Preparation and characterization of electrospun PLGA-SF nanofibers as a potential drug delivery system

Abstract

Currently drug-controlled release technology has gained a great deal of attention on the field of biomedicine. Nevertheless, most drug-controlled release systems usually require complex modification. Herein, the monolayer and multilayer structure nanofibers for drug delivery of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), as a model drug, were fabricated using the one-step electrospinning technique for the first time, which was composed with the poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and silk fibroin (SF). Meanwhile, the effects of the mass radio of PLGA to SF on the properties of the electrospun monolayer nanofiber membrane was further investigated. The results of the electrospun monolayer PLGA-SF nanofiber membrane with mass radio of 2:1 displayed significant improvement in hydrophilicity as well as mechanical properties compared to the other mass radio of nanofibers membranes. Moreover, drug release studies revealed that nanofiber membrane with multilayer structure was able to promote a much more sustained release of ASA in comparison with monolayer PLGA-SF nanofibers membranes. More remarkable, the nanofiber membrane with multilayer structure presented good biocompatibility. Overall, these results demonstrate the potential of using PLGA-SF nanofibers with multilayer structure as a scaffold for drug-controlled release.