title: Circulating carrier erythrocytes: slow-release vehicle for an antileukemic drug, cytosine arabinoside.
abstract: The human anti-cancer drug Cytosine arabinoside (ana-C) was encapsulated in canine erythrocytes. When these autologous carrier cells were injected into dogs, the drug was slowly released into plasma. Erythrocyte encapsulation increased the plasma half-life of ara-C in dogs about 50-fold over that of the injected free drug. The whole blood half-life of encapsulated drug was 4.6 days and the elimination constant was 0.150 day-1. Erythrocyte encapsulation holds promise as a drug-delivering technique for treatment of some human and animal diseases, particularly with drugs that are highly toxic or have normally short biological half-life. It also could be used to sustain given concentrations of drugs.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003561:Cytarabine / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000097:blood; D003692:Delayed-Action Preparations; D004285:Dogs / Q000097:blood*; D004912:Erythrocytes; D006207:Half-Life
chemical_list: D003692:Delayed-Action Preparations; D003561:Cytarabine