Hydrogels being a drug delivery system has great significance particularly for topical application in cutaneous open wound. Its specific physicochemical properties such as non-adhesiveness, moisture retention, exudate absorption, and gas permeability make them ideal as a drug delivery vehicle for wound healing application. Further, curcumin (a natural bioactive) was selected as a therapeutic agent to incorporate into the hydrogel system to design and develop nanogel pharmaceutical products for wound healing. Although, curcumin possesses remarkable anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-infective activity along with hastening the healing process by acting over the different stages of the wound healing process, but its poor biopharmaceutical (low aqueous solubility and skin penetrability) attributes hamper their therapeutic efficacy for skin applications. The current investigation aimed to develop the curcumin-loaded nanogel system and evaluated to check the improvement in the therapeutic efficacy of curcumin through a nanomedicine-based approach for wound healing activity in Wistar rats. The curcumin was enclosed inside the nanoemulsion system prepared through a high-energy ultrasonic emulsification technique at a minimum concentration of surfactant required to nanoemulsify the curcumin-loaded oil system (Labrafac PG) having droplet size 56.25 ± 0.69 nm with polydispersity index 0.05 ± 0.01 and negatively surface charge with zeta potential −20.26 ± 0.65 mV. It was observed that the impact of Smix (surfactant/co-surfactant mixture) ratio on droplet size of generated nanoemulsion is more pronounced at lower Smix concentration (25%) compared to the higher Smix concentration (30%). The optimized curcumin-loaded nanoemulsion was incorporated into a 0.5% Carbopol® 940 hydrogel system for topical application. The developed curcumin nanoemulgel exhibited thixotropic rheological behavior and a significant (p < 0.05) increase in skin penetrability characteristics compared to curcumin dispersed in conventional hydrogel system. The in vivo wound healing efficacy study and histological examination of healed tissue specimen further signify the role of the nanomedicine-based approach to improve the biopharmaceutical attributes of curcumin.

This study reports microwave assisted physically cross-linked sodium alginate and pectin film and their testing in combination with modified chitosan-curcumin nanoparticles for skin tissue regeneration following 2nd degree burn wound. Film was formulated by solution casting method and physically cross-linked using microwave irradiation at frequency of 2450 MHz, power 750 Watt for different time intervals for optimization. The optimized formulation was analyzed for various physiochemical attributes. Afterwards, the optimized film and optimized modified chitosan-curcumin nanoparticles were tested in combination for skin regeneration potential following burn wound in vivo and skin samples extracted and tested for different attributes. The results indicated that the optimized film formulation (5 min microwave treatment) physicochemical attributes significantly enhanced addressing the properties required of a wound healing platform. The vibrational analysis indicated that the optimized film experienced significant rigidification of hydrophilic domains while the hydrophobic domains underwent significant fluidization which also resulted in significant increase in the transition temperatures and system enthalpies of both polymer moieties with microwave treatment. The combined film and nanoparticles application significantly increased protein content in the wounds which were evident from higher absorbance ratios of amide-I and amide-II (2.15 ± 0.001), significantly higher melting transition temperature and enthalpy (∆T = 167.2 ± 15.4 °C, ∆H = 510.7 ± 20.1 J/g) and higher tensile strength (14.65 ± 0.8 MPa) with significantly enhanced percent re-epithelization (99.9934 ± 2.56) in comparison to other treatments. The combined application of film and nanoparticles may prove to be a new novel treatment strategy for 2nd degree burn wound healing.

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Diabetes mellitus is one of the most prevalent metabolic disorders characterized by hyperglycemia due to impaired glucose metabolism. Overproduction of free radicals due to chronic hyperglycemia may cause oxidative stress, which delays wound healing in diabetic conditions. For people with diabetes, this impeded wound healing is one of the predominant reasons for mortality and morbidity. The study aimed to develop an Ocimum sanctum leaf extract-mediated green synthesis of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) and further incorporate them into 2% chitosan (CS) gel for diabetic wound healing. UV-visible spectrum analysis recorded the sharp peak at 235 and 320 nm, and this was the preliminary sign for the biosynthesis of TiO2 NPs. The FTIR analysis was used to perform a qualitative validation of the biosynthesized TiO2 nanoparticles. XRD analysis indicated the crystallinity of TiO2 NPs in anatase form. Microscopic investigation revealed that TiO2 NPs were spherical and polygonal in shape, with sizes ranging from 75 to 123 nm. The EDX analysis of green synthesized NPs showed the presence of TiO2 NPs, demonstrating the peak of titanium ion and oxygen. The hydrodynamic diameter and polydispersity index (PDI) of the TiO2 NPs were found to be 130.3 nm and 0.237, respectively. The developed TiO2 NPs containing CS gel exhibited the desired thixotropic properties with pseudoplastic behavior. In vivo wound healing studies and histopathological investigations of healed wounds demonstrated the excellent wound-healing efficacy of TiO2 NPs containing CS gel in diabetic rats.

