Molecularly imprinted bacterial cellulose for sustained-release delivery of quercetin

Bacterial cellulose (BC) has been used in the combination with molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) for controlled-release drug delivery. In the present study, the molecular imprinting was directly performed on BC to avoid the use of synthetic materials for sustained-release of quercetin, which was used as the template molecule. The phase inversion method was successfully used to prepare molecularly imprinted BC (MI-BC). The molecular recognition ability and controlled drug release behavior of MI-BC were then evaluated. MI-BC was found to have approximately 1.6 times higher ability to bind quercetin than the non-imprinted BC (NI-BC) did. The composite membrane containing MI-BC and quercetin (MI-BC-com) delayed and sustained drug release more effectively than the composite membrane containing NI-BC and quercetin (NI-BC-com). MI-BC-com released quercetin approximately two times more slowly than NI-BC-com did at the final hour of the drug release study. The mechanism of quercetin release followed the Higuchi model. Due to the relatively simple method of preparing the drug delivery system without using synthetic MIP, the application of MI-BC may be of great interest in medicine and pharmaceutics.