dr. Maha Nasr, Ain Shams University, Egypt and Prof. Dr. Ahmed Hegazy, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany will focus on the preparation and physicochemical characterization, as well as pharmacological characterization of these delivery systems in an animal model of IBD. The project will lead to the development of optimized formulations capable of being up-scaled for large-scale production, and clinically translated in human trials. Moreover, the exploration of this novel therapy approach is expected to provide vast possibilities of interdisciplinary future work between pharmaceutical formulation and health sciences. At the same time it addresses health challenges and identifies emerging research questions within this important global context. Furthermore, the establishment of this novel line of research - the investigation of the opportunities offered by nanotechnology and microencapsulation to solve global health related issues - is considered of cardinal importance worldwide, which is expected to contribute to improvement of health, and hence reflecting on societal and economic sectors.