IONTOPHORETIC DELIVERY OF OLIGONUCLEOTIDES ACROSS FULL-THICKNESS HAIRLESS MOUSE SKIN

In recent years there has been an increased interest in the use of oli gonucleotides as therapeutic agents. Oligonucleotide therapeutics may have significant potential over traditional drugs due to their high de gree of specificity and increased affinity. The major drawbacks to the use of oligonucleotide therapeutics are the problems associated with their delivery and their relative instability in serum. The serum inst ability problem has been partially overcome through the use of oligonu cleotides with modified backbones. Transdermal electrotransport may be used to overcome the problems associated with delivery. Here we repor t the use of transdermal electrotransport in the delivery of oligonucl eotides across hairless mouse skin. The effects of pH, salt concentrat ion, current density, and oligonucleotide concentration, structure, an d length have been investigated.