Polydimethylsiloxane-Customized Nanoplatform for Delivery of Antidiabetic Drugs

Abstract

Aim: To develop a new self-emulsified silicon-grafted-alginate platform for pharmaceutical delivery. The produced biocompatible polymeric blend would be used to encapsulate metformin by a vibrational jet-flow ionotropic gelation process. Materials & methods: Polydimethylsiloxane was homogenized with alginate to prepare a stable polymeric mixture to which metformin was added. A metformin-loaded polymeric vehicle was then pumped through Buchi B-390 into CaCl₂ to produce microcapsules. Results & conclusion: The platform showed a powerful, pseudoplastic thixotropic and demonstrated strong, efficient and wide applications of polydimethylsiloxane-customized technology in drug delivery and stability. A substantial improvement in drug loading, encapsulation efficiency and flow properties were noticed in siliconized microcapsules compared with the control.

Keywords:

• alginate
• antidiabetics
• delivery
• encapsulation
• ionic gelation
• metformin
• organosilicon
• PDMS
• platform

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.tandfonline.com/doi/suppl/10.4155/tde-2020-0049

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The use of laboratory equipment, scientific and technical assistance of Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility at Curtin University, which has been partially funded by the University, State and Commonwealth Governments. H Al-Salami’s work is partially supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 872370. Al-Salami H has been and is currently receiving funding from Beijing Nat-Med Biotechnology Co. Ltd. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.