ARRA: Enhanced Oral Tissue Repair via Self Assembled Polymer Multi-layer Barriers for the Delivery of Antioxidants

Chronic soft tissue oral wounds (e,g" Mucositis, aphthous stomatitis and periodontal disease) can be very painful and often are to develop a simple to apply polymeric barrier for the enhanced healing of these oral wounds, It is hypothesized that by rinsing the oral cavity with an aqueous polymeric solution, which can self assemble at the site of injury via fibrin targeting, it is possible to form a barrier that act as a platform for the sustained antioxidant therapy improving wound healing by suppressing chronic inflammation, In this proiect we ro ose to s nthesize In-situ self assembled la er b la er 01 mers films rovidin a rotective barrier and a latform for future delive of antioxidants for the treatment of local oxidative stress mediated tissue dama e thereb reducin healin time im rovin a wide variet of oral re air and re eneration thera ies. Functionalized polymers of Poly(ethylene glycol)-g-poly(methacrylic acid) and poly(methacrylic acid) will be synthesized and systematically evaluated to determine identify key parameters in the layer by layer barrier assembly. These polymers will use fibrin targeting via peptide modification, and biotin-streptavidin binding for layer by layer assembly. The biochemical stability of the barriers in the presence of hum2n saliva will be tested using radiotracing. Mechanical barrier stability will be tested using a static load and cyclic contact mechanical model. Key parameters affecting barrier strength and targeting (e.g. polymer MW, numter of layers, degree of target moiety functionalization) will be identified using a statistical design approach.