Acid-Treated Water-Soluble Chitosan Suitable for Microneedle-Assisted Intracutaneous Drug Delivery.

ABSTRACT: Chitosan has been widely used as a nature-derived polymeric biomaterial due to its high biocompatibility and abundance. However, poor solubility in aqueous solutions of neutral pH and multiple fabrication steps for the molding process limit its application to microneedle technology as a drug delivery carrier. Here, we present a facile method to prepare water-soluble chitosan and its application for sustained transdermal drug delivery. The water-soluble chitosan was prepared by acid hydrolysis using trifluoroacetic acid followed by dialysis in 0.1 M NaCl solutions. We successfully fabricated bullet-shaped microneedle (MN) arrays by the single molding process with neutral aqueous chitosan solutions (pH 6.0). The chitosan MN showed sufficient mechanical properties for skin insertion and, inte

SUBMITTER: Chandrasekharan A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6572209 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature