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Advanced Materials and Technologies for Modified Drug Release Systems

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomedical Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 August 2023) | Viewed by 2430

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
Interests: drug delivery; drug/cyclodextrin inclusion complexes; polymeric nanoparticles; cancer diseases; antimicrobial drugs; Alzheimer’s disease
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Modified-release biomedical formulations are designed to control the pattern of drug pharmacokinetics by optimizing its release rate, thus ensuring and maintaining an active concentration in the bloodstream and/or at the target sites. Such engineered dosage forms can enhance drug stability and water solubility and improve drugs’ biopharmaceutical properties, such as adsorption and permeability, which are common drawbacks for the pharmaceutical industry. This can lead to overall improvement of therapeutic efficacy and possibly attenuation of toxic effects. Reduced dosing frequency is often a collateral relevant benefit to patients and production costs of these formulations.

The main mechanisms to control drug release embrace dispersion in inorganic, polymeric or lipid matrices, coated reservoir systems, complexation, and inclusion into macromolecular carriers. Multi-particulate, micro-tablets, and pelleted dosage forms, in which single elements are coated to acquire peculiar release profiles, are also available on the market. Prolongation of gastric delivery or slowing of gastrointestinal transit can be achieved by planning floating tablets or muco-adhesive devices, or gastro-protected solid formulations.

A delay or an acceleration of drug release can also be of paramount importance for other sites, including cutaneous, ocular, nasal, and other mucosal routes of administration, such as implants, in situ forming gels, or micro- and nanostructured carriers. Additionally, ensuring a systemic pharmacologically effective drug concentration for a prolonged period of time after injections is often required to improve patients’ compliance and therapeutic performance.

Finally, it should be noted that novel modified-release dosage forms have attracted renewed interest and can enhance the clinical value of ‘old’ drugs, whose inappropriate physicochemical properties or stability or pharmacokinetic problems limit their clinical effectiveness. Drug repositioning can also be achieved through these strategies.

This Special Issue of Applied Sciences on “Advanced Materials and Technologies for Modified Drug Release Systems” wishes to embrace the multidisciplinary field of innovative drug release and targeting formulations, to present more recent advances in their design, physicochemical and technological characterization—with particular focus on stability issues— and in vitro/ex vivo/in vivo biological assessment. Colleagues are invited to contribute original research, communications and highly focused review papers concerning new (bio)materials, approaches, and production technologies aimed at preparing modified drug release systems for the pharmaceutical, biotechnological, and biomedical fields, regarding both ‘conventional’ routes of administration and innovative therapeutic strategies.

Prof. Dr. Rosario Pignatello
Prof. Dr. Cinzia Anna Ventura
Guest Editors

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

35 pages, 9400 KiB  
Review
Colon Delivery of Nutraceutical Ingredients by Food-Grade Polymeric Systems: An Overview of Technological Characterization and Biological Evaluation
by Salvatore Rizzo, Elide Zingale, Alessia Romeo, Rosamaria Lombardo and Rosario Pignatello
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(9), 5443; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13095443 - 27 Apr 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2131
Abstract
The development of food-grade carriers based on EFSA and/or FDA-approved polymeric materials is an area of growing interest for the targeted delivery of bioactive compounds to the colon. Many nutraceuticals have shown promise in the local treatment of conditions that threaten quality of [...] Read more.
The development of food-grade carriers based on EFSA and/or FDA-approved polymeric materials is an area of growing interest for the targeted delivery of bioactive compounds to the colon. Many nutraceuticals have shown promise in the local treatment of conditions that threaten quality of life, such as ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, colorectal cancer, dysbiosis and other problems affecting the gut and colon. Nevertheless, their bioavailability is often limited due to poor solubility, rapid metabolism and low permeability, as well as undesirable local side effects. Encapsulation in carriers, which can protect the active ingredient from degradation and improve absorption and targeted administration in the colon, is one way to overcome these limitations. The technological characterization of these systems is important to assess their efficacy, safety and stability. In particular, morphology, size and surface properties influence their actions and interaction with the bio-phase. Meanwhile, encapsulation efficiency, profile and in vitro release kinetics are key parameters to assess the ability to reach the target site. This paper proposes a recent review of food-grade polymer-based systems for colorectal targeting of bioactive substances, focusing on their technological characterization and assessment of stability and biological activity, which are important in determining their full bench-to-bed potential. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Materials and Technologies for Modified Drug Release Systems)
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