Pollen-Inspired Adhesive Multi-Lobe Microparticles from Microfluidics for Intestinal Drug Delivery.

Microparticles (MPs) based delivery systems have a demonstrated value in gastrointestinal administration. Researches in this area are focusing on developing of multifunctional MPs to improve delivery effects. Herein, learning from the natural morphology of peony pollens, we present novel multi-lobe MPs delivery systems for target surface adhesion and durable drug release. Ascribing to the flexibility of microfluidic technology and the combination of selective hydrogel degradation methods, MPs with a series of multi-lobed structures can be obtained using alginate and methacrylated gelatin. Compared with spherical MPs, these multi-lobe MPs are elucidated to show excellent adhesion capacity due to their enhanced contact area. By encapsulating anti-inflammatory agent dexamethasone (DXM) into their matrix hydrogel, the resultant multi-lobe MPs delivery systems are verified to feature durable drug release property and anti-inflammatory efficacy, which is further demonstrated in rats with inflammatory bowel disease. These results indicated that the biomimetic multi-lobe MPs are potentially ideal adhesive and durable drug delivery vehicles for gastrointestinal drug administrations. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.