In this article researchers demonstrate not only that vaccines (for various diseases) encapsulated in polymer microspheres allow slow delivery but also that these microspheres are activating dendritic cells, an important part of the immune system.
The authors also mention that encapsulation of anticancer drugs helps cross the blood brain barrier.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-bmd022607.php#
Biodegradable microspheres deliver time release vaccines, stimulate different immune response
An older related article devoted to ways of improving drug penetration of the brain reviews the encapsulation progress with doxorubicin in the extract below.
This detailed article is otherwise informative about the obstacles to brain cancer treatments which face not one but three barriers.
http://www.tcrt.org/index.cfm?CFID=8...wnload&p=13053
Novel Advances in Drug Delivery to Brain Cancer
Extract:
An alternative approach to changing the lipophilicity of the drug involves encapsulation. Recent work in this area, involving doxorubicin has indeed shown that encapsulation increases the delivery of the drug in experimental brain tumors (6, 7). Furthermore, in a recent phase I/II clinical trial involving brain tumor patients, liposomal doxorubicin was found to stabilize the disease and contribute to prolonged survival (8, 9). While it might be premature to speculate as to the future potential of liposomal doxorubicin, it clearly represents an attractive and potentially promising approach that obviates the need to pharmacologically manipulate the drug. Furthermore,liposomal technology has opened a potentially new and powerful method for the delivery of gene therapy to malignant brain tumors.
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