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Glycyrrhizin (GL), extracted from the Glycyrrhiza glabra L., is active triterpenoid saponin components. However, due to its impermeability across the gastrointestinal mucosa, oral bioavailability of the drug was relatively low. To improve its oral bioavailability, formulation of GL as sodium deoxycholate/phospholipid-mixed nanomicelles (SDC/PL-MMs) has been performed in this study. GL-SDC/PL-MMs were produced by a film dispersion method and then investigated using photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS), zeta potential measurement, as well as its physical stability after storage for 10, 20, 30, 60, 90 and 120 days. To verify the theoretical hypothesis, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamic studies based on carbon tetrachloride (CCl(4))-induced acute liver injury was investigated. Results showed that a narrow size distributed nanomicelles with a mean particle size of 82.99 ± 7.5 nm and a zeta potential of -32.23 ± 1.05 mV was obtained. In the pharmacokinetics, GL-SDC/PL-MMs show a significant superiority in AUC(0-t), C(max) and other pharmacokinetic parameters compared with the control group. In the pharmacodynamic studies, compared with the bifendate control group, GL-SDC/PL-MMs showed an equivalent effect in reducing alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and improving the pathological changes of liver tissue. These results revealed that SDC/PL-MMs could enhance GL absorption in gastrointestinal tract and pharmacodynamic effect in the treatment of acute liver injury caused by CCl(4), and SDC/PL-MMs might be a good choice for oral delivery of poor bioavailability drug like GL.

Cucurbitacin B (Cu B), a potent anti-cancer agent, suffers with the problems of water-insoluble, gastrointestinal side effects and non-specific toxicity via oral administration and drawbacks in patient's compliance and acceptance through injections. An integration of nanoscale carriers with mucoadhesive buccal films drug delivery system would resolve these issues effectively with greater therapeutic benefits and clinical significance. Thus, the drug loaded mucoadhesive buccal film was developed and characterized in this study and the carboxymethyl chitosan (CCS) was chosen as a bioadhesive polymer, glycerol was chosen as a plasticizer and phospholipid-bile salts-mixed micelles (PL-BS-MMs) was selected as the nanoscale carriers. The CCS-films containing Cu B loaded PL-SDC-MMs was evaluated for the mechanical properties, mucoadhesion properties, in vitro water-uptake, in vitro release and morphological properties, respectively. The optimal CCS-films containing Cu B loaded PL-SDC-MMs was easily reconstituted in a transparent and clear solution with spherical micelles in the submicron range. The in vivo study revealed a greater and more extended release of Cu B from nanoscale CCS-films compared to that from a conventional CCS films (C-CCS-films) and oral marketed tablet (Hulusupian). The absorption of Cu B from CCS-films containing Cu B loaded PL-SDC-MMs resulted in 2.69-fold increased in bioavailability as compared to conventional tablet formulation and 10.46 times with reference to the C-CCS-films formulation. Thus, this kind of mucoadhesive buccal film might be an alternative safe route for delivery of Cu B with better patient compliance and higher bioavailability for the treatments.

In the present study, a novel hydrogel-grafted fabrics embedding of berberine nanosuspension was developed for the treatment of infected wound. Hydrogel-grafted fabric was prepared by graft copolymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide and alginate using ceric ammonium nitrate as initiator. Berberine nanosuspension was prepared and embedded in the hydrogel-grafted fabrics to achieve sustained drug release. The prepared hydrogel-grafted fabrics embedding of berberine nanosuspension was characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and swelling degree studies. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy revealed that berberine was embedded into the matrix of hydrogel-grafted fabrics, rather than on the surface. Scanning electron microscopy showed that a thin hydrogel layer was formed on the surface of nonwoven fibers. The swelling study showed that hydrogel-grafted fabric had water absorbing characteristic with reversible temperature sensitivity. The drug release study demonstrated that hydrogel-grafted fabrics can be used as a sustained drug delivery system of hydrophobic compounds. The berberine nanosuspension embedded hydrogel-grafted fabric was further investigated in an animal infected wound model and was found to be a very promising wound healing dressing for the treatment and healing of infected wounds.