Search

Transdermal drug delivery (TDD) has significantly advanced medical practice in recent years due to its ability to prevent the degradation of substances in the gastrointestinal tract and avoid hepatic metabolism. Among different available approaches, microneedle arrays (MNAs) technology represents a fascinating delivery tool for enhancing TDD by penetrating the stratum corneum painless and minimally invasive for delivering antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral medications. Polymeric MNAs are extensively utilized among many available materials due to their biodegradability, biocompatibility, and low toxicity. Therefore, this review provides a comprehensive discussion of polymeric MNAs, starting with understanding stratum corneum and developing MNA technology. Furthermore, the engineering concepts, fundamental considerations, challenges, and future perspectives of polymeric MNAs in clinical applications are properly outlined, offering a comprehensive and unique overview of polymeric MNAs and their potential for a broad spectrum of clinical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural-derived wound dressing products with on-demand antibacterial properties have recently captured accentuated attention in the application field of dermal wound treatment. Herein, an affordable approach to the fabrication of electrospun membranes employing polycaprolactone (PCL), Poloxamer 407 (POX), and Calophyllum inophyllum oil (CIO) for antibacterial dressings is demonstrated. Briefly, the influence of POX and CIO concentration on the obtained membranes is evaluated to determine the optimal parameters for dressing applications. The surface morphology, chemical compositions, surface wettability, moisture permeability, mechanical properties, and antibacterial activity of the obtained membranes are evaluated. The results show that the PCL_POX_CIO membranes exhibit the enlargement of fiber diameter, indicating a causal correlation between the PCL and CIO concentration. In addition, POX concentration is discovered to have a positive impact on water absorption capacity with recorded WCA of 0°, however, reduces mechanical strength due to bead formations. Specifically, when the CIO content reached 15 v/v%, the recorded inhibition zone was measured to be 15.7 ± 1.34 (mm). Furthermore, our study underscores the significant antibacterial activity of CIO in agar-diffusion tests against Staphylococcus aureus strains. Despite several limitations, the successful fabrication of the PCL_POX_CIO membranes open an economically sustainable approach for the scalable fabrication of antibacterial wound dressing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hemorrhagic shock is the leading cause of preventable deaths in traumatic accidents, emphasizing the significance of hemostasis-promoting materials and their incorporation into a pre-hospital medical response system. Bacterial cellulose has drawn much attention in tissue engineering due to its versatility and biocompatibility. In this study, a hemostatic dressing was composed of bacterial cellulose (BC) and chitosan oligosaccharide (COS), which is a well-known biological agent. The influence of chitosan oligosaccharide on the morphology, chemical, and physical properties of the fabricated cellulose membranes was evaluated. Additionally, the hemostatic performance of BC-COS membranes was investigated through in vitro and in vivo experiments. The results show that the addition of COS led to a lower mechanical strength while increasing the hemostatic properties of the BC membrane. The BC membrane modified with 2 w/v% COS solution (BC-COS2) demonstrated excellent hemostasis promotion through whole blood assays and mice hemorrhage model. The blood clotting index and blood clotting time of the BC-COS2 sample reached 86.25% and 190 s, respectively. Furthermore, in the in vivo experiments, the group treated using BC-COS2 also presented much lower bleeding stop time and blood loss compared to the untreated group. The results reveal the viability of the cellulosic material as a potential hemostatic dressing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the study, we introduced a series of amphiphilic pluronic P123-conjugated heparin (hep-P123) copolymers which were characterized for drug delivery. In regard to the research, various grafted hep-P123 copolymers investigated its potential in the delivery of hydrophobic Cisplatin (Cis) anticancer drugs and its aquated species (CisOH) via hydrophobic interaction and complex formation, respectively. Hep-P123 was obtained via conjugation of the partially NPC-activated pluronic P123 (NPC-P123-OH) onto the aminated heparin (hep-DAB). The obtained copolymers were characterized by 1H-NMR and thermal gravimetric analysis. The effect of P123 conjugation degree on size distribution of nanocarriers was evaluated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The results showed that size distribution of hep-P123 nanogels range from 62.2 ± 19.4 nm to 114.5 ± 21.7 nm by TEM and 94.4-182.4 nm by DLS. Complex formation of the CisOH was clarified by FT-IR. Loading efficiency of Cis/CisOH was evaluated by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy