Devices for drug delivery in the gastrointestinal tract: A review of systems physically interacting with the mucosa for enhanced delivery

Administration strategies and smart devices for drug release in specific sites of the upper GI tract

“…Administration of drugs in the upper GI tract by injection through the mucosa was recently proposed to i) overcome the limitations associated with passive absorption, ii) mitigate the first-pass metabolism of drugs and iii) effectively deliver biologics or other poorly-stable highly-sensitive active ingredients, which could be damaged by an enzyme and bacteria-rich environment and by pH variations [31,61]. By way of example, this strategy could be suitable for insulin, monoclonal antibodies, nucleic acids (e.g.…”

“…However, besides entailing the development of broadly new drug-containing formulations, these approaches were generally characterized by reduced bioavailability compared with dosing via the parenteral routes. [31,61]. In this respect, the possibility of combining the advantages associated with injection to those relevant to oral administration, thus start working on the development of piercing DDSs, seemed a promising alternative to bypass the natural barriers present in the GI tract for biologics.…”

“…More recently, the so-called piercing DDSs (i.e. systems able to inject the conveyed drug formulation in the submucosal tissue) started to appear in the scientific literature as a new strategy for releasing biomacromolecules in the mucosa of specific sites of the upper GI tract, from the esophagus to the small intestine [31].…”

A Review of Gum Hydrocolloid Polyelectrolyte Complexes (PEC) for Biomedical Applications: Their Properties and Drug Delivery Studies

“…Researchers should pursue this as an active field of research and conduct further in vivo experiments to back up and reinforce the present findings. In particular, most reviewed studies of gum-based PECs for drug delivery excluded in vivo experiments which regrettably, since the human body has a complex digestion system [99]. Several materials such as 1D carbon nanotubes/2D nanomaterials can be po- Meanwhile, the ongoing research in scaffold development based on gum PECs were concerned as prospective material since the composites present remarkable result in bone, tissue, and cell regeneration results.…”

“…Researchers should pursue this as an active field of research and conduct further in vivo experiments to back up and reinforce the present findings. In particular, most reviewed studies of gum-based PECs for drug delivery excluded in vivo experiments which regrettably, since the human body has a complex digestion system [99]. Several materials such as 1D carbon nanotubes/2D nanomaterials can be potential candidates as additional material for gum PECs composite owing to their interesting features such as high mechanical characteristic which advantageous to refine the biological and scaffolds mechanical characteristics while also ameliorate the disadvantages of both materials [100,101].…”