Authors:

Joseph Mayer

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About Paper:

Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) is a biodegradable polymer widely used in controlled drug delivery systems. However, current formulations suffer from burst release, where a large amount of the drug is released initially leading to overdose and toxicity, due to the degradation kinetics of the polymer encapsulating the drug. Monomer sequence control, where the order of the monomers is controlled as opposed to being in a gradient (arising due to the monomers' differences in reactivity) or blocky sequence, has been suggested as a powerful technique to reduce the initial burst release effect since sequence-controlled polymers have been shown to degrade more uniformly than their gradient analogues. Uniform and gradient PLGA polymers have been synthesized by our lab group. To determine how monomer sequence control affects degradation behavior, the polymers are studied in a Langmuir monolayer on an aqueous subphase, and the change in surface pressure over time is measured to determine the extent of degradation, as degraded oligomers will dissolve into the subphase. The change in surface pressure over time is plotted and compared for a commercial PLGA, gradient PLGA, and uniform PLGA at pHs of 3, 7, and 11. This study seeks to provide evidence that uniform PLGA can reduce the burst release effect when used in biodegradable drug delivery devices by degrading more slowly and uniformly than other PLGA polymers. Further research can focus on actual drug delivery devices to confirm that uniform PLGA does in fact mitigate the burst release effect. Keywords: PLGA; Degradation; Sequence Control; Drug Release; Langmuir Monolayer

Source:

Purdue University / 2024

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No topics listed

Co-authors:

Joseph Mayer