MOSCOW, Jul 19– . The use of emulsion microgels for the delivery of drugs for cystitis and other infections of the urinary system to the bladder was proposed by scientists from Russia. According to the authors, the development will reduce the number of painful for the patient procedures for direct injection of the drug into the bladder, so the treatment will become faster and more comfortable. The results of the study, supported by a grant from the Presidential Program of the Russian Science Foundation (RSF), were published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
Acute cystitis caused by E. coli is usually treated with antibiotic tablets. However, in chronic bladder infections, such therapy is ineffective. The fact is that antibiotics do not penetrate well into the deep layers of the inner wall of the affected organ, and it is impossible to achieve the required concentration of antibiotics in the cavity of the bladder.
In this case, the required amount of antibiotics has to be injected directly into the bladder using a catheter. But due to the constant accumulation of urine in the bladder, drugs are quickly washed out, so this therapy is not always effective. This problem can be solved by delivery systems that have high mucoadhesive properties, that is, they can be fixed on the walls of the organ for a long time.
A group of scientists from Saratov State University named after N.G. Chernyshevsky, together with scientists from the Vladimir Zelman Center for Neurobiology and Brain Rehabilitation of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology and the Center for Photonic Technologies and Engineering Systems of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, have developed a method for the synthesis of emulsion microgels that can be retained on the mucous membrane of the bladder for a long time. collars. This protein is formed as a by-product of cheese production and serves as a dietary supplement for food. The microgels obtained on its basis have an oil-in-water emulsion nature, where protein molecules form a kind of shell on the surface of oil microdroplets.
The combination of an oil phase and a protein shell allows a wide range of drugs to be placed in such carriers, including fat- and water-soluble drugs. The availability for the body and the relative cheapness of the initial components open up new possibilities for using emulsion microgels in the medical industry as targeted delivery systems. span>
Under the influence of temperature, three-dimensional hydrogel networks are formed on the surface of oil microdroplets. They are able to fix well on the mucous membranes, which was confirmed by experiments on the tissues of the bladder. In addition, in experiments with animals, the authors found that the delivery of fluorescently labeled microgels into the bladder using a catheter allows you to accumulate 10 times more fluorescent signal compared to intravenous injection and store it inside the organ for a day after injection. in Chemistry, Senior Researcher at Saratov State University Oksana Mayorova.
«Our approach can form the basis of new mucoadhesive drug delivery systems, allowing us to increase the effectiveness of the treatment of diseases of the urinary system. In the future, we plan to study the possibility of treating bladder cancer, as well as the effectiveness of treating acute chronic cystitis using microgels containing both antibacterial drugs and hyaluronic acid, which is necessary to restore the bladder mucosa,» she said. .