Multifunctional Self-Assembled Films for Rapid Hemostat and Sustained Anti-infective Delivery.

Uncontrolled bleeding and infection are the major causes of death and morbidity from traumatic wounds during military conflicts, disasters, and accidents. Because immediate treatment is critical to survival, it is desirable to have a lightweight and rapidly applicable bandage-one capable of delivering a hemostat that can quickly resolve bleeding while addressing infection over short and longer time frames. It is challenging to design thin film coatings capable of multidrug release, particularly when the drugs are quite different in nature (biologic versus small molecule, charged versus neutral) and the desired release profiles are different for each drug.

Multimonth controlled small molecule release from biodegradable thin films.

Long-term, localized delivery of small molecules from a biodegradable thin film is challenging owing to their low molecular weight and poor charge density. Accomplishing highly extended controlled release can facilitate high therapeutic levels in specific regions of the body while significantly reducing the toxicity to vital organs typically caused by systemic administration and decreasing the need for medical intervention because of its long-lasting release. Also important is the ability to achieve high drug loadings in thin film coatings to allow incorporation of significant drug amounts on implant surfaces.

Ordered and kinetically discrete sequential protein release from biodegradable thin films.

Multidrug regimens can sometimes treat recalcitrant diseases when single-drug therapies fail. Recapitulating complex multidrug administration from controlled release films for localized delivery remains challenging because their release kinetics are frequently intertwined, and an initial burst release of each drug is usually uncontrollable. Kinetic control over protein release is demonstrated by cross-linking layer-by-layer films during the assembly process.

Multilayer films assembled from naturally-derived materials for controlled protein release.

Herein we designed and characterized films composed of naturally derived materials for controlled release of proteins. Traditional drug delivery strategies rely on synthetic or semisynthetic materials or utilize potentially denaturing assembly conditions that are not optimal for sensitive biologics. Layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly of films uses benign conditions and can generate films with various release mechanisms including hydrolysis-facilitated degradation.