Acrylamide-Based Saliva-Gels as a Potential Xerostomia Treatment

Abstract

Xerostomia often introduces significant deficits in swallowing, oral communication, and oral hygiene. Current treatments temporarily only reduce symptoms without offering long-term benefits. While efforts to develop implantable salivary glands are ongoing, a cost-effective, easy-to-use, and noninvasive solution has yet to present itself. Here, we utilize biocompatible, acrylamide-based saliva-gels to control artificial saliva release and mimic natural saliva release properties. Specifically, we synthesized saliva-gels and tailored their mechanical properties (e.g., their tensile strength) by adjusting the loading of saliva in polymer-based saliva-gels. Importantly, all saliva-gels were capable of swelling to ∼650% of their initial volume over short time periods (3 h). Moreover, the optimized saliva-gel formulation released about 80% of artificial saliva stored in its network within 24 h at a temperature of 37 °C (i.e., human body temperature). Additionally, the saliva released by the saliva-gels was chemically identical with that originally absorbed. This controlled release profile offers a proof-of-concept demonstration of the use of these materials in future xerostomia treatment applications.