Non-solvent cinnamic acid-based gel patch for transdermal drug delivery.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Biomedical Engineering
• Drug Delivery Systems

Background:

• Polymeric networks are crucial in bio-applications but often require complex solvent-based drug loading.
• Traditional methods face challenges like tedious procedures, intensive chemical design, and solvent loss-induced aging.
• A novel non-solvent gel system is proposed to overcome these limitations for drug loading and transdermal release.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a non-solvent transdermal gel patch for loading cinnamic acid (CA).
• To evaluate the gel patch's efficacy in treating myocardial ischemia (MI) and promoting wound healing.
• To investigate the gel's properties and transdermal drug delivery capabilities.

Main Methods:

• Synthesized the non-solvent transdermal gel patch by melting CA, thioctic acid (TA), and zinc acetate dihydrate.
• Characterized gel properties including chemical architecture, mechanical strength, swelling, rheology, adhesion, and antibacterial activity.
• Assessed biocompatibility in vitro and in vivo, and quantified transdermal CA release using HPLC. Therapeutic effects were validated in MI and wound healing rat models.

Main Results:

• The gel patch exhibited physical and chemical crosslinking, demonstrating ductility, viscoelasticity, and self-healing properties.
• Achieved significant tissue adhesion strength (0.12 MPa) and controlled transdermal CA release (20-40 µg/h).
• Histological analysis confirmed the gel's ability to repair myocardial injury, promote angiogenesis, and inhibit hypertrophy in MI models.

Conclusions:

• This study presents a novel non-solvent gel patch approach for transdermal drug delivery.
• The developed gel system is promising for large-scale production and diverse biomedical applications.
• The findings highlight a new strategy for overcoming challenges in loading and delivering water-insoluble drugs.