A new deep eutectic solvent-agarose gel with hydroxylated fullerene as electrical “switch” system for drug release

A novel portable conductive system of hydroxylated fullerene (TEGs-C60) embedded on the deep eutectic solvent (DES, choline chloride/malic acid)-agarose gel was developed for on-demand curation with skin contact. It has been found with better elasticity, conductivity and thermal stability than agarose hydrogel. Especially, the electro-responsive drug releasing amount on the skin of mice and live rabbits through small batteries was proved to be 4-5 times of those without electrical stimulation, which reached the level of clinic daily dosage. Meanwhile, it also showed good biocompatibility and much higher antibacterial rate against S. aureus (78.67 ± 0.80 %) together with E. coli (92.08 ± 1.50 %) than those of commercial chitosan gel. The new electrical "switch" gel system provided an effective and useful development strategy for advanced drug delivery.