Nasal Delivery of Proteins and Peptides

Recent years have shown that nasal route can be a potential route for the systemic delivery of protein/peptide drugs as it has a considerably large absorption area (150cm2) which is highly vascularized and has permeability similar to or higher than the small intestinal mucosa. Nasal delivery of protein/peptide drugs also offers other benefits such as ease of administration, noninvasive administration, rapid onset of action, and the avoidance of gastrointestinal degradation and hepatic first-pass effects [1]. Nasal route can be utilized to enhance the delivery of drugs to the brain as nose to brain delivery bypasses the blood-brain barrier [2]. However, nasal delivery also suffers from several limitations such as low membrane permeability to hydrophilic molecules (especially when the molecular weight is over several thousand daltons), small applicable volume per dose, enzymatic degradation, and mucociliary clearance [3].