Fully supercritical CO2 preparation of a nanostructured MOF composite with application in cutaneous drug delivery

Abstract Supercritical CO2 (scCO2) technology is used here as an efficient method to assist in the preparation of a cutaneous polymeric formulation based on drug containing metal-organic framework composites. The supercritical fluid is used in three steps: (i) as a drying agent for the nanosized mesoporous matrix, (ii) as the impregnation vector of a topical antibiotic drug, and (iii) as a plasticizing and foaming fluid to obtain dispersions of the hybrid material into a biocompatible polymer, e.g., the macroporous patch. The materials were characterized using solid state techniques. The drug delivery and permeation profiles of the patches were investigated applying in vitro and ex vivo tests by using porcine skin. These analyses suggest that scCO2 impregnation is an easy and fast strategy to prepare composite devices able to progressively release and diffuse the incorporated drug throughout the skin, paving the way to efficiently prepare cutaneous devices for topical or systemic therapies.