Janusziewicz Rima, Mecham Sue J, Olson Kevin R, Benhabbour S Rahima
Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Institute for Nanomedicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Adv Mater Technol. 2020 Aug;5(8). doi: 10.1002/admt.202000261. Epub 2020 Jun 23.
Intravaginal rings (IVRs) represent a sustained-release approach to drug delivery and have long been used and investigated for hormones and microbicides delivery. For decades, IVRs have been manufactured by injection molding and hot-melt extrusion with very limited design and material capabilities. Additive manufacturing (AM), specifically digital light synthesis (DLS), represents an opportunity to harness the freedom of design to expand control and tunability of drug release properties from IVRs. We report a novel approach to IVR design and manufacturing that results in geometrically complex internal architectures through the incorporation of distinct unit cells using computationally-aided design (CAD) software. We developed a systematic approach to design through the generation of an IVR library and investigated the effects of these parameters on ring properties. We demonstrate the ability to precisely and predictably control the compressive properties of the IVR independent of the internal architecture with which control of drug release kinetics can be achieved, thus opening the door for a 'plug-and-play' platform approach to IVR fabrication.
阴道内给药环（IVR）是一种药物缓释给药方式，长期以来一直用于激素和杀菌剂的递送研究。几十年来，IVR一直通过注塑成型和热熔挤出制造，设计和材料能力非常有限。增材制造（AM），特别是数字光合成（DLS），为利用设计自由度来扩展IVR药物释放特性的控制和可调性提供了机会。我们报告了一种IVR设计和制造的新方法 通过使用计算机辅助设计（CAD）软件合并不同的单元细胞，从而得到几何形状复杂的内部结构。我们通过生成IVR库开发了一种系统的设计方法，并研究了这些参数对环特性的影响。我们展示了精确且可预测地控制IVR压缩特性的能力，而与内部结构无关，通过这种结构可以实现药物释放动力学的控制，从而为IVR制造的“即插即用”平台方法打开了大门。
