Drug loaded nanomaterials can improve therapy for localized illnesses, such as biofilm infections. Stimuli responsive nanomaterials further improve efficacy and reduce side effects by selectively releasing the payload drug at the targeted condition. Such nanomaterial developments commonly use liposomes and hydrogels. However, neither nanomaterial provides a sustained localized drug release, and both are limited by the material’s stability and behavior. Composite nanomaterials address these challenges by combining multiple structures for tunable material characteristics.<br/>This research presents a novel vesicle-embedded hydrogel for drug delivery. It retains the stability characteristic of hydrogels as well as the drug encapsulation and ability for sustained release of vesicles. The composite hydrogel forms the lattice structure by crosslinking a 4-armed polyethylene-glycol (PEG) to a previously designed vesicle via disulfide exchange (<b>Scheme 1</b>). The work investigated favorable conditions for formation, stability, and stimuli responsive degradation. In addition, the vesicle-hydrogel was investigated for the vesicle specific characteristics of payload encapsulation and stimuli response.

Stability and behavior of a novel vesicle-hydrogel for drug delivery

ACS Spring 2022

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