Li Boxuan, Wang Juan, Gui Qin, Yang Hu
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Biomedical Materials, Key Laboratory of Biomaterials and Nanotechnology for Cancer Immunotherapy, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin, 300192, China.
Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, 23219, United States.
Bioact Mater. 2020 May 4;5(3):577-583. doi: 10.1016/j.bioactmat.2020.04.013. eCollection 2020 Sep.
Chitosan is a nature-based polymer with low toxicity, excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability. However, the intractable solubility of chitosan in water and most conventional solvents hampers its biomedical applications. Following the dissolution method for dissolving chitosan in plain water developed by us, chitosan was dissolved in ionic liquid followed by overnight freezing at -20 °C and subsequent solvent exchange with plain water at room temperature. In this study, we fabricated a drug-carrying chitosan film via solution casting and air-drying by using the plain water-based chitosan solution. Specifically, brimonidine tartrate (BT), an antiglaucoma drug, was dissolved in the plain-water based solution and used to prepare BT-loaded chitosan film, i.e., chitosan-BT film. The resulting film is transparent, structurally stable, and mucoadhesive. Micro-sized antiglaucoma BT drug crystals form and are well dispersed in the chitosan film. The chitosan-BT film enables BT to have a high corneal permeability with fast drug release kinetics for potential ocular drug delivery.
壳聚糖是一种基于天然的聚合物，具有低毒性、优异的生物相容性和生物降解性。然而，壳聚糖在水和大多数传统溶剂中难以溶解，这阻碍了其生物医学应用。按照我们开发的将壳聚糖溶解在纯水中的溶解方法，将壳聚糖溶解在离子液体中，然后在-20°C下冷冻过夜，随后在室温下与纯水进行溶剂交换。在本研究中，我们通过溶液浇铸和空气干燥，使用基于纯水的壳聚糖溶液制备了载药壳聚糖膜。具体而言，将抗青光眼药物酒石酸溴莫尼定（BT）溶解在基于纯水的溶液中，并用于制备载有BT的壳聚糖膜，即壳聚糖-BT膜。所得薄膜是透明的、结构稳定的且具有粘膜粘附性。微米级抗青光眼BT药物晶体形成并很好地分散在壳聚糖膜中。壳聚糖-BT膜使BT具有高角膜渗透性，并具有快速的药物释放动力学，可用于潜在的眼部药物递送。