This study aimed at developing the microwave-treated, physically cross-linked polymer blend film, optimizing the microwave treatment time, and testing for physicochemical attributes and wound healing potential in diabetic animals. Microwave-treated and untreated films were prepared by the solution casting method and characterized for various attributes required by a wound healing platform. The optimized formulation was tested for skin regeneration potential in the diabetes-induced open-incision animal model. The results indicated that the optimized polymer film formulation (MB-3) has significantly enhanced physicochemical properties such as high moisture adsorption (154.6 ± 4.23%), decreased the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) value of (53.0 ± 2.8 g/m2/h) and water vapor permeability (WVP) value (1.74 ± 0.08 g mm/h/m2), delayed erosion (18.69 ± 4.74%), high water uptake, smooth and homogenous surface morphology, higher tensile strength (56.84 ± 1.19 MPa), and increased glass transition temperature and enthalpy (through polymer hydrophilic functional groups depicting efficient cross-linking). The in vivo data on day 16 of post-wounding indicated that the wound healing occurred faster with significantly increased percent re-epithelialization and enhanced collagen deposition with optimized MB-3 film application compared with the untreated group. The study concluded that the microwave-treated polymer blend films have sufficiently enhanced physical properties, making them an effective candidate for ameliorating the diabetic wound healing process and hastening skin tissue regeneration.

Glaucoma is a degenerative, chronic ocular disease that causes irreversible vision loss. The major symptom of glaucoma is high intraocular pressure, which happens when the flow of aqueous humor between the front and back of the eye is blocked. Glaucoma therapy is challenging because of the low bioavailability of drugs from conventional ocular drug delivery systems such as eye drops, ointments, and gels. The low bioavailability of antiglaucoma agents could be due to the precorneal and corneal barriers as well as the low biopharmaceutical attributes of the drugs. These limitations can be overcome by employing nanoparticulate drug delivery systems. Over the last decade, there has been a lot of interest in chitosan-based nanoparticulate systems to overcome the limitations (such as poor residence time, low corneal permeability, etc.) associated with conventional ocular pharmaceutical products. Therefore, the main aim of the present manuscript is to review the recent research work involving the chitosan-based nanoparticulate system to treat glaucoma. It discusses the significance of the chitosan-based nanoparticulate system, which provides mucoadhesion to improve the residence time of drugs and their ocular bioavailability. Furthermore, different types of chitosan-based nanoparticulate systems are also discussed, namely nanoparticles of chitosan core only, nanoparticles coated with chitosan, and hybrid nanoparticles of chitosan. The manuscript also provides a critical analysis of contemporary research related to the impact of this chitosan-based nanomedicine on the corneal permeability, ocular bioavailability, and therapeutic performance of loaded antiglaucoma agents.

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Diabetes, one of the global metabolic disorders, is often associated with delayed wound healing due to the elevated level of free radicals at the wound site, which hampers skin regeneration. This study aimed at developing a curcumin-loaded self-emulsifying drug delivery system (SEDDS) for diabetic wound healing and skin tissue regeneration. For this purpose, various curcumin-loaded SEDDS formulations were prepared and optimized. Then, the SEDDS formulations were characterized by the emulsion droplet size, surface charge, drug content/entrapment efficiency, drug release, and stability. In vitro, the formulations were assessed for the cellular uptake, cytotoxicity, cell migration, and inhibition of the intracellular ROS production in the NIH3T3 fibroblasts. In vivo, the formulations’ wound healing and skin regeneration potential were evaluated on the induced diabetic rats. The results indicated that, after being dispersed in the aqueous medium, the optimized SEDDS formulation was readily emulsified and formed a homogenous dispersion with a droplet size of 37.29 ± 3.47 nm, surface charge of −20.75 ± 0.07 mV, and PDI value of less than 0.3. The drug content in the optimized formulation was found to be 70.51% ± 2.31%, with an encapsulation efficiency of 87.36% ± 0.61%. The SEDDS showed a delayed drug release pattern compared to the pure drug solution, and the drug release rate followed the Fickian diffusion kinetically. In the cell culture, the formulations showed lower cytotoxicity, higher cellular uptake, and increased ROS production inhibition, and promoted the cell migration in the scratch assay compared to the pure drug. The in vivo data indicated that the curcumin-loaded SEDDS-treated diabetic rats had significantly faster-wound healing and re-epithelialization compared with the untreated and pure drug-treated groups. Our findings in this work suggest that the curcumin-loaded SEDDS might have great potential in facilitating diabetic wound healing and skin tissue regeneration.