Hyaluronic acid liposomal hydrogel for ocular drug delivery

• Main Author: Tan, Bae Huey.
• Other Authors: Subramanian Venkatraman
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/51834
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The commonly used topical medications for glaucoma treatments have many limitations. Thus, various sustained drug delivery systems had been studied to circumvent these issues. Hyaluronan conjugates and derivatives are also materials under study for development of suitable ocular drug carriers. In this project, we evaluated the viability of liposomal-hyaluronic acid composite gels for sustained delivery of latanoprost. Latanoprost-loaded LUVs (large unilamellar vesicles) were incorporated into poly(methacrylated) hyaluronic acid hydrogels (HA-MA). Swelling studies and drug release studies were conducted on the composite system. It was observed that samples with higher liposome concentrations had longer drug release profiles. Whereas no observable trend can be found for samples with different sizes of liposome incorporated and different concentrations of HA-MA. Size distribution measurements of eluted particles taken also support the results of the drug release studies. Further studies on the drug delivery capability of HA-liposome composite can be done by using other HA conjugates such as HA-ADH or varying other factors to control the mesh size of the hydrogel structure. This would help us to better understand the potential and mechanism of the composite drug delivery system.