Curdlan-Reinforced Chitosan/Polyacrylate Interpenetrating Hydrogels with Enhanced Mechanical Stability for Gastric Retention and pH-Responsive Drug Release
Yuzhong Feng, Peng Wu, Ping Zhang, Ni Wang, Ke Wang, Shuye Qi, Xiaodong Chen · 2026
Read Curdlan-Reinforced Chitosan/Polyacrylate Interpenetrating Hydrogels with Enhanced Mechanical Stability for Gastric Retention and pH-Responsive Drug Release by Yuzhong Feng, Peng Wu, Ping Zhang, Ni Wang, Ke Wang, Shuye Qi, Xiaodong Chen (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13206096.txt.
Description
Yuzhong Feng and co-authors built a gel that can sit in the stomach and release a drug slowly, in a 2026 paper. Gels made from natural sugars swell to stay in the stomach, but swelling can make them break apart. The team wove a third sugar, curdlan, into a two polymer network to make it tougher. Gels were made with several curdlan levels and tested in depth.
A two percent curdlan level gave the best mix of hardness and stiffness while keeping swelling strong. In acid like that of the stomach, the gel swelled fast and hugely yet held together. In a lab stomach simulator, it stayed for up to five hours. A diabetes drug loaded in the gel came out over eight hours in a diffusion driven pattern, governed mainly by acidity. Acid shaped the gel's pores and stretch, which in turn set the drug's path out.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Yuzhong Feng, Peng Wu, Ping Zhang, Ni Wang, Ke Wang, Shuye Qi, Xiaodong Chen |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 52 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |