Musoadhesive Drug Delivery Systems

Shlomit Avidan-Shlomovich, Technion, Haifa, Israel
Yarden Shtenberg, Technion, Israel
Assit. Prof. Maya Davidovich-Pinhas, Technion, Israel
Prof. Havazelet Bianco-Peled, Technion, Israel

Transmucosal drug delivery involves transport of therapeutic agents through the mucosa, a moist gel layer lining organs which are exposed to the outer surface of the body yet are not covered with skin. This non-invasive method of delivery offers several potential benefits such as rapid uptake and enhanced bioavailability of the drug. Mucoadhesive polymers, materials capable of attaching to mucusal surfaces, provide prolong residence time of drugs at the site of application hence improve drug absorbance and efficacy.

We developed a new class of mucoadhesive polymers carrying unsaturated end group such as acrylates. These polymers are capable of covalently associating with mucous thus offer enhanced adhesion. We demonstrated this approach by grafting acrylated polyethylene glycol to alginate and chitosan. We verified the resulting product using NMR and its non-toxicity was confirmed.  A significant increase in adhesion strength of modified polymers compare to both non-modified polymers and thiolated ones was demonstrated using several methods. The ability to sustain release of a model drugs was illustrated in-vitro.

 Acrylated polymers can open the way for the development of multifunctional biomaterials for a variety of biotechnological and biomedical applications