Film-forming sprays offer many advantages compared to conventional topical preparations because they can provide uniform drug distribution and dose, increased bioavailability, lower incidence of irritation, continuous drug release, and accelerated wound healing through moisture control. Film-forming sprays consist of polymers and excipients that improve the characteristics of preparations and enhance the stability of active substances. Each type of polymer and excipient will produce films with different features. Therefore, the various types of polymers and excipients and their evaluation standards need to be examined for the development of a more optimal form of film-forming spray. The selected literature included research on polymers as film-forming matrices and the application of these sprays for medical purposes or for potential medical use. This article discusses the types and concentrations of polymers and excipients, sprayer types, evaluations, and critical parameters in determining the sprayability and film characteristics. The review concludes that both natural and synthetic polymers that have in situ film or viscoelastic properties can be used to optimise topical drug delivery.

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Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancer diseases with the increase of cases prevalence >5% every year. Multidrug resistance mechanisms and non-localized therapy become primary problems of chemotherapy drugs for curing colorectal cancer disease. Therefore, the enteric-coated nanoparticle system has been studied and proved to be able to resolve those problems with good performance for colorectal cancer. The highlight of our review aims to summarize and discuss the enteric-coated nanoparticle drug delivery system specific for colorectal cancer disease. The main and supporting literatures were collected from published research articles of journals indexed in Scopus and PubMed databases. In the oral route of administration, Eudragit pH-sensitive copolymer as a coating agent prevents the degradation of the nanoparticle system from the gastric fluid and releases drug to intestinal-colon track. Therefore, it provides a colon-specific targeting ability. Impressively, enteric-coated nanoparticles having a sustained release profile significantly increase the cytotoxic effect of chemotherapeutic drugs and achieve cell-specific target delivery. The enteric-coated nanoparticle drug delivery system represents an excellent modification to improve the effectiveness and performance of anticancer drugs for colorectal cancer disease in terms of the oral route of administration.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected billions and has killed millions to date. Studies are being carried out to find therapeutic molecules that can potentially inhibit the replication of SARS-CoV-2. 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (3CL pro) involved in the polyprotein cleavage process is believed to be the key target for viral replication, and hence is an attractive target for the discovery of antiviral molecules. In the present study, we aimed to identify natural phytocompounds from Bridelia retusa as potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 3CL pro (PDB ID: 6M2N) using in silico techniques. Molecular docking studies conducted with three different tools in triplicates revealed that ellagic acid (BR6) and (+)-sesamin (BR13) has better binding affinity than the co-crystal inhibitor “3WL” of 6M2N. BR6 and BR13 were found to have a high LD 50 value with good bioavailability. 3WL, BR6, and BR13 bind to the same active binding site and interacted with the HIS41-CYS145 catalytic dyad including other crucial amino acids. Molecular dynamics simulation studies revealed stability of protein–ligand complexes as evidenced from root-mean-square deviations, root-mean-square fluctuations (RMSF), protein secondary structure elements, ligand-RMSF, protein–ligand contacts, ligand torsions, and ligand properties. BR6 (−22.3064 kcal/mol) and BR13 (−19.1274 kcal/mol) showed a low binding free energy value. The Bayesian statistical model revealed BR6 and BR13 as better protease inhibitors than 3WL. Moreover, BR6 and BR13 had already been reported to elicit antiviral activities. Therefore, we conclude that ellagic acid and (+)-sesamin as natural antiviral phytocompounds with inhibitory potential against SARS-CoV-2 3CL pro. Supplementary information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11224-022-01959-3.