A mussel-inspired film for adhesion to wet buccal tissue and efficient buccal drug delivery

• Published in: Nature communications 2021-03, Vol.12 (1), p.1689-17, Article 1689
• Main Authors: Hu, Shanshan, Pei, Xibo, Duan, Lunliang, Zhu, Zhou, Liu, Yanhua, Chen, Junyu, Chen, Tao, Ji, Ping, Wan, Qianbing, Wang, Jian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 13/1; 13/51; 14/19; 14/34; 14/63; 140/131; 147/135; 147/143; 147/3; 631/61/54/989; 631/61/54/990; 639/925/352/152; 64/86; 82/16; Adhesion; Adhesive strength; Adhesiveness; Administration, Buccal; Animals; Bioavailability; Biomimetics; Bivalvia - chemistry; Cell Line; Dexamethasone - pharmacology; Dihydroxyphenylalanine - chemistry; Drug delivery; Drug Delivery Systems; Drug development; Drug Liberation; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Indoles - toxicity; Male; Mollusks; Mouth Mucosa - physiology; Mucins - chemistry; Mucosa; Mucositis; Mucus; Mucus - chemistry; multidisciplinary; Nanoparticles; Nanoparticles - chemistry; Nanoparticles - ultrastructure; Particle Size; Polylactic Acid-Polyglycolic Acid Copolymer - chemistry; Polylactic Acid-Polyglycolic Acid Copolymer - toxicity; Polymers - toxicity; Polyvinyl Alcohol - chemistry; Polyvinyl Alcohol - toxicity; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; Swine; Tissue Distribution; Tissues; Wound healing
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21989-5

Administration of drugs via the buccal route has attracted much attention in recent years. However, developing systems with satisfactory adhesion under wet conditions and adequate drug bioavailability still remains a challenge. Here, we propose a mussel-inspired mucoadhesive film. Ex vivo models show that this film can achieve strong adhesion to wet buccal tissues (up to 38.72 ± 10.94 kPa). We also demonstrate that the adhesion mechanism of this film relies on both physical association and covalent bonding between the film and mucus. Additionally, the film with incorporated polydopamine nanoparticles shows superior advantages for transport across the mucosal barrier, with improved drug bioavailability (~3.5-fold greater than observed with oral delivery) and therapeutic efficacy in oral mucositis models (~6.0-fold improvement in wound closure at day 5 compared with that observed with no treatment). We anticipate that this platform might aid the development of tissue adhesives and inspire the design of nanoparticle-based buccal delivery systems. Minimally invasive drug delivery is of wide interest and oral tissue is an attractive target for this. Here, the authors report on the creation of mussel-inspired films for retention on the wet oral tissue for the delivery of drugs by diffusion and transport though the mucosal tissue.