Viral Docking Protein Targeted Dapsone Delivery to Nerve Endings

Leprosy is a neuropathic disease caused by the M.laprae, which specially affect the nerves of the dermal tissue and multiply here. Conventional treatment is based on antibiotics and essentially Dapsone, which is the core drug for all leprosy treatment. Leprosy requires high doses of Dapsone for very long period of time, which in turn, is responsible for the side effect. Such prolonged therapy, with untoward side effects, is a major draw back. Thus it is desirable to make a dosage form, which could avoid most of the adverse effect of Dapsone, and preparing the liposome of the drug can do it. But only drug bearing liposomes don't have the targeting ability. To make liposomes targetable, liposomes are coated with the viral or bacterial docking proteins of bacterial or synthetic origin, which are simply the bacterial or viral proteins that make the attachment of bacteria/virus to the specific cell receptors for the fusion with cell membrane and causing invasion into the cell. In the case of leprosy a liposome based system could be developed and targeted to nerve endings where the bacterial load is high where they proliferate in tissue specific manner.