Nanofibers represent an attractive novel drug delivery system for prolonged and controlled release. However, sustained release of hydrophilic drugs, like ciprofloxacin hydrochloride (CIP), from polymeric nanofibers is not an easy task. The present study investigates the effect of different hydrophobic polymers (PCL and PMMA) alone in monolithic nanofibers or with hydrophilic polymers (PVA, PEO, and chitosan) in blended nanofibers aiming to achieve sustained CIP release. CIP release from PCL nanofibers was 46% and from PMMA just 1.5% over 40 day period. Thus, PMMA holds great promise for modification of CIP release from blended nanofibers. PMMA blends with 10% PEO, PVA, or chitosan were used to electrospin nanofibers from solution in the mixture of acetic and formic acid. These nanofibers exhibited different drug-release profiles: PEO containing nanofiber mats demonstrated high burst effect, chitosan containing mats revealed very slow gradual release, and PVA containing mats yielded smaller burst effect with favorable sustained release. We have also shown that gradual sustain release of antibiotic like CIP can be additionally tuned over 18 days with various blend ratios of PMMA with PVA or chitosan reaching almost 100%. A mathematical model in agreement with the experimental observation revealed that the sustained CIP release from the blended nanofibers corresponded to the two-stage desorption process.
Keywords: ciprofloxacin hydrochloride; desorption; drug release mechanism; hydrophilic drug; nanofibers; periodontal disease; sustained release.