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

皮肤和口腔炎症对患者的总体健康和自尊有着深远的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，在任何时候都影响着大约19亿人（几乎占世界人口的三分之一）。相比之下，口腔粘膜疾病影响近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。这些炎性组织疾病的治疗通常涉及局部和全身治疗，具有一些局限性，例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。大麻产品的安全交付也是一个挑战。 该研究项目旨在设计一种载有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。两种不同的天然（纤维蛋白和明胶）和两种不同的合成（PVA和PU）聚合物将在聚合物中的大麻产品负载和分布、对人体组织的递送概况、大麻活性的保存和组织炎症的控制方面进行比较。我们打算与生物技术合作伙伴合作开发一种易于生产的大麻产品输送系统（DS）。该DS将易于使用并且覆盖大的皮肤表面而没有不利影响。所设计的DS将对用户具有成本效益，并为生物技术合作伙伴带来经济效益。

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.