A Sustainable Solution to Skin Diseases: Ecofriendly Transdermal Patches

Bacterial cellulose in transdermal drug delivery systems: Expanding horizons in multi-scale therapeutics and patient-centric approach

This review explores the transformative potential of Bacterial cellulose (BC) in an increasingly vital avenue of transdermal drug delivery systems (TDDS) for multi-scale therapeutic applications with patient-centric approach. In this review, we have not only highlighted the role of BC as the main matrix material for TDDS but emphasized the other possible role that BC can play in TDDS. For this purpose, we have delved into the avenues of the physico-chemical interactions that BC can offer in governing the incorporation of different length-scales of therapeutics as well as tuning their extent of loading. Furthermore, this review underscores BC's potential in developing need-specific drug release profiles and stimuli-responsive release platforms, enabling their application in TDDS for wound healing, pain management, and targeted delivery for chronic diseases. Apart from the existing literature, this review focuses on patient comfort, which is an often-overlooked aspect, and highlights how BC's unique physicochemical properties enhance user experience. Additionally, this review justifies the potential of BC in compliance with the other parameters of the TDDS, including shelf-life, design requirements, and evaluation strategies in ensuring their clinical translation and user acceptance. To harness BC's potential in the new era of personalized TDDS, this review also sheds light on the challenges of standardizing BC production processes with appropriate data disclosure, ensuring adhesion and anti-microbial actions, along with the integration of passive and active technologies.

Keratinous and corneous-based products towards circular bioeconomy: A research review

Keratins and corneous proteins are key components of biomaterials used in a wide range of applications and are potential substitutes for petrochemical-based products. Horns, hooves, feathers, claws, and similar animal tissues are abundant sources of α-keratin and corneous β-proteins, which are by-products of the food industry. Their close association with the meat industry raises environmental and ethical concerns regarding their disposal. To promote an eco-friendly and circular use of these materials in novel applications, efforts have focused on recovering these residues to develop sustainable, non-animal-related, affordable, and scalable procedures. Here, we review and examine biotechnological methods for extracting and expressing α-keratins and corneous β-proteins in microorganisms. This review highlights consolidated research trends in biomaterials, medical devices, food supplements, and packaging, demonstrating the keratin industry's potential to create innovative value-added products. Additionally, it analyzes the state of the art of related intellectual property and market size to underscore the potential within a circular bioeconomic model.

Soft and Flexible Bioelectronic Micro-Systems for Electronically Controlled Drug Delivery

The concept of targeted and controlled drug delivery, which directs treatment to precise anatomical sites, offers benefits such as fewer side effects, reduced toxicity, optimized dosages, and quicker responses. However, challenges remain to engineer dependable systems and materials that can modulate host tissue interactions and overcome biological barriers. To stay aligned with advancements in healthcare and precision medicine, novel approaches and materials are imperative to improve effectiveness, biocompatibility, and tissue compliance. Electronically controlled drug delivery (ECDD) has recently emerged as a promising approach to calibrated drug delivery with spatial and temporal precision. This article covers recent breakthroughs in soft, flexible, and adaptable bioelectronic micro-systems designed for ECDD. It overviews the most widely reported operational modes, materials engineering strategies, electronic interfaces, and characterization techniques associated with ECDD systems. Further, it delves into the pivotal applications of ECDD in wearable, ingestible, and implantable medical devices. Finally, the discourse extends to future prospects and challenges for ECDD.

