Recent advances in electrospun for drug delivery purpose

Abstract

Electrospun, an advanced technology, has been successfully employed for fibre production and offers many merits in novel drug delivery systems (DDSs). In recent years, electrospun has gained significant attention and attraction of the scientists in soaring numbers. This technology is superior to other technologies in fabricating the fibres which range from micrometers to manometers scale. The selection of appropriate polymers, electrospun processes and electrospun parameters play important roles in controlling the drug release while, treating serious illness. Besides, electrospraying process has similar characteristics to the electrospun and is presented briefly here. Further, in vivo and in vitro evaluations of the electrospun nanofibers are comprehensively discussed. In addition, the electrospun nanotechnology has been exploited to design drug release systems, investigate drug’s pharmacokinetics and further develop DDS. The electrospun nanofibers improve bioactivity of various types of drugs including water-insoluble, soluble, anticancer and antibacterial drugs and genetic materials. In the end, the prospects and challenges in the process of designing drug-loaded electrospun nanofibers are discussed in detail.

Keywords:

• Electrospun
• drug delivery system
• electrospraying
• polymers
• electrospun nanofibers

Acknowledgements

The first author and the corresponding author contribute to the drafting of the manuscript and the other authors contribute to revising of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China (No. ZR2015HM032).