Urea-Based Patches with Controlled Release for Potential Atopic Dermatitis Treatment

Abstract

Skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis (AD) are widespread and affect people all over the world. Current treatments for dry and itchy skin are mostly focused on pharmaceutical solutions, while supportive therapies such as ointments bring immediate relief. Electrospun membranes are commonly used as a drug delivery system, as they have a high surface to volume area, resulting in high loading capacity. Within this study we present the manufacturing strategies of skin patches using polymer membranes with active substances for treating various skin problems. Here, we manufactured the skin patches using electrospun poly(vinyl butyral-co-vinyl alcohol-co-vinyl acetate) (PVB) fibers blended and electrosprayed with urea. The highest cumulative release of urea was obtained from the PVB patches manufactured via blend electrospinning with 5% of the urea incorporated in the fiber. The maximum concentration of released urea was acquired after 30 min, which was followed up by 6 h of constant release level. The simultaneous electrospinning and electrospraying limited the urea deposition and resulted in the lowest urea incorporation followed by the low release level. The urea-based patches, manufactured via blend electrospinning, exhibited a great potential as overnight treatment for various skin problems and their development can bring new trends to the textile-based therapies for AD.

Functional Electrospun Nanofibers Loaded with Plantago Major L. Extract for Potential Use in Cutaneous Wound Healing

“…For the second heating cycle, Figure 7(b), the PCL electrospun mats with the P. major extract showed a decrease of approximately 36.6 % in the degree of crystallinity of the fibers with 5.3 wt.% of the extract compared with PCL fibers without the extract (PCL_00) (Table 2). This demonstrates an interaction between freeze-dried extract and PCL chains that can be attributed to the fact that the P. major molecules were able to allocate themselves between polymer chains, promoting the increase in the space between them, and increase in the difficulty of these chains in reorganizing as ordered crystal structures [54,67]. Nevertheless, this large decrease in the degree of crystallinity was not observed when the concentration of the extract was increased to 10.6 wt.% (PCL_10.6), and a slight increase in crystallinity was observed with relation to PCL_5.3.…”

Green Electrospun Poly(vinyl alcohol)/Gelatin-Based Nanofibrous Membrane by Incorporating 45S5 Bioglass Nanoparticles and Urea for Wound Dressing Applications: Characterization and In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluations

“…The membrane containing the combination PVA:gelatin 90:10, bioglass 3 wt % and citric acid 15 wt % was wrapped in a drum after cross-linking. 10% urea was preferred in the study since 10% urea concentration was reported to have the greatest effect on improving skin hydration . 10% (w/w polymer) urea by weight of polymer in the membrane was dissolved in pure deionized water.…”

Advances in the Application of Electrospun Drug-Loaded Nanofibers in the Treatment of Oral Ulcers

“…The high-voltage electrospinning technique has unique advantages in creating nanofibers [ 164 , 165 , 166 ], which have shown great potential in the treatment of oral ulcers and in providing all kinds of drug controlled-release profiles [ 167 , 168 , 169 , 170 ]. However, the application is still in the research phase and many challenges remain for further development.…”