| Abstract |
The global pharmaceutical industry is mainly relied on the model of developing new drugs along with obtaining patents and then commercialization. However, it encounters several challenges in recent years, including high funding for the new drug development, an average of 10 to 15 years to be taken for a new drug from development to marketing, and the patent expiration of drugs which are on the market. Moreover, the number of new drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration, USA, is declined over the years due to the risks, such as failure to clinical applications and blinded trials, and other side effects. Hence, an alternatively drug repurposing strategy is evolved. For instance, the drug repurposing endowed with new formulation, new delivery system or new indication becomes the leading tendency by the consideration of low risks. In particular, the mode of developing new formulation is now the mainstream trend for talent accumulation in the field of biomedical engineering. This project aims to use curcumin (which can be extracted from the turmeric rhizome) as the model drug, due to its well-recognized as GRAS (Generally Recognize as Safe) and versatile bioactivities including antibacterial activity, anti-inflammatory property, anti-microbes, and anti-tumors, etc. We will establish a technology platform for synthesis of the curcumin-based polyurethane nanofilms towards application in wound dressings with drug delivery control. To this end, several materials will be synthesized; initially the biocompatible polyurethane nanofilms, and then the curcumin-carrying wound dressings. Second, the effect of curcumin-carrying wound dressings will be tested in mouse model and small ruminant models. Moreover, the different levels of structures in the biocompatible polyurethane nanofilms will be characterized by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). Based on this technology platform, the correlation of nanostructures with the drug release mechanism of curcumin-based polyurethane nanofilm system will be investigated, and through which drug formulation could be optimized that ultimately lead to reducing the number of sacrifices in animal experiments. Overall, this project involves in the interdisciplinary research including polymer physics and chemistry for applications in the development of new biomedical materials. |
