Achieving Long-Term Sustained Drug Delivery for Electrospun Biopolyester Nanofibrous Membranes by Introducing Cellulose Nanocrystals

Abstract

Electrospun nanofibrous membranes of poly­(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) seems not to be ideal for biomedical applications because of their hydrophobicity, and high crystallinity, as well as weak mechanical properties. It is found that hydrophilic drug such as tetracycline hydrochloride (TH) generally is located on the hydrophobic surface of electrospun PHBV nanofibrous membranes, leading to fast drug release. Therefore, we used cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) as rigid organic nanofillers for PHBV nanofibrous membranes to enhance their mechanical, thermal, and hydrophilic properties. The influences of the CNC contents on microstructures and properties of composite nanofibrous membranes were studied. It is found that at 6 wt % CNC content, the increase of tensile strength by 125%, Young’s modulus by 110%, and maximum decomposition temperature (T max) by 24.3 °C could be achieved, which could be contributed to strong hydrogen bonding between PHBV and CNCs. Moreover, with the introducing of the hydrophilic CNCs, the hydrophilicity of composite nanofibrous membranes was improved gradually. More importantly, good cytocompatibility, high drug loading and long-term sustained release property of composite nanofibrous membranes could be achieved. The maximum drug loading and drug loading efficiency were 25 and 98.8%, respectively, and more than 86% drug content was delivered within 540 h for the nanofibrous composite membranes with 6 wt % CNC content.

Polydopamine/Cellulose Nanofibrils Composite Film as Potential Vehicle for Drug Delivery

“…The EDX analysis of Cl distribution confirmed that TH was distributed both on the surface and inside of the film network (Figure S3). This was consistent with the results of other reports ,…”

“…Previous study reported that the films prepared by casting drug/cationic CNFs dispersion were used to release indomethacin, but the release time was too fast (10‐20 min) . The drug release properties of the cellulose nanocrystals/poly (3‐hydroxybutyrate‐co‐3‐hydroxyvalerate) composite films prepared by electrospinning were also investigated . Tetracycline hydrochloride (TH) was used as a model drug in their work, and the composite films had long‐term sustained release property.…”

Biocompatible and Biodegradable Electrospun Nanofibrous Membranes Loaded with Grape Seed Extract for Wound Dressing Application

“…The encapsulation efficiency (EE) is an important parameter to evaluate the feasibility of clinical application of the developed material [44]. At the theoretical concentrations of 10%, the EE values of GSE were 88 4 ± 2 1 and 86 8 ± 1 7% for PLA and PLA/PEO nanofibers, respectively.…”

“…The PLA nanofibrous membranes released about 60% of extract content after 24 h, but when the time was prolonged to 720 h, only an additional 4% content was released ( Figure 5(a)). The initial burst release phenomenon is probably related to the drug entrapped near to the surface of the nanofibers, leading to a high initial drug delivery [44] that cannot persist for longer times. In contrast, PLA/PEO electrospun nanofibers exhibit a more sustained release pattern with a lower burst phenomenon, in which only about 20% of drug content was released over the same period of 24 h (Figure 5(b)).…”

Long time release of water soluble drug from hydrophilic nanofibrous material

“…Drug‐loaded hydrophilic nanofibrous materials were frequently used in biomedical fields, such as wound healing, tissue engineering, and so forth . However, serve burst release was frequently occurred, which was due to the large surface area of the nanofibrous mats and the quick dissolution of the water soluble drugs.…”