The advent and growth of resistance phenomena to antibiotics has reached critical levels, invalidating the action of a majority of antibiotic drugs currently used in the clinical field. Several innovative techniques, such as the nanotechnology, can be applied for creating innovative drug delivery systems designed to modify drug release itself and/or drug administration route; moreover, they have proved suitable for overcoming the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance. Electrospun nanofibers, due to their useful structural properties, are showing promising results as antibiotic release devices for preventing bacteria biofilm formation after surgical operation and for limiting resistance phenomena. In this work gentamicin sulfate (GS) was loaded into polylactide-co-polycaprolactone (PLA-PCL) electrospun nanofibers; quantification and in vitro drug release profiles in static and dynamic conditions were investigated; GS kinetic release from nanofibers was studied using mathematical models. A preliminary microbiological test was carried out towards Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli bacteria.
Keywords: drug release kinetics; electrospinning; gentamicin sulfate; polylactide-co-polycaprolactone.