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. 2009 Mar 18:3:31-39.
doi: 10.4137/sart.s1050.

Carbon Nanotube Membranes for use in the Transdermal Treatment of Nicotine Addiction and Opioid Withdrawal Symptoms

Caroline L Strasinger  1 , Nicole N Scheff, Ji Wu, Bruce J Hinds, Audra L Stinchcomb
Affiliations

Carbon Nanotube Membranes for use in the Transdermal Treatment of Nicotine Addiction and Opioid Withdrawal Symptoms

Caroline L Strasinger et al. Subst Abuse. .

Abstract

Transdermal systems are attractive methods of drug administration specifically when treating patients for drug addiction. Current systems however are deficient in therapies that allow variable flux values of drug, such as nicotine for smoking cessation or complex dosing regimens using clonidine when treating opioid withdrawal symptoms. Through the use of functionalized carbon nanotube (CNT) membranes, drug delivery to the skin can be controlled by applying a small electrical bias to create a programmable drug delivery system. Clearly, a transdermal patch system that can be tailored to an individual's needs will increase patient compliance as well as provide much more efficient therapy. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the applicability of using carbon nanotube membranes in transdermal systems for treatment of drug abuse.

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Figures

Figure 1a
Figure 1a
Representative nicotine plasma profile of a cigarette smoker. Asterisks indicate the smoking of a cigarette.
Figure 1b
Figure 1b
Representative 5 day opioid withdrawal symptom treatment with clonidine dosing scheme. On day one two 0.1 mg doses are given for a total of 0.2 mg of clonidine, on day two three doses are given and so on.
Figure 2a
Figure 2a
No or limited drug diffusion (depending on the size of the attached dendrimer) occurs when a positive bias is applied to the membrane. Each nanotube has multiple dendrimers attached to opening as shown in the inset, for simplification purposes only one is shown in the larger figures.
Figure 2b
Figure 2b
Drug passes through the nanotubes when a negative bias is applied. The dendrimers remain upright opening the tube because of the surrounding negative charges as shown by the arrows.
Figure 3a
Figure 3a
Schematic of patch layering using one CNT membrane to produce two different transdermal fluxes.
Figure 3b
Figure 3b
Schematic of patch layering using two CNT membranes to produce three different transdermal fluxes.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Associated figure for mathematical model equation 2.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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