Teaming up with GSK and the University of Reading to demonstrate the skin penetration potential of a large aptamer

New research challenges current theories on skin penetration of large molecular weight drugs offering hope for the discovery of new treatments of difficult-to-treat dermatological diseases. 

It is generally agreed that drugs with molecular weights above 1000 Daltons did not penetrate the skin at therapeutic levels and so weren’t applied topically for the treatment of dermatological diseases. However, researchers from GSK and the University of Reading teamed up with MedPharm to challenge this current theory. MedPharm created specific disease activity skin models for a study designed to test the penetration of a 22k Dalton aptamer, which is a type of RNA molecule receiving notable interest for its potential pharmaceutical activity.

The results revealed this aptamer both penetrated the skin and showed therapeutic activity. The findings were subsequently published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology and suggest the boundaries of molecules suitable for topical treatments can be expanded. This offers hope for the discovery of new treatments of difficult-to-treat dermatological diseases.