Mussel-inspired protein-mediated surface functionalization of electrospun nanofibers for pH-responsive drug delivery

Abstract

pH-responsive drug delivery systems could mediate drug releasing rate by changing pH values at specific time as per the pathophysiological need of the disease. Herein, we demonstrated a mussel inspired protein polydopamine coating can tune the loading and releasing rate of charged molecules from electrospun poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) nanofibers in solutions with different pH values. In vitro release profiles showed that the positive charged molecules released significantly faster in acidic than those in neutral and basic environments within the same incubation time. The results of fluorescein diacetate staining and 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assays showed the viability of cancer cells after treatment with doxorubicin released media at different pH values qualitatively and quantitatively, indicating the media contained doxorubicin which was released in solutions at low pH values could kill significantly higher number of cells than that released in solutions at high pH values. Together, the pH-responsive drug delivery systems based on polydopamine-coated PCL nanofibers could have potential applications in oral delivery of anticancer drugs for treating gastric cancer and vaginal delivery of anti-viral drugs or anti-inflammatory drugs, which could raise their efficacy, deliver them to the specific target, and minimize their toxic side effects.

Preparation of asiaticoside-loaded coaxially electrospinning nanofibers and their effect on deep partial-thickness burn injury

“…Fiber produced using this process has diameters on the order of a few micrometers down to the tens of nanometers. The capacity to easily produce materials at this biological size scale has created a renewed interest in electrospinning for applications in drug delivery [8][9][10].…”

Incorporating small molecules or biologics into nanofibers for optimized drug release: A review

“…The air-plasma treatments resulted in the development of new moieties of the polymer (e.g., carboxyl (-COOH) and hydroxyl (-OH)) and consequently enhanced the hydrophilic properties of the fibre surfaces. The coating with polydopamine enabled the fine tailoring of the pH-responsive release kinetics (Jiang et al, 2014).…”

Functionalization of electrospun poly(caprolactone) fibers for pH-controlled delivery of doxorubicin hydrochloride

“…This phenomenon can be utilized to bind DOX ionically to negatively charged groups, for example negatively charged hydrogels and microgels, and a significant increase in release kinetics was observed in acidic pH [11]. But, very few studies report on pH-responsive smart electrospun fibers for drug delivery due to difficulty in fabrication using electrospinning technique [19].…”

“…Nanofibers prepared by electrospinning offer various advantages such as the high surface area of the fibers leading to efficient drug release, ability to incorporate a wide range of drugs and the ease of fabricating the delivery vehicle in the required architecture/form. In addition to that, the drug release profile can be controlled by altering scaffold properties such as composition, fiber morphology, porosity, surface coating, and form/state of drug molecule [17,19,20]. There are various techniques to incorporate drugs into electrospun fibers such as blending, emulsion electrospinning, co-axial electrospinning, and functionalization of fibers leading to binding between the drug and functionalized fibers [21].…”