The physical properties of biogels and their permeability for macromolecular drugs and colloidal drug carriers

Macromolecular drugs, either free or complexed with colloidal drug carriers , have created a great deal of interest during the last decade. If one want s to administer these new therapeutics via the oral, nasal, and cervical ro utes or through the conductive airways, one of the first barriers to overco me is the mucus layer that adheres to the related epithelia. In this review , the physicochemical properties of biogels, macromolecular drugs, and coll oidal drug carriers that play a major role in transport through biogels are reviewed. Also, methods of studying the mobility of macromolecular drugs a nd colloidal drug carriers in and through biogels are addressed. (C) 2000 W iley-Liss, Inc. and the American Pharmaceutical Association