Assessing the Influence of Dyes Physico-Chemical Properties on Incorporation and Release Kinetics in Silk Fibroin Matrices.

Silk fibroin (SF) is a promising and versatile biodegradable protein for biomedical applications. This study aimed to develop a prolonged release device by incorporating SF microparticles containing dyes into SF hydrogels. The influence of dyes on incorporation and release kinetics in SF based devices were evaluated regarding their hydrophilicity, molar mass, and cationic/anionic character.

A review on orally disintegrating films (ODFs) made from natural polymers such as pullulan, maltodextrin, starch, and others.

In recent years, orally disintegrating films (ODFs) have been studied as alternative ways for drug administration. They can easily be applied into the mouth and quickly disintegrate, releasing the drug with no need of water ingestion and enabling absorption through the oral mucosa. The ODFs matrices are typically composed of hydrophilic polymers, in which the natural polymers are highlighted since they are polymers extracted from natural sources, non-toxic, biocompatible, biodegradable, and have favorable properties for this application.

Silk fibroin/chitosan/alginate multilayer membranes as a system for controlled drug release in wound healing.

In this study, we proposed the use of the biopolymers silk fibroin, chitosan and alginate, which are recognized for their biocompatibility and biodegradability, for the preparation of multilayer membranes aiming at high performance wound dressings with controlled drug delivery. The rationale was to combine in one material the mechanical properties of fibroin, the antimicrobial action of chitosan and the ideal exudate absorption of alginate, reaching a synergic effect of each biopolymer, without losing their individual intrinsic properties. The membranes were prepared by casting and diclofenac sodium was incorporated as model drug into the chitosan solution before the solvent evaporation, being retained in the middle layer of the membrane.