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Updated: Dec 24, 2025

Transport Properties of Ibuprofen Encapsulated in Cyclodextrin Nanosponge Hydrogels: A Proton HR-MAS NMR Spectroscopy Study
Published on: August 15, 2016
Viscosity enhanced release (VER) effect in nanoporous drug delivery systems: phenomenon and mechanism
Di-Wei Zheng1, Jiang-Lan Li, Cao Li
1Key Laboratory of Biomedical Polymers of Ministry of Education & Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, P. R. China. xz-zhang@whu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
High viscosity is important for normal intracellular homeostasis. In this study, nanoporous drug delivery systems (DDSs), including mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) and layer by layer (LBL) microcapsules, with a viscosity enhanced release (VER) effect were designed and prepared, and their drug release behaviors in a sticky environment with a high viscosity were investigated using rhodamine B, methylene blue and doxorubicin (DOX) as model drugs. The results showed that the drug release rate from DDSs in a biomimetic high viscosity solution was 7 to 8 times higher than that in water. A semipermeable membrane model was used to explain the VER effect. The results indicate that the existence of macromolecules in the release medium caused a VER effect. The VER effect found in this study will provide a new concept to guide the design of DDSs in a high viscosity environment in vivo.
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