Abstract
Gels are extensively studied in the drug delivery field because of their potential benefits in therapeutics. Depot gel systems fall in this area, and the interest in their development has been focused on long-lasting, biocompatible, and resorbable delivery devices. The present work describes a new class of hybrid gels that stem from the interaction between liposomes based on P90G phospholipid and the cholesterol derivative of the polysaccharide gellan. The mechanical properties of these gels and the delivery profiles of the anti-inflammatory model drug diclofenac embedded in such systems confirmed the suitability of these hybrid gels as a good candidate for drug depot applications.
Highlights
Over the past few decades, liposomes have been extensively studied for drug delivery applications, thanks to their unique properties, such as biocompatibility, low immunogenicity, low toxicity, and high versatility [1,2]
The resulting network based on liposomes and polymer chains can be referred to as a hydrogel system, which, due to its complex structure, can be defined as “hybrid gel”
Because of its soft nature and the possibility of preparing liposomes and GeCH suspensions separately, these hybrid gels can be exploited in the biomedical field for in situ gel depot applications
Summary
Over the past few decades, liposomes have been extensively studied for drug delivery applications, thanks to their unique properties, such as biocompatibility, low immunogenicity, low toxicity, and high versatility [1,2]. Many different approaches have been used to overcome these limits; for instance, the coating of liposomes with hydrophilic and flexible polymers able to form soft coronae tenuously adsorbed or anchored on the lipid membrane should improve their half-life in blood circulation, simultaneously modulating the drug release and the efficacy of the nano-carrier [5,6] In this respect, Tabbakhian et al [7] evidenced the stronger interaction of hydrophobically-modified polymers (e.g., cholesterol-modified mannan) with the liposome bilayers with respect to that of the native polysaccharide, forming a coating that did not hamper the delivery ability of vesicles but rather flowed with them, improving their performances
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