Open AccessNanomedicines in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C ? focus on pegylated interferon alpha-2a
Author(s) -
T Thomas,
Graham Foster
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
international journal of nanomedicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.245
H-Index - 128
eISSN - 1178-2013
pISSN - 1176-9114
DOI - 10.2147/nano.2007.2.1.19
Subject(s) - pegylation , pharmacodynamics , pegylated interferon , pharmacology , alpha interferon , medicine , pharmacokinetics , clinical pharmacology , clinical practice , chronic hepatitis , interferon , computational biology , ribavirin , virology , biology , virus , in vivo , microbiology and biotechnology , family medicine
Nanotechnology is the application of nanotechnology within medicine. An illustration of this is the use of pegylation as a means of modifying naturally occurring proteins which may have clinical applications, in order to improve the pharmacodynamics of the protein resulting in an effective medication. An example of this is pegylated interferon. The purpose of this review is to examine the chemistry, clinical pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and clinical studies with 40 kDa pegylated interferon to illustrate the general principles of pegylated biological proteins. The use in clinical practice is reviewed along with the evidence for both efficiacy, safety, and advantages over standard interferon.