3D-Printed Drug Delivery Systems: The Effects of Drug Incorporation Methods on Their Release and Antibacterial Efficiency

Abstract

Additive manufacturing technologies have been widely used in the medical field. More specifically, fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D-printing technology has been thoroughly investigated to produce drug delivery systems. Recently, few researchers have explored the possibility of directly 3D printing such systems without the need for producing a filament which is usually the feedstock material for the printer. This was possible via direct feeding of a mixture consisting of the carrier polymer and the required drug. However, as this direct feeding approach shows limited homogenizing abilities, it is vital to investigate the effect of the pre-mixing step on the quality of the 3D printed products. Our study investigates the two commonly used mixing approaches—solvent casting and powder mixing. For this purpose, polycaprolactone (PCL) was used as the main polymer under investigation and gentamicin sulfate (GS) was selected as a reference. The produced systems’ efficacy was investigated for bacterial and biofilm prevention. Our data show that the solvent casting approach offers improved drug distribution within the polymeric matrix, as was observed from micro-computed topography and scanning electron microscopy visualization. Moreover, this approach shows a higher drug release rate and thus improved antibacterial efficacy. However, there were no differences among the tested approaches in terms of thermal and mechanical properties.

Coupling Additive Manufacturing with Hot Melt Extrusion Technologies to Validate a Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Mouse Model

“…TPU was loaded with CPX using the solvent casting approach adapted from previous work by Shaqour et al [ 22 ] ( Figure 1 A). To prepare the TPU-CPX film, 5% ( w/w ) of CPX was suspended in an organic solvent (chloroform) (Chempur, Piekary Śląskie, Poland) and sonicated for 30 min.…”

Embracing Additive Manufacturing Technology through Fused Filament Fabrication for Antimicrobial with Enhanced Formulated Materials

“…Moreover, the antibacterial property is added with the help of processing techniques such as co-extrusion with particles for instance using chitosan as studied by Mania et al [ 18 ] or using metallic nanoparticles as done by Rezić et al [ 47 ]. Biomedical applications such as dental resins as studied by Bayarsaikhan et al [ 48 ] and drug delivery as highlighted by Shaqour et al [ 49 , 50 ] highly promote a practical approach of using 3D Printing along with compatible antibacterial material. Bartolomé et al [ 51 ] and Navaruckiene et al [ 52 ] both emphasize the use of FFF as a promising approach for bio fabrication of antibacterial material and suggest that using metallic particles alongside biodegradable polymers show great compatibility to the human body and is expected to be considered as the more superior and dynamic approach of development in the field in the upcoming years.…”

3D-Printed Gentamicin-Releasing Poly-ε-Caprolactone Composite Prevents Fracture-Related Staphylococcus aureus Infection in Mice

“…The DSC instrument was equipped with a refrigerated cooling system and dry nitrogen at a flow rate of 50 mL/min. The percentage of PCL crystallinity was calculated based on the following equation using the melt enthalpy obtained in the DSC experiments: is the melting enthalpy of a sample is the PCL content in a sample is the melting enthalpy of 100% crystalline PCL which is 142 J/g [ 9 ] …”

“…Poly-ε-caprolactone (PCL) is commonly used in drug delivery medical applications [ 7 , 8 ]. PCL was selected in our study because of its low melting temperature, biocompatibility, drug release characteristics and biodegradability [ 9 ]. The low processing temperature allows the incorporation of thermally labile drugs to produce new formulations with certain functionalities, such as antimicrobial implantable devices.…”