Elecrospun nanofibers: The versatile platform as a drug delivery system in healthcare

Abstract

Nanofibers are fabricated using several polymers, carbon, and semiconductors having cross-sectional diameter less than 100 nm. The exceptional state-of-art 3-D architecture and remarkable physico-chemical characteristics of nanofibers have found versatile applications in various fields. This review provides insights into preparation methods and applications of nanofibers. Nanofibers may be prepared by several methods like electrospinning, self-assembly, phase separation, anti-solvent induced polymer precipitation, etc.; however, electrospinning is the mostly employed technique for nanofibers fabrication. Electrospinning is known to be an electrohydrodynamic process in which a liquid droplet is electrically charged, resulting in the formation of a jet, which is then stretched and elongated to produce fiber(s). The nanofibers have an enormous surface area to volume ratio, resulting in a high percentage of porosity of nanofibrous mats. These characteristics allowed higher drug loading, especially biological macromolecules albeit of their large molecular size. Hence, the nanofibers fetched attention for their application in the healthcare and biomedical engineering sector for the treatment and management of diabetic foot ulcers, cancer, microbiological disorders, wound healing, and cardiovascular diseases. Additionally, nanofiber mats possess a 3-D architecture as well as nanofibers can either be oriented randomly or in an ordered fashion for tissue engineering-related drug delivery applications. The above-mentioned peculiarities enables nanofiber scaffolds to mimics human tissues and hence are being explored for their applications in tissue engineering, artificial organ, filtering aids for microbes, cosmeceutical industry, etc. Conclusively, the nanofibers can serve as an excellent drug delivery and tissue-engineering platform for the treatment in healthcare.