A hairy, water-in-oil-in-water microemulsion for prolonged delivery of one or more active ingredients while adhering to target tissues.

Microparticles are promising drug delivery platforms due to their biocompatibility and stability. However, existing particle-based drug delivery systems are unable to fulfill the needs for prolonged delivery of drugs to a given area, as they will circulate freely in the body instead of residing in their desired locations for a certain amount of time.

The inventors have developed a water-in-oil-in-water microcapsule with sticky or hairy projections that lend strong adhesive properties and can be loaded with drugs. These microcapsules can remain in their desired location even under frequent clearing and achieve prolonged drug release.

Adhesive microparticles are produced through evaporation-induced self-assembly of amphiphilic copolymers. Drugs are loaded in advance of a dual-emulsion-based process, whereby microfluidic systems are used to combine aqueous and oil phases at the appropriate ratios. Finally, emulsions are processed further to produce the adhesive and hairy dendritic projections of the microcapsules.

• Unique hairy structure endows the dendritic particles with stronger adhesion properties compared to traditional spherical particles
• Sustained drug release up to 20 hours
• Encapsulate both water-soluble and -insoluble agents
• Biocompatible
• Multiple schemes for microparticle formulation
• Successful adhesion in wet tissue environments