Melt-Blown and Electrospun Drug-Loaded Polymer Fiber Mats for Dissolution Enhancement: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Melt blowing (MB) was investigated to prepare a fast dissolving fibrous drug-loaded solid dispersion and compared with solvent-based electrospinning (SES) and melt electrospinning (MES). As a conventional solvent-free technique coupled with melt extrusion and using a high-speed gas stream, MB can provide high-quality micro- and nanofibers at industrial throughput levels. Carvedilol, a weak-base model drug with poor water solubility, was processed using a common composition optimized for the fiber spinning and blowing methods based on a hydrophilic vinylpyrrolidone-vinyl acetate copolymer (PVPVA64) and PEG 3000 plasticizer. Scanning electron microscopy combined with fiber diameter analysis showed diameter distributions characteristic to each prepared fibrous fabrics (the mean value increased toward SES<MB<MES). Differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction studies revealed that the incorporated drug was in amorphous form regardless the preparation method. The HPLC studies demonstrated that all of the materials produced by the different techniques passed the regulatory purity requirements. The fibers exhibited ultrafast drug release tested under neutral pH conditions; the melt-blown sample dissolved within 2 min owing to its large specific surface area. The presented results confirm the applicability of MB as a novel formulation technique for polymer-based drug delivery systems.

Scaled-up preparation of drug-loaded electrospun polymer fibres and investigation of their continuous processing to tablet form

“…An increase in viscosity usually leads to thicker fibres [54,55]. However, it can occur that fibres with larger diameter release the encapsulated drug faster than nanofibres due to the easier accessibility [56]. Based on the SEM images, it can be stated that the majority of the fibres prepared by SNES possesses a diameter below 5 µm (4.26±2.08 μm), therefore their specific surface is fairly large.…”

AC and DC electrospinning of hydroxypropylmethylcellulose with polyethylene oxides as secondary polymer for improved drug dissolution

“…Applied accelerating voltage and working distance were 15-30 kV and 10 mm, respectively. A randomized fiber diameter determination method was used based on SEM imaging as described in our previous work (Balogh et al, 2015b), n=100 measurements were made on each sample.…”

“…Solventbased electrospinning has been found to be an excellent method also for the preparation of solid dispersions due to the fast and, thus, very efficient amorphization of the drug enclosed in the fibers owing a large surface area Yu et al, 2009). Although various modifications have been published in respect to the ES setup related mostly to the spinneret (e.g., needleless (Molnár and Nagy, 2016), side-by-side or multiaxial electrospinning (Illangakoon et al, 2015;Yang et al, 2016;Yu et al, 2015)), the challenge of increasing the productivity of ES could not have been addressed considering the high output of other fiber formation techniques such as melt blowing (Balogh et al, 2015b). Recent efforts for scaling up of ES combine the electrostatic field with another fiber formation force such as centrifugal force at low (Lomov and Molnár, 2015) and high (Nagy et al, 2015) frequencies, or a blow of air (Balogh et al, 2015c).…”

Influence of Working Temperature on The Formation of Electrospun Polymer Nanofibers

“…This paper demonstrates a concept that proposes a substantial development space for optimizing experimental or production conditions to create high-quality nanofibers in an economical manner. Among these conditions, such as applied voltage, fluid flow rate, fiber-collecting distance, environmental humidity, and temperature, working fluid temperature has received the least attention in terms of influence on the formation of electrospun polymer nanofibers from solution electrospinning, although reports regarding melt electrospinning can be found in publications [11]. …”