作者：Ya-Nan Zhao, Jianjun Gu, Siyu Jia, Ying Guan and Yongjun Zhang*
關鍵字：Zero-order release
論文來源：期刊
具體來源：Soft Matter, 2016, 12(4), 1085-1092
發表時間：2016年
Drug carriers capable of releasing drug at a constant rate, or following a zero-order kinetics, can lead to the best control of plasma drug concentration. Here we demonstrated that zero-order release of polyphenolic drugs, including tannic acid, epigallocatechin gallate, proantho cyanidins, and theaflavin-3''''-gallate, could be achieved using hydrogen-bonded layer-by-layer films as the drug carrier. The films were fabricated using the polyphenolic drugs as hydrogen donor and polyethylene glycol (PEG) as hydrogen acceptor. Because the drugs and PEG are bonded with reversible, dynamic hydrogen bonds, the films disintegrate gradually in aqueous solutions, and thus release the drugs into the media. Furthermore, because the PEG polymers have a narrow molecular weight distribution, the films disintegrate and release the polyphenolic drugs at a constant rate. Besides allowing for zero-order release, the drug carrier developed here also provides various ways to tune the drug release rate. The drug release rate increases with decreasing molecular weight of PEG. More importantly, the release rate could be tuned using external stimuli. Increasing pH or temperature results in accelerated drug release, while addition of salt retard the drug release.