Cost-efficient polyurea carrier for precise control of an anti-inflammatory drug loading and release

In this paper, we present a cost-efficient and reliable route to produce polyurea xerogel (PolyU) as a versatile carrier that provides a high drug loading and offers a tuning over diclofenac (DCF) release profile. A simple one-pot reaction of an amino-terminated-polyether-PEO and a crosslinker, hexamethylene diisocyanate trimer-HDI, allow us to obtain the polymeric networks. The gelation time during the sol-gel reactions (hydrolysis and condensation) can be modulated from minutes to hours by using acetone as solvent to achieve a decrease of reactivity between amine groups from PEO with isocyanate from HDI crosslinker. The interactions of PolyU networks and DCF drug was in depth evaluated by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and computational studies. Analysis performed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) have confirmed the inhibition of crystalline moities of PEO by drug interactions with the PEO chains. PolyU was investigated in cell toxicity studies, showing no significant cytotoxicity against the CHO–K1 cell line. Considering the abundance of raw materials and cost-efficient for polyurea preparation, this work clearly opens up high prospects and provides a solution for scaling up the fabrication of new functional devices (contact lenses, patches, thin films, etc) with broad applications in the medical/health fields.