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Some Facts About Liposomal Clodronate

By Roxanne Cruz


Liposomal clodronate therapy is a very useful drug formulation for treating autoimmune hemolytic anemia. This particular autoimmune disease destroys red blood cells. Usual therapies include the use of corticosteroids and splenectomy, but this one gives very fast and promising results by destroying macrophages.

Clodronate is a member of the family of bisphosphonates. It was first used as a treatment for osteolytic bone diseases. Thanks to its characteristics, now it is effectively used in liposome mediated macrophage suicide technique, for depleting macrophages from different organs and tissues. This targeted therapy is very successful in all previous medical research.

Although clodronate itself wouldn't be able to successfully pass through all cell membranes, using liposomes as the vehicles efficiently solves this problem. Macrophages eagerly eat those liposomes, filling their cells with encapsulated clodronate, until the critical concentration is reached. At this point, they simply destroy themselves.

The suspension itself is non-toxic. The released drug, once it reaches the circulation, is safely removed from the body by the renal system. The results are very fast, and although they aren't permanent, they can be very useful in different treatments.

In order to be useful, liposomal clodronate has to reach the infected organs. It cannot cross capillary walls. Until now, this method proved to be useful for depleting macrophages in liver, lymph nodes, lung, joints and other organs, including testis and peritoneal cavity. For achieving expected results, the drug has to be adequately administered.

This method was designed for destroying macrophages in vivo. Although it can be used in in vitro research as well, the problem is that it cannot be removed from the medium so effectively this way. It means it could be accumulated in different cells, and affect your final results. In living organism, it is successfully removed once in circulation, because the kidneys take very good care about it.

The temperature is very important. The suspension should never be frozen, and it should never be heated above 30 degrees of Celsius. The ideal temperature for keeping it is 4 degrees of Celsius. In any case, the suspension should be used within a few days. It is important to shake it well before dividing it into smaller dosages, because it tends to precipitate. It is important to get an even distribution, to achieve the proper concentration.

The quantity may vary, but recommended intravenous injection should be less than 0,1 ml for every 10 grams of weight. This number can be higher in case of intraperitoneal injection of the drug. Clodronate is stored within the liposomes, and the concentration depends on its solubility.

Liposomal clodronate method for making red blood cells eating macrophages destroy themselves proved to be very useful in different treatments. Quickly achieved results aren't permanent, they last for about one week. It is important to adequately administrate the drug, to use separate syringe for your test animals and to make sure to clean the skin before injecting the suspension. This way you will avoid different contamination. If you use the same syringe for all the animals, make sure to shake it each time.




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