Debnath Suman, Paz Cristina, Scofield Dimitri, Rogus-Pulia Nicole, Kimple Randall J, Malandraki Georgia A, Boudouris Bryan W
Charles D. Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 USA.
Department of Human Oncology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706 USA.
ACS Appl Polym Mater. 2025 Jul 17. doi: 10.1021/acsapm.5c00881.
Dry mouth (xerostomia) often leads to difficulties in swallowing, speaking, and maintaining good oral hygiene. Present therapeutic interventions for xerostomia yield temporary symptom alleviation or are invasive. In this study, we employ the biocompatible polymer, poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA), to create a PHEMA-based saliva-gel to regulate the release of artificial saliva and emulate the properties of natural salivary secretion as a non-invasive dry mouth treatment mechanism. The saliva-gel exhibited a swelling capacity of approximately 400% of its original volume within 6 h. The high swelling capacity of the saliva-gel allows it to absorb and retain a significant amount of saliva, effectively increasing the amount of oral saliva and potentially providing sustained relief from dryness. The optimized saliva-gel exhibited a release rate of nearly all its stored artificial saliva within 4 h at body temperature and exhibited a 97% efficiency in its release properties, which remained consistent through five continuous cycles. It also demonstrated reusable absorbance properties for these five cycles. The release rate of the saliva-gel, aligns with the goal of providing timely relief for dry mouth symptoms. These findings collectively suggest that the study successfully demonstrates the potential of these materials for the treatment of xerostomia.
口干（口腔干燥症）常常导致吞咽、说话困难，以及难以保持良好的口腔卫生。目前针对口腔干燥症的治疗干预措施只能暂时缓解症状，或者具有侵入性。在本研究中，我们使用生物相容性聚合物聚甲基丙烯酸羟乙酯（PHEMA）制备了一种基于PHEMA的唾液凝胶，以调节人工唾液的释放，并模拟天然唾液分泌的特性，作为一种非侵入性的口干治疗机制。该唾液凝胶在6小时内的溶胀能力约为其原始体积的400%。唾液凝胶的高溶胀能力使其能够吸收并保留大量唾液，有效增加口腔内唾液量，并可能持续缓解口干症状。优化后的唾液凝胶在体温下4小时内几乎释放了所有储存的人工唾液，其释放特性的效率为97%，在五个连续循环中保持一致。它在这五个循环中还表现出可重复使用的吸收特性。唾液凝胶的释放速率符合及时缓解口干症状的目标。这些发现共同表明，该研究成功证明了这些材料在治疗口腔干燥症方面的潜力。
