Abstract
Electrospun fibers have emerged as a relatively new delivery platform to improve active agent retention and delivery for intravaginal applications. While uniaxial fibers have been explored in a variety of applications including intravaginal delivery, the consideration of more advanced fiber architectures may offer new options to improve delivery to the female reproductive tract. In this review, we summarize the advancements of electrospun coaxial, multilayered, and nanoparticle-fiber architectures utilized in other applications and discuss how different material combinations within these architectures provide varied durations of release, here categorized as either transient (within 24 h), short-term (24 h to one week), or sustained (beyond one week). We seek to systematically relate material type and fiber architecture to active agent release kinetics. Last, we explore how lessons derived from these architectures may be applied to address the needs of future intravaginal delivery platforms for a given prophylactic or therapeutic application. The overall goal of this review is to provide a summary of different fiber architectures that have been useful for active agent delivery and to provide guidelines for the development of new formulations that exhibit release kinetics relevant to the time frames and the diversity of active agents needed in next-generation multipurpose applications.
Highlights
Intravaginal delivery is an effective strategy to improve the localization of antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, chemotherapeutic, and contraceptive agents within the female reproductive tract (FRT) [1,2].Relative to oral administration routes, intravaginal delivery localizes agents to the FRT, avoiding both the harsh gastrointestinal environment and hepatic first pass effect
Electrospun fibers have been explored as a multipurpose delivery platform to prevent infections (STIs)
Withinand thetreat pastsexually decade,transmitted electrospun fibers have been as aapplications, multipurpose delivery typically been uniaxially electrospun to release active agents targeted to HIV-1/HSV-2 infections platform to prevent and treat sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
Summary
Intravaginal delivery is an effective strategy to improve the localization of antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, chemotherapeutic, and contraceptive agents within the female reproductive tract (FRT) [1,2]. Relative to oral administration routes, intravaginal delivery localizes agents to the FRT, avoiding both the harsh gastrointestinal environment and hepatic first pass effect. This results in an increase in drug bioavailability within target tissue and corresponding functional activity by decreasing off-target effects and systemic exposure [3]. One of the most important components of the FRTtoisprovide the mucus layer, which protectsand the agents must be overcome efficacious prophylaxis epitheliumOne andof lamina propria from incoming pathogens
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call