TY - JOUR
T1 - Novel polyester-based thermoplastic elastomers for 3D-printed long-acting drug delivery applications
AU - Koutsamanis, Ioannis
AU - Paudel, Amrit
AU - Alva Zúñiga, Carolina Patricia
AU - Wiltschko, Laura
AU - Spoerk, Martin
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) as part of the PolyPrint project (Grant Agreement 872984 ). Special thanks go to Dr. Florian Arbeiter for assistance in the filament tensile tests, to Eyke Slama for help in the CAD drawing, to Dr. Simone Eder for the funding acquisition and fruitful discussions, to Dr. Matthias Katschnig for the help in processing the 3D-printed EVA pessaries and to Dr. Petra Spörk-Erdely for fruitful discussions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2021/7/10
Y1 - 2021/7/10
N2 - To improve patient compliance and personalised drug delivery, long-acting drug delivery devices (LADDDs), such as implants and inserts, greatly benefit from a customisation in their shape through the emerging 3D-printing technology, since their production usually follows a one-size-fits-most approach. The use of 3D-printing for LADDDs, however, is mainly limited by the shortage of flawlessly 3D-printable, yet biocompatible materials. The present study tackles this issue by introducing a novel, non-biodegradable material, namely a polyester-based thermoplastic elastomer (TPC) – a multi-block copolymer containing alternating semi-crystalline polybutylene terephthalate hard segments and poly-ether-terephthalate amorphous soft segments. Next to a detailed description of the material's 3D-printability by mechanical, rheological and thermal analyses, which was found to be superior to that of conventional polymers (ethylene-vinyl acetates (EVA)), this study establishes the fundamental understandings of the interactions between progesterone (P4) and TPC and drug-releasing properties of TPC for the first time. P4-loaded LADDDs based on TPC, prepared via an elaborated solvent-immersion technique, enable the release of P4 at pharmacologically relevant rates, similar to those of marketed formulations based on EVA and silicones. Additionally, TPC demonstrated an exceptional 3D-printability for a wide selection of implant sizes and complex geometries.
AB - To improve patient compliance and personalised drug delivery, long-acting drug delivery devices (LADDDs), such as implants and inserts, greatly benefit from a customisation in their shape through the emerging 3D-printing technology, since their production usually follows a one-size-fits-most approach. The use of 3D-printing for LADDDs, however, is mainly limited by the shortage of flawlessly 3D-printable, yet biocompatible materials. The present study tackles this issue by introducing a novel, non-biodegradable material, namely a polyester-based thermoplastic elastomer (TPC) – a multi-block copolymer containing alternating semi-crystalline polybutylene terephthalate hard segments and poly-ether-terephthalate amorphous soft segments. Next to a detailed description of the material's 3D-printability by mechanical, rheological and thermal analyses, which was found to be superior to that of conventional polymers (ethylene-vinyl acetates (EVA)), this study establishes the fundamental understandings of the interactions between progesterone (P4) and TPC and drug-releasing properties of TPC for the first time. P4-loaded LADDDs based on TPC, prepared via an elaborated solvent-immersion technique, enable the release of P4 at pharmacologically relevant rates, similar to those of marketed formulations based on EVA and silicones. Additionally, TPC demonstrated an exceptional 3D-printability for a wide selection of implant sizes and complex geometries.
KW - 3D-printing
KW - Hot-melt extrusion
KW - Implant
KW - Non-biodegradable polymer
KW - Progesterone
KW - Urethra pessary
KW - Vaginal drug delivery
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107134905&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jconrel.2021.05.030
DO - 10.1016/j.jconrel.2021.05.030
M3 - Article
C2 - 34044092
AN - SCOPUS:85107134905
SN - 0168-3659
VL - 335
SP - 290
EP - 305
JO - Journal of Controlled Release
JF - Journal of Controlled Release
ER -