title: Injectable thermally responsive mucoadhesive gel for sustained protein delivery.
abstract: Poloxamer thermoresponsive gels are widely explored in controlled drug delivery. Nevertheless, these gels possess inadequate mechanical properties, poor bioadhesiveness, and high permeability to water. To overcome these issues, we blended mucoadhesive hyaluronic acid (HA) with poloxamer analogs. This study aimed to investigate the features affecting the microscopic properties of the gels, which determine their macroscopic properties and capability to control/sustain protein release. Results showed that HA hampers water-poloxamer interactions, thus, strongly influencing physicochemical properties of poloxamer gels. This leads to gels with improved mechanical properties in which the diffusion kinetics of macromolecular active molecules are drastically slowed down. Poloxamer-HA gels can sustain the delivery of proteins, such as insulin, and may allow the modulation of its release kinetics by modifying HA content within the gels in the administration sites in which the active molecule release mechanism is mainly governed by its diffusion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical and Toxicological Chemistry, University of Naples Federico II, Via D. Montesano, 49, 800131 Naples, Italy. laumayol@unina.it.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mayol
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Biondi
authors.forename: Fabiana
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Quaglia
authors.forename: Sabato
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fusco
authors.forename: Assunta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Borzacchiello
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ambrosio
authors.forename: Maria I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: La Rotonda
mesh_terms: D000269:Adhesives / Q000737:chemistry*; D003692:Delayed-Action Preparations / Q000737:chemistry; D005782:Gels; D006801:Humans; D006820:Hyaluronic Acid / Q000737:chemistry*; D007328:Insulin / Q000737:chemistry*; D007700:Kinetics; D010539:Permeability; D020442:Poloxamer / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000269:Adhesives; D003692:Delayed-Action Preparations; D005782:Gels; D007328:Insulin; D020442:Poloxamer; D006820:Hyaluronic Acid