Magnetically Guided Rat Erythrocytes Bearing Isoniazid: Preparation, Characterization, and Evaluation

Rat erythrocytes were loaded with isoniazid and magnetite by the preswell technique. Various parameters such as drug concentration, magnetite concentration, and volume of aqueous solution were optimized to study the maximum loading of drug into erythrocytes (67.2 ± 1.6%). The loaded cells were characterized for drug and magnetite content, hemoglobin content, percent cell recovery, morphology, osmotic fragility, turbulence shock, in-vivo drug and hemoglobin efflux, and magnetic responsiveness. No appreciable detrimental effect on cell morphology, osmotic fragility, and turbulence shock in comparison to normal cells was noted. However, drug and magnetite showed little detrimental effect on cells. Drug release from these systems followed approximately zero-order kinetics. Re drug- and magnetite-loaded cells effectively responded to an external magnetic field of 8.0 ± 1.0 K.Oe. The in-vivo studies showed that an erythrocyte-based delivery system has potential to increase drug concentration many fold at the target site under influence of an external magnetic field. The drug-loaded erythrocytes appeared to be promising carriers of isoniazid to infected organ/tissue.