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

皮肤和口腔炎症对患者的整体健康和自尊有深远和潜在的破坏性影响。据估计，与皮肤有关的疾病是所有人类疾病的第四大最常见原因，随时影响约19亿人（几乎占世界人口的三分之一）。相比之下，口腔黏膜疾病影响了近64%的患者。在1990年至2017年期间，加拿大报告的所有皮肤病中，残疾调整生命年增加了8%，对健康和经济产生了重大影响。这些炎症性组织疾病的治疗通常包括局部和全身治疗，有一些局限性，如毒性和其他负面结果。医用大麻产品可能被证明是一种非常有前途的替代品。大麻产品的安全运输也是一项挑战。本研究项目旨在设计一种装载大麻产品的生物聚合物，以提供大麻产品来预防和/或治疗组织炎症性疾病。将比较两种不同的天然聚合物（纤维蛋白和明胶）和两种不同的合成聚合物（聚乙烯醇和聚氨酯）在聚合物中的大麻产品装载和分布、向人体组织的输送概况、大麻活性的保存和组织炎症的控制。我们打算与生物技术伙伴合作开发一种易于生产的大麻产品输送系统（DS）。这种DS使用方便，可以覆盖大面积的皮肤表面，没有副作用。所设计的DS对用户具有成本效益，对生物技术合作伙伴具有经济效益。

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.