Engineering cannabis-loaded hydrogels/emulsions to treat inflammatory tissue diseases.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Skin and mouth inflammations have a profound and potentially devastating impact on patients' general well-being and self-esteem. It is estimated that skin-related illnesses rank as the fourth most frequent cause of all human diseases, affecting approximately 1.9 billion people at any time (almost one-third of the world's population). In contrast, illnesses of the oral mucosa affect close to 64% of patients. For all skin diseases reported in Canada between 1990 and 2017, disability-adjusted life years increased by 8%, with significant health and economic impacts. Treatment of these inflammatory tissue diseases often involves topical and systemic therapies with some limitations, such as toxicity and other negative outcomes. Medical cannabis products could prove to be a highly promising alternative. The safe delivery of cannabis products is also a challenge. This research project aims to design a cannabis product-loaded biopolymer to deliver cannabis products to prevent and/or cure tissue inflammatory diseases. Two different natural (fibrin and gelatin) and two different synthetic (PVA and PU) polymers will be compared in terms of cannabis product loading and distribution in polymers, delivery profile to human tissues, preservation of the cannabis activities, and the control of tissue inflammation. We intend to develop an easy to produce cannabis products delivery system (DS) in collaboration with a biotech partner. This DS will be easy to use and to cover a large skin surface without adverse effect. The designed DS will be cost-effective to the users and economic benefit to the biotech partner.