Gary W Liu, Matthew J Pickett, Johannes L P Kuosmanen, Keiko Ishida, Wiam A M Madani, Georgia N White, Joshua Jenkins, Sanghyun Park, Vivian R Feig, Miguel Jimenez, Christina Karavasili, Nikhil B Lal, Matt Murphy, Aaron Lopes, Joshua Morimoto, Nina Fitzgerald, Jaime H Cheah, Christian K Soule, Niora Fabian, Alison Hayward, Robert Langer, Giovanni Traverso
Pills are a cornerstone of medicine but can be challenging to swallow. While liquid formulations are easier to ingest, they lack the capacity to localize therapeutics with excipients nor act as controlled release devices. Here we describe drug formulations based on liquid in situ-forming tough (LIFT) hydrogels that bridge the advantages of solid and liquid dosage forms. LIFT hydrogels form directly in the stomach through sequential ingestion of a crosslinker solution of calcium and dithiol crosslinkers, followed by a drug-containing polymer solution of alginate and four-arm poly(ethylene glycol)-maleimide...
February 27, 2024: Nature Materials