Glycerine

Bianchi M B et al. created the first bio-adhesive “eutectogel” for long-acting mucosal delivery by merging two enabling technologies: a deep-eutectic solvent and drug nanocrystals. First, glycerol was mixed with choline chloride (1:3) to form a DES that dissolves gelatin at 95 ℃ and, after cooling to 4 ℃, yields an elastic, non-volatile gel. Second, curcumin nanocrystals were produced by wet-milling with poloxamer, freeze-dried and dispersed into the warm DES-gelatin syrup. Glycerol prevents crystal growth and keeps NCs <200 nm after three melt/gel cycles. The final Egel-NCs contains 5 wt % drug, displays tissue-matching modulus (55 kPa), stretches 160 % and adheres to mucin at 40 kPa.

Fig. 1 The preparation of gelatin-based eutectogels integrating CUR-NCs. (Bianchi M B.; et al. 2022)