A special type of starch could soon be used as an excipient in medicine to improve the treatment of patients. A research team from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) has discovered that it makes a suitable drug release system and has advantages over already established excipients. The team reports on its research in the Journal of Controlled Release.
Many active pharmaceutical ingredients are difficult to administer at present as they are poorly absorbed by the body and break down too quickly.
These problems can be overcome by drug delivery systems, which release active substances in the body in a controlled manner over a prolonged period of time. An example of one such application are drug-delivery implants. Once injected, the body degrades them over a longer period of time and the desired substance is released. This technology is already being used to treat diseases like cancer and bacterial infections.
Most currently used drug delivery systems are based on polylactide-co-glycolide (PLGA) and polylactide (PLA). However, these materials have several disadvantages.
“When PLGA and PLA degrade in the body, they create an acidic environment which results in an irregular