Long-acting implantable devices for the prevention and personalised treatment of infectious, inflammatory and chronic diseases

Francesca Corduas, Elena Mancuso, Dimitrios Lamprou

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)
43 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Traditional drug administration methods, including injection, oral and nasal route, have been extensively adopted over the years due to their low-cost and/or easy ways to deliver drugs. However, most of the times, they are not effective and significant drawbacks still compromise their application. In order to overcome the short-coming associated with traditional administration routes, many researchers have been focusing their attention on long-acting biomedical implants, which have gained great interest within the scientific community in the last decade. These are usually intended to: i) replace the functions of a specific organ by slowly releasing the medication, ii) to replace the organ itself, or iii) simply monitor body functions. One of the most promising fields of application of such devices is the treatment of chronic diseases, long-lasting infections (e.g. human immu-nodeficiency virus (HIV)) and chronic inflammation in wound healing (implants in form of dressings). In this regard, the availability of new manufacturing approaches and novel biocompatible materials have positively contributed to design innovative personalised and targeted drug delivery systems (DDSs). Among all the benefits associated with the use of new DDSs, an improvement in patient’s compliance (or adherence) to the medication is the most significant. This review aims to provide an overview of the recently developed technologies for the prediction, prevention, and personalised treatment (3Ps) of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), cardiovas-cular diseases (CVDs), diabetes and chronic wounds, focusing on long-acting biomedical implants and their promise for future application.
Original languageEnglish
Article number101952
Pages (from-to)1-16
Number of pages16
JournalJournal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology
Volume60
Issue number101952
Early online date7 Aug 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished (in print/issue) - 31 Dec 2020

Keywords

  • 3D printing
  • Chronic diseases
  • Drug delivery
  • Electrospinning
  • Implantable devices
  • Infections
  • Inflammatory
  • Long acting
  • Microfluidics
  • Personali
  • ed therapy
  • s

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