CardiP: A Proof-of-Concept Design of Transdermal Delivery of a Diuretic with Nanoparticles for Congestive Heart Failure

Abstract

Heart Failure (HF) is a medical condition that affects more than 6 million people in the United States with healthcare costs gradually rising with the readmission of each heart failure patient. Therefore, feasible solutions are necessary to tackle this problem affecting a large population. Currently diuretic therapy is common for patients with heart failure to help relieve symptoms, especially in an outpatient setting. Patient compliance, however, is a central issue in terms of administrating medication to HF patient population and thus a transdermal delivery system can provide an advantage in terms of targeted tissue specification and dosage control. A diuretic such as torsemide have shown promise in not only relieving congestive symptoms of HF but also targeting cardiac fibrosis and gap junction protein expression in heart failure patients. Widely used in biomedical applications, chitosan-based nanoparticles offer sustained drug release that can be efficient in transdermal delivery. A transdermal delivery system of a diuretic coupled with chitosan nanoparticles can offer a novel solution for HF patients compared to current HF therapeutics.