Milk as Source for Gatekeeping Coating for Drug Loaded Calcium Carbonate Microparticles for Targeted Drug Release — 17p — Rochelle Mann, Mahadi Hasan, Sajith Wijewardhane, Robert Patton

When treating infected tissues, the drugs can damage the healthy tissue as a side  effect. By targeting the infected tissues acidic environment, damaging healthy tissue can  be avoided. Calcium Carbonate microparticles (CCMP) can circumvent this problem  through application in targeted drug delivery. Calcium carbonate microparticles are  synthesized where the drug can then be loaded onto the surface pores of the  microparticles. To guarantee release only in a specific environmental trigger, the drug  loaded particles are then encased in a protein called Casein, which makes up 80% of the  proteins in cow milk. When the loaded CCMPs are introduced to an environmental trigger,  the casein dissolves and the drug is released. Because milk is the origin of casein, whole  milk, skim milk, and diluted skim milks were tested to determine if their other components  assisted in coating the drug loaded CCMPs. During the screening process, the fat content  of whole milk was found to overly hinder the drug release process. Skim milk seemed a  promising candidate in the casein loading process because it does not have the fats which  may get in the way of drug release. This led to the testing of the diluted skim milk coating which was able to block drug release in the neutral environment (7.4 pH) better than the  lab grade 0.1% casein. These tests imply that the properties of the diluted skim milk may  better protect healthy tissue against damage from the loaded drug.

Shasta College
Prof. Grigoriy Sereda