Development of a Mucoadhesive and In Situ Gelling Formulation Based on κ-Carrageenan for Application on Oral Mucosa and Esophagus Walls. I. A Functional In Vitro Characterization.

Oral mucositis and esophagitis represent the most frequent and clinically significant complications of cytoreductive chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which severely compromise the patient quality of life. The local application of polymeric gels could protect the injured tissues, alleviating the most painful symptoms. The present work aims at developing in situ gelling formulations for the treatment of oral mucositis and esophagitis. To reach these targets, κ-carrageenan (κ-CG) was selected as a polymer having wound healing properties and able to gelify in the presence of saliva ions, while hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) was used to improve the mucoadhesive properties of the formulations. CaCl2 was identified as a salt able to enhance the interaction between κ-CG and saliva ions. Different salt and polymer concentrations were investigated in order to obtain a formulation having the following features: (i) low viscosity at room temperature to facilitate administration, (ii) marked elastic properties at 37 °C, functional to a protective action towards damaged tissues, and (iii) mucoadhesive properties. Prototypes characterized by different κ-CG, HPC, and CaCl2 concentrations were subjected to a thorough rheological characterization and to in vitro mucoadhesion and washability tests. The overall results pointed out the ability of the developed formulations to produce a gel able to interact with saliva ions and to adhere to the biological substrates.

Development of a Mucoadhesive and an in Situ Gelling Formulation Based on κ-Carrageenan for Application on Oral Mucosa and Esophagus Walls. II. Loading of a Bioactive Hydroalcoholic Extract.

The aim of the present work was to load a Hibiscus sabdariffa (HS) hydroalcoholic extract into in situ gelling formulations for the treatment of oral mucositis and esophagitis. Such formulations, selected as the most promising options in a previous work of ours, were composed by κ-carrageenan (κ-CG), a sulfated marine polymer able to gelify in presence of saliva ions, hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC), used as mucoadhesive agent, and CaCl2, salt able to enhance the interaction κ-CG/saliva ions. HS extract, which is rich in phytochemicals such as polyphenols, polysaccharides and organic acids, was selected due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. For HS extraction, three different methodologies (maceration, Ultrasound Assisted Extraction (UAE) and Microwave Assisted Extraction (MAE)) were compared in terms of extraction yield and extract antioxidant activity, revealing that MAE was the best procedure. Rheological and mucoadhesive properties of HS-loaded formulations were investigated. Such formulations were characterized by a low viscosity at 25 °C, guaranteeing an easy administration, a proper in situ gelation behavior and marked elastic and mucoadhesive properties at 37 °C, functional to a protective action towards the damaged mucosa. Finally, the biocompatibility and the proliferative effect of HS-loaded formulations, as well as their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, were proved in vitro on human dermal fibroblasts.

Hydrogen-Assisted Thermal Treatment of Electrode Materials for Electrochemical Double-Layer Capacitors.

The capacitance of electrode materials used in electrochemical double-layer capacitors (EDLCs) is currently limited by several factors, including inaccessible isolated micropores in high-surface area carbons, the finite density of states resulting in a quantum capacitance in series to Helmholtz double-layer capacitance, and the presence of surface impurities, such as functional groups and adsorbed species. To unlock the full potential of EDLC active materials and corresponding electrodes, several post-production treatments are commonly proposed to improve their capacitance and, thus, the energy density of the corresponding devices. In this work, we report a systematic study of the effect of a prototypical treatment, namely H2-assisted thermal treatment, on the chemical, structural, and thermal properties of activated carbon and corresponding electrodes. By combining multiple characterization techniques, we clarify the actual origins of the improvement of the performance (e.g., > +35% energy density for the investigated power densities in the 0.5-45 kW kg-1 range) of the EDLCs based on treated electrodes compared to the case based on the pristine electrodes. Contrary to previous works supporting a questionable graphitization of the activated carbon at temperatures <1000 °C, we found that a "surface graphitization" of the activated carbon, detected by spectroscopic analysis, is mainly associated with the desorption of surface contaminants. The elimination of surface impurities, including adsorbed species, improves the surface capacitance of the activated carbon (CsurfAC) by +37.1 and +36.3% at specific currents of 1 and 10 A g-1, respectively. Despite the presence of slight densification of the activated carbon upon the thermal treatment, the latter still improves the cell gravimetric capacitance normalized on the mass of the activated carbon only (CgAC), e.g., + 28% at 1 A g-1. Besides, our holistic approach identifies the change in the active material and binder contents as a concomitant cause of the increase of cell gravimetric capacitance (Cg), accounting for the mass of all of the electrode materials measured for treated electrodes compared to pristine ones. Overall, this study provides new insights into the relationship between the modifications of the electrode materials induced by H2-assisted thermal treatments and the performance of the resulting EDLCs.