Nanofibers and their biomedical use

Abstract

The idea of creating replacement for damaged or diseased tissue, which will mimic the physiological conditions and simultaneously promote regeneration by patients’ own cells, has been a major challenge in the biomedicine for more than a decade. Therefore, nanofibers are a promising solution to address these challenges. These are solid polymer fibers with nanosized diameter, which show improved properties compared to the materials of larger dimensions or forms and therefore cause different biological responses. On the nanometric level, nanofibers provide a biomimetic environment, on the micrometric scale three-dimensional architecture with the desired surface properties regarding the intended application within the body, while on the macrometric scale mechanical strength and physiological acceptability. In the review, the development of nanofibers as tissue scaffolds, modern wound dressings for chronic wound therapy and drug delivery systems is highlighted. Research substantiates the effectiveness of nanofibers for enhanced tissue regeneration, but ascertains that evidences from clinical studies are currently lacking. Nevertheless, due to the development of nano- and bio-sciences, products on the market can be expected in the near future.

Critical attributes of nanofibers: Preparation, drug loading, and tissue regeneration

“…In the case of core-shell nanofibers, the core can represent a drug reservoir and the shell a barrier, which protects the incorporated drug and controls its release rate (Yu et al, 2013b). The burst release effect from such nanofibers is almost negligible and the entire release profile is sustained (Rosic et al, 2013). Furthermore, the various layers of such core-shell nanofibers can assure different drug release kinetics, resulting in drug delivery systems with complex release profiles.…”

Electrospun polycaprolactone nanofibers as a potential oromucosal delivery system for poorly water-soluble drugs

“…They have already demonstrated important applicability in biomedicine, where numerous studies have already described in the field of tissue engineering, wound healing as well as drug delivery (Rošic et al, 2013). Immediate or modified drug release can be achieved by the selection of a polymer for nanofiber production and the manner of the drug loading.…”

High speed electrospinning for scaled-up production of amorphous solid dispersion of itraconazole

“…One of the most promising nanotechnology-based approaches is electrostatic spinning, which is a remarkably simple and continuous way for producing nanofibers (Lukas et al, 2009). Such nanofibers proved to be valuable in the fields of filtration , composites , textiles, catalysts , medicine anti-counterfeiting (Huang et al, 2010) and medical researches (wound dressing (Rosic et al, 2013), wound healing (Macri et al, 2012;Pelipenko et al, 2013), topical therapy (Huang et al, 2012a(Huang et al, ,b, 2014Nagy et al, 2014) and tissue engineering Driscoll et al, 2013;Nagy et al, 2013)). Electrospinning technology has recently attracted an increased academic and industrial attention because it is an effective way to prepare nanofibrous drug formulations with an enhanced dissolution (Verreck et al, 2003;Brewster et al, 2004;Nagy et al, 2010,c;Yu et al, 2013a,b,c,c;Vrbata et al, 2013;Wagner et al, 2011;Balogh et al, 2014;Li et al, 2013b;Williams et al, 2012;Yan et al, 2014) by combining a number of strategies and approaches.…”