Drug-loaded mesoporous silica on carboxymethyl cellulose hydrogel: Development of innovative 3D printed hydrophilic films

Bioadhesive 3D-Printed Skin Drug Delivery Polymeric Films: From the Drug Loading in Mesoporous Silica to the Manufacturing Process

“…The work necessary to remove the films containing pectin was higher (470 ± 175 mN·mm) than that required to remove the film composed of CMC (144 ± 38 mN·mm), while the presence of MSN also improves the work of adhesion (782 ± 105 mN·mm), reflecting a better skin adhesion (bioadhesion). These data agree with our recent report, where the positive effect of another kind of MSN (SBA-15) was observed on the mucoadhesion behaviour of 3D-printed buccal films composed of CMC only [ 21 ]. Although the substrates in these studies were different (porcine ear skin and mucin disc models), this reinforces the potential of MSN to improve the bioadhesion (skin or mucosa) of 3D-printed films.…”

“…In addition, G’ was higher (lower tan δ) for HG-MSN-CP than HG-CP at the same angular frequency, which could indicate that the presence of MSN-CP provides a better shape retention of the films after extrusion. Schmidt and co-workers (2022) also evaluated the influence of some texture properties of MSN in CMC hydrogels, whose results concur with our present findings, suggesting that MSN can play an important role in increasing the viscosity of 3D printing ink and should be further evaluated in future studies [ 21 ].…”

“…This lower extensibility for F-HG-MSN-CP could be related to its higher solid content, which has been previously reported as a factor responsible for lowering the flexibility of polymeric films [ 44 ]. An increase of mechanical strength and decrease of the extensibility of 3D-printed CMC films was also reported after the addition of mesoporous silica (SBA-15) to the printing ink [ 21 ]. These data are in agreement with previous studies relating the concentration of pectin in polymeric films to their tensile strength properties [ 45 ].…”

“…This important characteristic brings an advantage for the use of mesoporous silica, as the films were able to absorb liquid and maintain their integrity for a longer period. Schmidt and co-authors (2022) recently reported a lower swelling index after 30 min for buccal films produced by SSE 3D printing from an ink composed of CMC and glycerine [ 21 ]. The higher swelling index reported here can be attributed to the presence of pectin, which drastically improved the ability of the films to absorb water.…”

“…Moreover, 3D printing also enables a reproducible solvent-free process that can not be achieved by conventional methods such as solvent casting and electrospinning, which have poor shape reproducibility and can result in organic solvent residues in the final dosage form (Ghofrani et al 2022). Given this reasoning, our group has been exploring the alliance between drug-loaded nanomaterials and 3D printing, to improve the physicochemical and biopharmaceutical properties of such 3D-printed dosage forms [ 18 ] as oral [ 19 , 20 ] and buccal drug delivery systems [ 21 ]. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is a lack of studies proposing the use of the alliance between MSNs and 3D printing as a suitable approach to formulate mucoadhesive and hydrophilic 3D-printed polymeric films for skin delivery.…”