Recently, Professor Qianbing Wan / Jian Wang of Huaxi Stomatology School published a paper entitled "A mussel-inspired film for adhesion to wet buccal tissue and efficient buccal drug delivery" on Nature communications. 2017 ph. D. Shanshan Hu and associate professor Xibo Pei, from Huaxi stomatology School are the co-first authors of the paper, and Qianbing Wan and Jian Wang are the co-corresponding authors.

Administration of drugs via the buccal route has attracted much attention in recent years. However, developing systems with satisfactory adhesion under wet conditions and adequate drug bioavailability still remains a challenge. Here, we propose a mussel-inspired mucoadhesive film. Ex vivo models show that this film can achieve strong adhesion to wet buccal tissues (up to 38.72 ± 10.94 kPa). We also demonstrate that the adhesion mechanism of this film relies on both physical association and covalent bonding between the film and mucus. Additionally, the film with incorporated polydopamine nanoparticles shows superior advantages for transport across the mucosal barrier, with improved drug bioavailability (~3.5-fold greater than observed with oral delivery) and therapeutic efficacy in oral mucositis models (~6.0-fold improvement in wound closure at day 5 compared with that observed with no treatment). We anticipate that this platform might aid the development of tissue adhesives and inspire the design of nanoparticle-based buccal delivery systems. (Abstract）

Paper link：https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21989-5