Gel eases inflammatory bowel problems
A gel that sticks to affected tissue and delivers medicine gradually over time could help treat some inflammatory bowel problems, researchers say.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of inflammatory conditions of the colon and small intestine. Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are the principal types of inflammatory bowel disease
Patients with ulcerative colitis often have to rely on medicine given by enema, but this can be uncomfortable, messy and inconvenient.
Now a US team has developed a hydrogel that attaches to ulcers and slowly releases a drug to help treat them. The early findings are reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Medicines taken orally they are often broken down before they reach the affected area. Delivering the drug more directly through an enema - which has to be done regularly - can also be difficult and inconvenient for patients. To overcome this problem, US researchers took a gel called ascorbyl palmitate, which is safe and already approved for use in humans.
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