Advancing 3D printed microfluidics with computational methods for sweat analysis

The intricate tapestry of biomarkers, including proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, vesicles, and nucleic acids within sweat, exhibits a profound correlation with the ones in the bloodstream. The facile extraction of samples from sweat glands has recently positioned sweat sampling at the forefront of non-invasive health monitoring and diagnostics. While extant platforms for sweat analysis exist, the imperative for portability, cost-effectiveness, ease of manufacture, and expeditious turnaround underscores the necessity for parameters that transcend conventional considerations. In this regard, 3D printed microfluidic devices emerge as promising systems, offering a harmonious fusion of attributes such as multifunctional integration, flexibility, biocompatibility, a controlled closed environment, and a minimal requisite analyte volume-features that leverage their prominence in the realm of sweat analysis. However, formidable challenges, including high throughput demands, chemical interactions intrinsic to the printing materials, size constraints, and durability concerns, beset the landscape of 3D printed microfluidic devices. Within this paradigm, we expound upon the foundational aspects of 3D printed microfluidic devices and proffer a distinctive perspective by delving into the computational study of printing materials utilizing density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics (MD) methodologies. This multifaceted approach serves manifold purposes: (i) understanding the complexity of microfluidic systems, (ii) facilitating comprehensive analyses, (iii) saving both cost and time, (iv) improving design optimization, and (v) augmenting resolution. In a nutshell, the allure of 3D printing lies in its capacity for affordable and expeditious production, offering seamless integration of diverse components into microfluidic devices-a testament to their inherent utility in the domain of sweat analysis. The synergistic fusion of computational assessment methodologies with materials science not only optimizes analysis and production processes, but also expedites their widespread accessibility, ensuring continuous biomarker monitoring from sweat for end-users.

Metallic elements combine with herbal compounds upload in microneedles to promote wound healing: a review

Wound healing is a dynamic and complex restorative process, and traditional dressings reduce their therapeutic effectiveness due to the accumulation of drugs in the cuticle. As a novel drug delivery system, microneedles (MNs) can overcome the defect and deliver drugs to the deeper layers of the skin. As the core of the microneedle system, loaded drugs exert a significant influence on the therapeutic efficacy of MNs. Metallic elements and herbal compounds have been widely used in wound treatment for their ability to accelerate the healing process. Metallic elements primarily serve as antimicrobial agents and facilitate the enhancement of cell proliferation. Whereas various herbal compounds act on different targets in the inflammatory, proliferative, and remodeling phases of wound healing. The interaction between the two drugs forms nanoparticles (NPs) and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), reducing the toxicity of the metallic elements and increasing the therapeutic effect. This article summarizes recent trends in the development of MNs made of metallic elements and herbal compounds for wound healing, describes their advantages in wound treatment, and provides a reference for the development of future MNs.

Enhancing Transdermal Delivery: Investigating the Impact of Permeation Promoters on Ibuprofen Release and Penetration from Medical Patches-In Vitro Research

This study investigated the impact of various enhancers on permeation through the skin and accumulation in the skin from acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive-based drug-in-adhesives matrix-type transdermal patches. Eleven patches, each containing a 5% enhancer of permeation, encompassing compounds such as salicylic acid, menthol, urea, glycolic acid, allantoin, oleic acid, Tween 80, linolenic acid, camphor, N-dodecylcaprolactam, and glycerin, were developed. Ibuprofen (IBU) was the model active substance, a widely-used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. The results were compared to patches without enhancers and commercial preparations. The study aimed to assess the effect of enhancers on IBU permeability. The adhesive properties of the patches were characterised, and active substance permeability was tested. The findings revealed that patches with 5% allantoin exhibited the highest IBU permeability, approximately 2.8 times greater than patches without enhancers after 24 h. These patches present a potential alternative to commercial preparations, highlighting the significant impact of enhancers on transdermal drug delivery efficiency.

The use of cellulose, chitosan and hyaluronic acid in transdermal therapeutic management of obesity: A review

Obesity is a clinical condition with rising popularity and detrimental impacts on human health. According to the World Health Organization, obesity is the sixth most common cause of death worldwide. It is challenging to combat obesity because medications that are successful in the clinical investigation have harmful side effects when administered orally. The conventional approaches for treating obesity primarily entail synthetic compounds and surgical techniques but possess severe adverse effects and recurrences. As a result, a safe and effective strategy to combat obesity must be initiated. Recent studies have shown that biological macromolecules of the carbohydrate class, such as cellulose, hyaluronic acid, and chitosan, can enhance the release and efficacy of medications for obesity but due to their short biological half-lives and poor oral bioavailability, their distribution rate is affected. This helps to comprehend the need for an effective therapeutic approach via a transdermal drug delivery system. This review focuses on the transdermal administration, utilizing cellulose, chitosan, and hyaluronic acid via microneedles, as it offers a promising solution to overcome existing therapy limitations in managing obesity and it also highlights how microneedles can effectively deliver therapeutic substances through the skin's outer layer, bypassing pain receptors and specifically targeting adipose tissue.