Mechanisms of a phosphorothioate oligonucleotide delivery by skin electroporation

Skin electroporation has great potential for topical delivery of oligonucleotides. Controlled therapeutic levels of an intact phosphorothioate oligonucleotide (PS) can be reached in the viable tissue of the skin. The aim of this work was to investigate the transport mechanisms of a PS in hairless rat skin by electroporation, and hence to allow optimization of oligonucleotides (ONs) topical delivery. The pulsing condition used was five exponentially-decaying pulses of 100 V and 500 ms pulse time. The main mechanism of PS transport in the skin viable tissues during pulsing was electrophoresis. The electroosmosis contribution was negligible. Electrophoresis created within minutes a reservoir of PS in the skin viable tissues, which persisted within a therapeutic range for hours. A strong PS/stratum corneum interaction occured. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.