ULTRAFLEXIBLE VESICLES, TRANSFERSOMES, HAVE AN EXTREMELY LOW PORE PENETRATION RESISTANCE AND TRANSPORT THERAPEUTIC AMOUNTS OF INSULIN ACROSS THE INTACT MAMMALIAN SKIN

New vehicles for the non-invasive delivery of agents are introduced. T hese carriers can transport pharmacological agents, including large po lypeptides, through the permeability barriers: such as the intact skin . This capability depends on the self-regulating carrier deformability which exceeds that of the related but not optimized lipid aggregates by several orders of magnitude. Conventional lipid suspensions, such a s standard liposomes or mixed lipid micelles, do not mediate a systemi c biological effect upon epicutaneous applications. In contrast to thi s, the properly devised adaptable carriers, when administered on the i ntact skin, transport therapeutic amounts of biogenic molecules into t he body. This process can be nearly as efficient as an injection needl e, as seen from the results of experiments in mice and humans with the insulin-carrying vesicles. The carrier-mediated transcutaneous insuli n delivery is unlikely to involve shunts, lesions or other types of sk in damage. Rather than this, insulin is inferred to be transported int o the body between the intact skin cells with a bio-efficiency of at l east 50% of the s.c. dose action. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.