Microsphere-integrated drug-eluting stents: PLGA microsphere integration in hydrogel coating for local and prolonged delivery of hydrophilic antirestenosis agents

The development of a novel generation of drug-eluting stent (DES) relies upon the idea to obtain very flexible platforms able to overcome some issues associated to available devices and widen their field of application, especially to the currently emerging biotech therapeutics. Here, we propose a new concept of DES named microsphere-integrated drug-eluting stent (MIDES) composed of drug eluting biodegradable poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) microspheres—encapsulating an hydrophilic model molecule (dextran)—fully integrated in a poly(2-hydroxy-ethyl-methacrylate) coating. By implementing a modified spray-coating technique, we have been able to achieve a thin (10 lm), smooth, and homogeneous hydrogel surface embedding underneath a population of two different microparticles formulations—Dex502H and Dex506. The amount of drug can be tailored, resulting in a dextran loading as high as 1.4 lg/cm, by simply reiteration of coating layer deposition making the MIDES a custom-made device where the release kinetics can be further modified by opportunely choosing microsphere properties. DES use is nowadays restricted to delivery of hydrophobic pharmaceuticals; release of hydrophilic therapeutics from MIDES can, however, be finely controlled by specifically engineering biodegradable microspheres. By varying polymer resomer, we obtained a tunable release rate in the first month of delivery. Depending on the microspheres properties release profile changes drastically moving from a biphasic release, in the case of Dex502H, with a burst of about 20% in the first day to a more sustained release for Dex506 particles. As proof of principle, we also demonstrated that MIDES approach can allows the delivery of two different agents opening up the way to a multitherapy in restenosis treatment