Lauroyl hyaluronan films for local drug delivery: Preparation and factors influencing the release of small molecules

Lauroyl derivatives of hyaluronan are safe and biodegradable materials that seem promising for application in medicine. However, their potential in the field of drug delivery was not yet explored. We thus prepared lauroyl hyaluronan films loaded with various drugs and studied the effects of lauroyl hyaluronan properties, drug hydrophobicity and medium composition on the drug release.

Highlights

Safe and biodegradable films from lauroyl hyaluronan for local drug delivery.

Films successfully loaded with both hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs.

Factors influencing drug release were studied, including presence of biomolecules.

Release significantly influenced by drug hydrophobicity and addition of albumin.

Biomolecules should be considered when designing release experiments.

Since biomolecules will always be present in real clinical applications, media supplemented by albumin were also included. The amphiphilic character of lauroyl hyaluronan enabled convenient loading of the films by both hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs. Dominant factors influencing drug release were drug hydrophobicity and the presence of albumin.

Hydrophilic diclofenac was released rapidly in all cases, while triclosan with medium hydrophobicity exhibited slower release sensitive to other parameters, reaching equilibrium values in the used experimental setup. The release of hydrophobic octenidine into pure buffer was almost negligible, but the addition of albumin did promote its release. The strong effect of albumin highlights the importance of considering biomolecules in the design of release experiments.

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Article information: Josef Chmelař, Barbora Brtková, Lenka Laštovičková, Jana Bažantová, Martina Hermannová, Jaromír Kulhánek, Jiří Mrázek, Vladimír Velebný, Lauroyl hyaluronan films for local drug delivery: Preparation and factors influencing the release of small molecules, International Journal of Pharmaceutics, Volume 608, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2021.121111.