Biomaterials, Biodegradables and Biomimetics Research Group

Comunications - Poster

Electro-responsive drug delivery from melanin nanoparticles

Abstract

Melanin is a biopolymer that excels for its biocompatibility and biodegradability properties which can act as a nanocarrier or agent itself to be used in diverse biomedical applications.

Targeted and controlled drug delivery strategies allow the release of a certain amount of a drug at a specific time and place. Since we hypothesize that the drug release profile can be controlled by applying an external electrical current as stimuli, “smart materials”, such as inherently conductive polymers can be an easy approach to modulate the release profile of a drug. These systems can improve the lack of efficiency and stability of current therapies.

Herein, we report a simple method to develop a drug delivery system using functionalized melanin nanoparticles with electro-responsive polymers, polydopamine and polypyrrole, to precisely control the release profile of hydrophobic and hydrophilic model drugs such as dexamethasone and methylene blue, respectively. Melanin nanoparticles evidenced a spherical shape with a particle size around 376.77 ± 62.05 nm and a polydispersity index of 0.26 ± 0.09. The deposition of the polymers was confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The incorporation efficiency of the drugs was achieved with 94.45 ± 0.63% and 99.14 ± 0.59% for dexamethasone and methylene blue, respectively.

Journal
1st Discoveries Forum on Regenerative and Precision Medicine
Keywords
Drug Delivery System, melanin, Nanoparticles
Rights
Open Access
Peer Reviewed
Yes
Status
published
Project
IBEROS
Year of Publication
2019
Date Published
2019-09-25
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