Abstract
With the fast development of terahertz technology in medical diagnosis and monitoring, it has become important to investigate the application of THz radiation in the cancer treatment assessment during the therapy. In this paper, a buccal drug delivery system is studied as the first step towards this application. The drug delivery system is based on a gelatin-starch biopolymer matrix filled with plasticizing glycerol and various contents of reinforcing particles of bentonite clay. The biopolymers were subjected to morphology analysis using optical microscopy, analysis of mechanical tensile properties, and analysis of terahertz optical properties, followed by a theoretical approach of the experiment. The results show a visible effect of the bentonite content on both of the mechanical and terahertz optical properties of the biopolymer. These findings allow us to confirm the feasibility of using THz radiation for cancer assessment during therapies. The proposed biopolymer also has the potential to be applied as a substrate when carrying out in-vivo optical property measurement of biotissue in terahertz frequency range.
Highlights
Terahertz (THz) radiation is attracting scientists’ attention around the world because it has been considered as an efficient non-destructive and nonionizing optical method for biological object investigation
The results indicate that the influence of bentonite content on the THz optical properties of biopolymers thicker than 186 μm happens with the biopolymer thinner than 186 μm
We obtained a solid-state biopolymer material based on gelatin-starch biopolymer matrix filled with plasticizing glycerol and various loadings of reinforcing bentonite clay particles
Summary
Terahertz (THz) radiation is attracting scientists’ attention around the world because it has been considered as an efficient non-destructive and nonionizing optical method for biological object investigation. Wound assessment of skin burn using THz radiation was investigated [5]. The THz optical properties of oral tissue and its cancerous form have been measured and potential diagnosis method using THz radiation was given [6]. The following potential research topic is to investigate the application of THz radiation in the cancer treatment assessment during the therapy. Applying drug delivery system made by biocompatible/biodegradable polymers (biopolymers) on the surface of cancerous area is a standard treatment protocol of oral and skin cancers [8, 9]. No comprehensive investigation of drug delivery system in the THz frequency range has been done. Its THz optical properties, i.e. the THz waves propagation inside of drug delivery systems, are still unknown
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