Li Xiaosi, Li Qi, Zhao Chao
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487, United States.
ACS Omega. 2021 May 19;6(21):13774-13778. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.1c01141. eCollection 2021 Jun 1.
Zero-order drug release that releases drugs at a constant rate is beneficial to prolong the therapeutic effect and avoid the side effects of drugs. However, due to the weak interaction between the drug and the carrier, it is particularly challenging to achieve zero-order release of water-soluble drugs. Inspired by the marker pen, which stores the water-based ink in the sponge core and releases a constant amount of ink from the tip for writing, we explore the marker pen as a drug delivery platform to achieve zero-order release of water-soluble drugs. Through the capillary interaction between the material and water, the pen core can absorb the aqueous drug solution to encapsulate and store the water-soluble drug model sodium fluorescein (SF) and can release the encapsulated SF by moving the pen tip across the surface. The results show that the marker pen can release a constant amount of SF at the nanogram level per unit length of the line drawn with the pen, and the cumulative SF release amount has a linear relationship with the length of the line. In addition, the amount of released SF is linear with respect to the SF concentration in the aqueous solution. Moreover, the SF-filled marker pen has excellent long-term stability as evidenced by that the amount of SF released from the pen remains constant within two weeks after filling.
以恒定速率释放药物的零级药物释放有利于延长治疗效果并避免药物的副作用。然而，由于药物与载体之间的相互作用较弱，实现水溶性药物的零级释放极具挑战性。受马克笔的启发，马克笔将水性墨水储存在海绵芯中，并从笔尖释放恒定数量的墨水用于书写，我们探索将马克笔作为一种药物递送平台来实现水溶性药物的零级释放。通过材料与水之间的毛细作用，笔芯可以吸收水性药物溶液以封装和储存水溶性药物模型荧光素钠（SF），并且可以通过将笔尖在表面移动来释放封装的SF。结果表明，马克笔在每单位长度的笔绘制线条上能够以纳克水平释放恒定数量的SF，并且累积SF释放量与线条长度呈线性关系。此外，释放的SF量与水溶液中SF的浓度呈线性关系。而且，填充有SF的马克笔具有出色的长期稳定性，这体现在填充后两周内笔释放的SF量保持恒定。