that indicated a relation between the conjugated degree of hep-P123 and amount of loaded drugs. In addition, hep-P123 exhibited a higher CisOH binding efficiency via complexation as compared to the loaded Cis by hydrophobic interaction. The CisOH and hep-P123 nanocomplex performed a high activity against NCI-H460 cancer cell growth. The obtained results offered an appropriate selection of the hep-P123 platform for dual drugs delivery of CisOH and other hydrophobic anticancer drugs which could utilize both hydrophobic interaction and complex formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, Simvastatin (SIM) loaded porous poly(lactic- co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microspheres were fabricated using the W/O/W1/W2 double emulsion and solvent evaporation method. The optimal conditions for fabricating porous PLGA microspheres were determined to be 20% distilled water (v/v), 10% PLGA (m/v), and a 4:1 ratio of internal polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to dichloromethane (DCM). The pores size distribution of porous PLGA microspheres was varied from 0.01 to 40 μm, while their particle displayed a bimodal size distribution that had two diameter peaks at around 100 μm and 500 μm. The SIM encapsulation efficacy was found to be very high with a yield near 80% and the porous PLGA microspheres showed the excellent biocompatibility. In addition, the drug release profile was found to be significantly different from a temporal basis. Base on the combined results of this study, SIM loaded PLGA microspheres holds great promise for use in biomedical applications, especially in drug delivery system or tissue regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, an electro-spun co-polymer PLGA/PCL blend was fabricated using various percentages of PLGA in the blend PLGA/PCL solutions. The PLGA/PCL ratios used to fabricate the electrospun fibrous mats were reflected in the FT-IR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) data. Experimental results from the MTT assay showed that the biocompatibility of the electro-spun co-polymer increased at increasing percentages of PLGA. In vitro cells adhesion and proliferation of fibroblast cells on electro-spun mats were characterized by SEM morphology. In addition, we found that increasing PLGA concentrations affected the mechanical properties of electro-spun membranes and increased the biocompatibility of PLGA/PCL electro-spun fibrous mats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dendrimers were well-known as a polymeric nanoparticle drug carrier system. Among them, polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers were firstly and systematically studied. Herein, to explore the additional modification of PAMAM for drug deliver application, this study assessed the PEGylated half-generation G3.5 to load oxaliplatin (OXA). The proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectroscopy were used to confirm the successful synthesis of G3.5, and PEGylated G3.5. PEG modification on G3.5 neutralized the negative charge of G3.5 that was confirmed by zeta potential measurement, and increased the dimension of G3.5 from 10 to 100 nm that was carried out by TEM technique. G3.5-PEG showed the high drug loading efficiency of 75.69%. The release kinetic of OXA from G3.5-PEG@OXA indicated that no burst released phenomenon occurred (11.95% within first hour) and sustainable release was achieved. In cytotoxicity test with normal cells of L929 fibroblasts, the carrier system of G3.5-PEG did not induced any cytotoxicity. To test the killing effect of G3.5-PEG@OXA on cancerous cells of human cervical cancer cells (HeLa), lung adenocarcinoma (A549), and breast cancer (MCF-7), resazurin test and live/dead staining assay was used to observe the alive cells. The increase of OXA amount in G3.5-PEG@OXA lead to decrease the cell viability from 79.90–56.97% (HeLa), 84.80–64.00% (A549), and 92.00–65.00% (MCF-7) after 48 h treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fourth generation (G4) of poly(amidoamine) dendrimer was PEGylated and then physically incorporated with carboplatin to develop the new drug delivery carrier. The proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were utilized to confirm the successful synthesis and incorporation. The PEGylation leads to increase the particle dimension of G4 dendrimer to 4.04 to 30.67 nm that was still in the effective range for killing cancerous cells. The cytotoxicity on L929 fibroblasts demonstrated that the PEGylation of G4 could eliminate the toxic caused by amine surrounding groups of G4. Three cancerous cells including the cervical cancer cell line (HeLa), the adenocarcinomic human alveolar basal epithelial cells (A549), and the human breast cancer cell line (MCF7) were treated with G4-PEG@CAR as a function of CAR concentrations. The results of resazurin test and live/dead assay indicated that the killing effect of G4-PEG@CAR on three representative cells were achieved and increased following the enhancement of CAR concentration. Furthermore, the better effectiveness of G4-PEG@CAR was achieved on Hela. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]