Wood-Derived Hydrogels as a Platform for Drug-Release Systems

Mario Culebras; Anthony Barrett; Mahboubeh Pishnamazi; Gavin Michael Walker; Maurice N Collins

doi:10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c08022

Wood-Derived Hydrogels as a Platform for Drug-Release Systems

ACS Sustain Chem Eng. 2021 Feb 15;9(6):2515-2522. doi: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c08022. Epub 2021 Jan 22.

Authors

Mario Culebras¹, Anthony Barrett¹, Mahboubeh Pishnamazi², Gavin Michael Walker², Maurice N Collins^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Stokes Laboratories, School of Engineering, Bernal Institute, University of Limerick, Plassy Technological Park, Limerick V94 T9PX, Ireland.
² Department of Chemical Sciences, Bernal Institute, Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre (SSPC), University of Limerick, Plassy Technological Park, Limerick V94 T9PX, Ireland.
³ Health Research Institute, University of Limerick, Plassy Technological Park, Limerick V94 T9PX, Ireland.

Abstract

Wood (cellulose and lignin)-based hydrogels were successfully produced as platforms for drug-release systems. Viscoelastic and cross-linking behaviors of precursor solutions were tuned to produce highly porous hydrogel architectures via freeze-drying. Pore sizes in the range of 100-160 μm were obtained. Varying lignin molecular structure played a key role in tailoring swelling and mechanical performance of these gels with organosolv-type lignin showing optimum properties due to its propensity for intermolecular cross-linking, achieving a compressive modulus around 11 kPa. Paracetamol was selected as a standard drug for release tests and its release rate was improved with the presence of lignin (50% more compared to pure cellulose hydrogels). This was attributed to a reduction in molecular interactions between paracetamol and cellulose. These results highlight the potential for the valorization of lignin as a platform for drug-release systems.