Peptide hydrogels as a long-acting multipurpose drug delivery platform for combined contraception and HIV prevention

About the Project

Provide a brief description of the project

HIV in women, girls and mother-to-child transmission in pregnancy remain a significant source of new infections and the needs of females are inadequately addressed. Our advanced drug delivery system is composed of a versatile peptide-like, peptoid-peptide hydrogel depot, which has several important advantages as a long-acting injectable platform for sustained drug delivery and which we recently published in the top Chemistry journal, the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Unlike existing long-acting formulations used in medicine, e.g. suspensions, this technology exists as a fully soluble water-based (aqueous) formulation. This means multiple drugs can be incorporated within one injectable platform without encountering stability issues e.g. aggregation due to drug insolubility. The aim of this project is to progress the freeze-dried formulation and to consider factors important to medicine regulators (e.g. MHRA, EMA). This will involve developing our platform as a freeze-dried powder that is readily reconstituted in a water-based solvent prior to administration by injection. Pharmaceutical stability to ICH standards, without cold chain storage/transport across several climatic zones, is a key consideration for effective clinical adoption. We will then progress to testing pharmacokinetics and preliminary safety using established in vivo models.

Training that will be provided through the research project

As a member of the Russell Group, Queen's University Belfast, which is consistently recognised as one of the leading universities for knowledge exchange in the UK, thus ensuring research is creating jobs, wealth, skills and innovation. The projects lead investigator Dr Laverty is a PhD graduate from the School of Pharmacy and has first-hand knowledge experience of the successful pathway a PhD from Queens University Belfast can provide. For this studentship the student will be trained in the following generic skills; developing writing skills, developing presentation skills, power point for academic presentations and posters, communication skills, introduction to research design, academic plagiarism, basic and advanced statistics, networking and negotiating, lab demonstrating and introduction to ref works. Students are also encouraged to use the Personal Development Planning (PDP) process to build a portfolio on learning, performance and achievement. PDP encourages the students to adopt a good work practice and supports the timely submission of thesis.

The student will receive formal training in the following specialist skills necessary for this project; peptide and peptoid synthesis, drug release protocols, confocal microscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, tissue culture, HPLC, Fourier Transform infra-red spectrometry, circular dichroism, Mass Spectroscopy, NMR, neutron scattering techniques and use of in vivo facilities. The combination of these skills is highly transferable and should give the student a distinct advantage in the employment sector.

Expected impact activities

Healthcare Professionals/Regulators– This project will result in a novel drug delivery system that will serve as a superior alternative to existing formulations for healthcare professionals. The student will engage with individual consultants/physicians and drug regulators, providing knowledge input relating to clinical experimental design and result interpretation. We recognise it is important to instil healthcare practitioner confidence in the technology and obtain their feedback early in development.

Patients– The student will also engage with charities to provide stakeholder engagement activities (patient questionnaires, focus groups). We will explore: patient related factors; in-depth views on experiences and gauge their opinion on current treatments and our peptide-based platform.

• Involved in development of intellectual property
• Attendance at relevant conferences
• Engagement with industry
• Visits to large-scale neutron scattering facilities
• Generation of publications

Funding Notes

This project is not funded; applications are welcome from self-funding candidates.

References

hydrogels; peptide; long-acting injectable: HIV prevention; multipurpose technology