The hydrogel will deliver the medicine to the target
Hydrogel for drug delivery
ChemPort.Ru based on Chemistry World: Hydrogel with a basic instinct for drug deliveryFor use in the field of targeted drug delivery, a self-organizing hydrogel containing nanofibers capable of specific capture and release of anti-inflammatory drugs has been created.
So, naproxen leaves the gel only when it is placed in an alkaline environment – this circumstance can find application in order to minimize the undesirable side effects of this drug.
The new system consists of only two components.
The role of painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs, such as naproxen and ibuprofen, is difficult to underestimate in the treatment of many diseases and injuries. However, even these pharmaceutical market veterans can cause stomach ulcers and have other side effects on the digestive system. Most often, side effects begin to manifest themselves with prolonged use of these medications, for example, with prolonged treatment of arthritis with naproxen.
One of the ways to prevent the development of such side effects is the encapsulation of the drug, which allows to limit its availability in certain organs of the human body and release it in others whose treatment is necessary.
The hydrogel, developed in the group of David Smith from the University of York, can become the basis for pharmaceutical compositions that release an anti-inflammatory drug (naproxen) in a slightly alkaline environment, which is characteristic of the small intestine.
The drug does not inhibit the formation of gel.
As Smith notes, it is possible to obtain a new system using an exceptionally simple procedure – a medicinal substance and a gel-forming agent are mixed in water, the solution is subjected to ultrasound treatment, heated and cooled, after which a gel is formed. The researcher adds that the nanoscale structuring of gel fibers allows them to organize into a system with a large surface area that can interact with a large amount of a drug-active substance, which is undoubtedly useful for the prospects of application in medicine.
In this type of gel, drugs can be included in accordance with two strategies – physical encapsulation and covalent binding. In this case, it is the physical interaction of naproxen with the gel-forming agent that allows the molecules to leave the gel during their deprotonation, which weakens the specific intermolecular interactions of the anti-inflammatory drug with the gel-forming agent. The mechanism of drug release is quite simple and does not include any chemical changes of the pharmacologically active drug, which is also valuable for pharmacists.
Currently, researchers from the Smith group plan to increase the stability of the new gel at low pH values, suggesting the introduction of a second encapsulating layer, which will ensure the stability of the hydrogel in the acidic environment of gastric juice.
Article by Howe et al. Self-assembled sorbitol-derived supramolecular hydrogels for the controlled encapsulation and release of active pharmaceutical ingredients is published in the journal Chemical Communications – VM.
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