Electrospinning Preparation of Timosaponin B‐II‐Loaded PLLA Nanofibers and Their Antitumor Recurrence Activities In Vivo

Abstract

Poly(L‐lactic)‐acid (PLLA) as a drug carrier and a water‐soluble drug timosaponin B‐II (TB‐II) as a model drug were selected to prepare drug‐loaded nanofibers by electrospinning. The average diameters of pure PLLA nanofibers and TB‐II‐loaded nanofibers were 212.5 ± 68.5, 219.7 ± 57.8, 232.8 ± 66.9, and 232.9 ± 97.7 nm, respectively. DSC and XRD results demonstrated that TB‐II was well incorporated into the nanofibers in an amorphous state. FI‐TR spectroscopy indicated that TB‐II had good compatibility with PLLA. In vitro release studies showed that TB‐II was rapidly released from the nanofibers within 6 h, followed by a gradual release for long time. In vivo biosafety test revealed no noticeable toxicity of these TB‐II nanofibers. The TB‐II released from the nanofibers had obvious inhibition effect against human hepatocellular carcinoma SMMC 7721 cells both in vivo and in vitro. It was confirmed that the TB‐II‐loaded nanofibers were a sustained delivery system which could effectively inhibit the tumor growth and recurrence after surgery.