Bioelastic Materials for Drug Addiction Intervention

With the present compelling need for treatment of narcotic addiction, there is the requirementfor a controlled release device that would ensure compliance with a narcotic antagonist regimen, butwhich could be removable should the patient's circumstance require it. Promising in this regard arebioelastic materials (elastic and plastic protein-based polymers) with compositions [1] that have beenshown to be remarkably biocompatible; [2] that do not elicit fibrous encapsulation; [3] that can be loadedwith high concentrations of drugs; [4] that are transductional and can be designed such that manydifferent energy inputs can control release by contraction or by swelling and where chemical clocks withhalf-lives of days to decades could control rate of release by surface swelling; and [5] that would alsodegrade at the drug-poor swollen surface of the monolith to release natural amino acids. The specificaims are [1] to design and prepare two elastic and one plastic protein-based polymers by chemicalsynthesis and by genetic engineering and microbial biosynthesis to provide a range of matrices withpotential for quite different release profiles; [2] to utilize transitional properties of the bioelastic materialsto load antagonist into both viscoelastic phases for possible injection and matrices for implantation bytrocar; [3] to determine release profiles without and with chemical clocks which induce controlledswelling with coupled release of antagonist and initiate degradation; and [4] to evaluate rate ofdegradation of an elastic and a plastic matrix composition as intramuscular implants in the rabbit.