Mucoadhesive Electrospun Fibre-Based Technologies for Oral Medicine

Abstract

Oral disease greatly affects quality of life, as the mouth is required for a wide range of activities including speech, food and liquid consumption. Treatment of oral disease is greatly limited by the dose forms that are currently available, which suffer from short contact times, poor site specificity, and sensitivity to mechanical stimulation. Mucoadhesive devices prepared using electrospinning offer the potential to address these challenges by allowing unidirectional site-specific drug delivery through intimate contact with the mucosa and with high surface areas to facilitate drug release. This review will discuss the range of electrospun mucoadhesive devices that have recently been reported to address oral inflammatory diseases, pain relief, and infections, as well as new treatments that are likely to be enabled by this technology in the future.

Corticosteroid delivery using oral mucosa equivalents for the treatment of inflammatory mucosal diseases

“…In the soluble form, CP is freely mobile, which allows fast and direct paracellular absorption, whereas in the electrospun patch, CP is held within the polymer fibres in an amorphous form, and hydration and collapse of the polymer complex is required for CP to be released (25). Therefore, patch‐loaded drugs tend to be delivered at lower levels, and more slowly, than drugs in free solution (12,41). Indeed, the ability to control the rate of drug release over time is a distinct advantage for treating oral lesions.…”

“…Topical corticosteroids have been formulated into ointments, sprays, mouthwashes, and adhesive paste dosage forms (8‐11), although these are generally considered to be suboptimal as a result of rapid removal of such formulations from the lesion site by saliva flow and mechanical forces, culminating in short exposure times and unpredictable drug distribution. To circumvent this, attention has been focussed on the development of alternative mucoadhesive oral drug‐delivery systems (12‐16). Indeed, we recently reported the fabrication of a novel dual‐layer electrospun mucoadhesive system, composed of a highly mucoadhesive inner layer and a protective, outer backing layer, specifically designed for oral mucosal drug delivery (17).…”

Electrospinning for healthcare: recent advancements

“…25,26 There also exist a myriad of other applications of extended release materials: to give just one example, mucoadhesive fibres can be employed to give sustained release in the oral cavity. 27 Fibres which respond to external stimuli such as pH or temperature may be employed to target drug release. The Eudragit family of polymers (L100-55, L100, S100) has been widely explored for delayedrelease oral formulations prepared by ES.…”

Polymer-Based Carriers in Dental Local Healing—Review and Future Challenges

“…In addition, some oral procedures or disease symptoms require the administration of local anesthesia to the mucosa or treatment of oral mucositis with lidocaine hydrochloride, benzydamine hydrochloride, opiates, and amylmetacresol/dichlorobenzene alcohol. It should be mentioned that more than 50% of patients treated for head and neck cancer suffer from oral mucositis and damage to the oral epithelium, leading to painful inflammation and ulceration, which is caused by ongoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy [ 28 ]. The traditional administration of anesthesia involves an injection, which makes the patient fearful and reluctant to the visit, even though after the injection, treatment pain is completely or largely eliminated [ 29 ].…”