The Role of Laser In Delivery Of Topical Methotrexate For Treatment of Localized psoriasis / Maha Rafie Hassan AbuEittah ; Supervised Nadia Saleh , Manal Salah_ElDin , Maha Fadel

Thesis (PH.D.) - Cairo University - National Institute Of Laser Enhanced Sciences - Department Of Laser Application In Medical and Biological

Psoriasis is disease of skin that is characterized by chronic relapsing nature and variable clinical features , it affects 2 - 3 inhundred of the northern hemisphereTreatment of psoriasis is passed on symptomatic therapy that is able to induce remission of the disease , no therapy is yet able to induce permanentThe mechanism of action of methotrexate is base on its behavior as a competitive inhibitor of dihydrofolate reductase , which is essential for the reduction of dihydrofolate to tetrahydrofolateThus , by blocking thymidylic acid synthesis methotrexate blocks DNA but not RNA synthesis and thus inhibit cellular replicationThe drug is cell - cycle specific and active in the , S , phase of cycleIn this work , methotrexate was not used in the free state but as gel - liposomal encapsulated methotrexate (Gel - LMTX) The gel liposomal methotrexate , LMTXwas subjected to laser irradiations of enegies 30 , 60 , and 80 joules to increase the rate of release of the drugThe stability of the deug was investigated by measuring Fourier transform Infrared (FTIR) spectra and that of liposomes by thermal analysis (DSC) Liposomal methotrexate has been formulated in a gel formulation , a technique developed in this work , to facilitate the drug penetration into the skin In this work a new strategy has been developed for the use of MTX as a treatment for psoriasis , the LMTX in gel formulation is used as a topical treatmentThis new strategy has led to the exclusion of almost all the side effect of the use of MTXTo start with , gel - methotrexatae was applied to albino miceClinical and pathological investigation indicated clearly that drug did penetrate into the skin

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