Doped halloysite nanotubes as a nanocontainer for the fabrication of ciprofloxacin hydrochloride loaded 3D printed scaffolds

Abstract

Burn injuries are considered to be the most catastrophic form of skin injury, with a slight risk of mortality. This type of injury has a significant negative impact on both individuals and health care system. The hollow nano-tubular structures of doped halloysite nanotubes (DHNTs) facilitate in loading a wide variety of active molecules and make a potential nanocarrier for the delivery of drugs. Coincidentally, the high mechanical strength, good biocompatibility, and hemostasis properties of DHNTs offer a new platform for the fabrication of scaffolds to promote faster wound healing activity. Ciprofloxacin hydrochloride (Cip HCl) was chosen as the model drug to control the bacterial proliferation at the site of injury. Therefore, the present study was aimed to design a customized drug loaded nano-polymeric scaffolds by three dimensional (3D) printing techniques for tissue engineered applications in pharmaceutical sciences. Cip HCl loaded DHNTs coated poly vinyl alcohol pellets were extruded for the preparation of filaments by the hot melt extrusion process, and the prepared filaments were further processed for the fabrication of 3D printed scaffolds by fused deposit modelling (FDM) technique. The pellets were free-flowing with a coating efficiency of 60.23–82.65%. Scaffold 1 (S1) presented an excellent porous structure, while scaffold 2 (S2) revealed a slight porous structure with the porosity of 60%. The average pore diameter for both scaffolds ranged from 50.82 ± 23 to 93.06 ± 52 μm. S1 expressed a conventional release pattern of 73.35% ± 0.02 within 2 h of the time profile, S2 evidenced an inaugural burst release of 42.84% ± 0.05 at 2 h, followed by a sustained release of 85.54% ± 0.17 up to 12 h. Thus the FDM technique proves to be an ideal approach for the design of drug nanofiller coated polymeric 3D scaffolds for personalized drug delivery systems in the arena of tissue engineering and pharmaceutical sciences.