Abstract
The drug-loaded composite electrospun nanofiber has attracted more attention in biomedical field, especially in cancer therapy. In this study, a composite nanofiber was fabricated by electrospinning for cancer treatment. Firstly, the carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were selected as carriers to load the anticancer drug—doxorubicin (DOX) hydrochloride. Secondly, the DOX-loaded CNTs (DOX@CNTs) were incorporated into the poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanofibers via electrospinning. Finally, a new drug-loaded nanofibrous scaffold (PLGA/DOX@CNTs) was formed. The properties of the prepared composite nanofibrous mats were characterized by various techniques. The release profiles of the different DOX-loaded nanofibers were measured, and the in vitro antitumor efficacy against HeLa cells was also evaluated. The results showed that DOX-loaded CNTs can be readily incorporated into the nanofibers with relatively uniform distribution within the nanofibers. More importantly, the drug from the composite nanofibers can be released in a sustained and prolonged manner, and thereby, a significant antitumor efficacy in vitro is obtained. Thus, the prepared composite nanofibrous mats are a promising alternative for cancer treatment.
Highlights
Up to date, cancer is still one of the deadliest killers to human lives, because both the incidence and mortality rates of cancers are continuously rising [1, 2]
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are classified as single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) or multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs), which depend on the number of graphene layer which a single nanotubes is composed [24]
When the content of CNTs was up to 2 %, the fibers of poly(lactic acid-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA)/2 % CNTs were changed to be swollen to a certain extent (Fig. 2c), but the fiber morphology still maintained
Summary
Cancer is still one of the deadliest killers to human lives, because both the incidence and mortality rates of cancers (including lung, stomach, liver, prostate, colorectum, breast cancers, and so on) are continuously rising [1, 2]. The simple introduction of drug into polymer matrix always leads to inevitable burst drug release, since the drug molecules might migrate on or near the fiber surfaces because of the high ionic strength in drug/ polymer solution and the rapid evaporation of the solvent during electrospinning To address this limitation, it is highly desirable to develop efficient nanocarrier-mediated nanofibrous delivery systems which may serve as barrier for improving the safety of anticancer drugs and avoid drug premature burst release under physiological conditions [7, 17,18,19,20,21]. The objective of this work, was to examine the hypothesis of preparing a sustained anticancer drug release system by doping drug-loaded CNTs into PLGA nanofibers
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