Emulsion Electrospinning for Drug Delivery: Two Encapsulation Methods

SANCHEZ M.A.; ANDREA P. RODRIGUEZ; MONSALVE LEANDRO; GEORGIADOU S

Austin Journal of Pharmacology and Therapeutics

Austin Publishing group

Año: 2020 vol. 8 p. 1 - 8

2373-6208

One major technique to fabricate core-shell fibers is emulsionelectrospinning due to its simple setup and potential to preserve the bioactivityof a loaded agent within the core. Here, we explore two different emulsionelectrospinning approaches to encapsulate a hydrophilic drug, as LidocaineHydrochloride (LidHCl), inside a hydrophobic polymer fiber, as Poly-Lactic Acid(PLA) in a core-shell structure. Therefore, we incorporate the drug in the fibercore by means of an aqueous phase containing or lacking a polymeric matrixPolyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) to disperse the drug. We studied the electrospinnabilityof PLA-based emulsion solutions to produce LidHCl-loaded smooth fibers byvarying the applied voltage and the tip-to-collector distance. We evaluated themorphology and chemical properties of emulsion electrospun fibers by fieldemission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy andX-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Finally, we analyzed the drug release profileof both core-shell structures and compared them with blend PLA-LidHCl fibersystem. Analysis revealed that emulsion electrospun nanofibers were ableto encapsulate the drug within the fibers in both cases. However, PVA matrixinside the core played a key role on the encapsulation and spatial distribution ofthe drug and therefore on its release. Results suggest that the in vitro releaseprofile of a hydrophilic drug could be tailored by the presence of the inner matrixpolymer enabling the production of electrospun fibers with desired features.