Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 21, Issue 15, 2015

Recent research has opened new alternatives to traditional chemotherapy treatments using nanomaterials as cytotoxic agents. Anti-cancer nanomedicines do not require specific target sites on key proteins or genes to kill cancer cells and have radically different mechanisms to interact with the living matter. Among 1D nanomaterials, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) have the intrinsic ability to bind tubulin and interfere with microtubule dynamics, mimicking the effect of traditional cytotoxic microtubule-binding agents such as paclitaxel (taxol®). Here, we review the cytotoxic properties of MWCNTs and show a direct pro-apoptotic effect of these nanomaterials in vitro in different cancer cell lines and tumor cells obtained from surgical specimens. Understanding the bio-synthetic relationship between MWCNTs and microtubules could serve to improve these nanomaterials to be used as broad spectrum antineoplastic agents in combination to traditional microtubule-binding treatments, thus avoiding drug resistance mechanisms in cancer cells.

Infections caused by microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, etc. are the main obstacle in healing processes. Conventional antibacterial administration routes can be listed as oral, intravenous/intramuscular, topical and inhalation. These kinds of drug administrations are faced with critical vital issues such as; more rapid delivery of the drug than intended which can result in bacterial resistance, dose related systemic toxicity, tissue irritation and finally delayed healing process that need to be tackled. Recently, studies have been focused on new drug delivery systems, overcoming resistance and toxicological problems and finally localizing the molecules at the site of action in a proper dose. In this regard, many nanotechnological approaches such as nanoparticulate therapeutic systems have been developed to address accompanying problems mentioned above. Among them, drug loaded electrospun nanofibers propose main advantages like controlled drug delivery, high drug loading capacity, high encapsulation efficiency, simultaneous delivery of multiple drugs, ease of production and cost effectiveness for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. Therefore, some particular attention has been devoted to the design of electrospun nanofibers as promising antibacterial drug carrier systems. A variety of antibacterials e.g., biocides, antibiotics, quaternary ammonium salts, triclosan, metallic nanoparticles (silver, titanium dioxide, and zinc oxide) and antibacterial polymers (chitosan, polyethyleneimine, etc.) have been impregnated by various techniques into nanofibers that exhibit strong antibacterial activity in standard assays. This review highlights the design and delivery of antibacterial drug loaded nanofibers with particular focus on their function in the fields of drug delivery, wound healing, tissue engineering, cosmetics and other biomedical applications.

In biological systems, chemical molecules or ions often release upon certain conditions, at a specific location, and over a desired period of time. Electrospun nanofibers that undergo alterations in the physicochemical characteristics corresponding to environmental changes have gained considerable interest for various applications. Inspired by biological systems, therapeutic molecules have been integrated with these smart electrospun nanofibers, presenting activation-modulated or feedback-regulated control of drug release. Compared to other materials like smart hydrogels, environment-responsive nanofiber-based drug delivery systems are relatively new but possess incomparable advantages due to their greater permeability, which allows shorter response time and more precise control over the release rate. In this article, we review the mechanisms of various environmental parameters functioning as stimuli to tailor the release rates of smart electrospun nanofibers. We also illustrate several typical examples in specific applications. We conclude this article with a discussion on perspectives and future possibilities in this field.

Postoperative adhesion (POA) is a serious event that always causes chronic pain and functional obstruction. Up to now, a variety of matrices prepared by diverse technologies have been employed as the physical barriers to prevent POA. Among them, the electrospun fibers of biodegradable polymers exhibit more obvious advantages, such as large surface area, high porosity, and excellent anti-adhesion efficiency. However, the pure electrospun fibers for anti-adhesion cannot effectively regulate the cellular behaviors, and tissue inflammation and healing. In recent years, the polymeric electrospun fibers loaded with various drugs, such as antimicrobial agents, antiinflammatory drugs, and healing accelerators, have been developed. The advanced anti-adhesion fibers play a more efficient role in the field of anti-adhesion, which can efficiently prevent POA and infection, tamp down inflammation, and promote the recovery of tissue function after surgery. This review highlights the recent development of anti-adhesion electrospun fibers loaded with various drugs, and presents the possible prospects.

Electrospun nanofibers have been extensively used in growth factor delivery and regenerative medicine due to many advantages including large surface area to volume ratio, high porosity, excellent loading capacity, ease of access and cost effectiveness. Their relatively large surface area is helpful for cell adhesion and growth factor loading, while storage and release of growth factor are essential to guide cellular behaviors and tissue formation and organization. In bone tissue engineering, growth factors are expected to transmit signals that stimulate cellular proliferation, migration, differentiation, metabolism, apoptosis and extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition. Bolus administration is not always an effective method for the delivery of growth factors because of their rapid diffusion from the target site and quick deactivation. Therefore, the integration of controlled release strategy within electrospun nanofibers can provide protection for growth factors against in vivo degradation, and can manipulate desired signal at an effective level with extended duration in local microenvironment to support tissue regeneration and repair which normally takes a much longer time. In this review, we provide an overview of growth factor delivery using biomimetic electrospun nanofiber scaffolds in bone tissue engineering. It begins with a brief introduction of different kinds of polymers that were used in electrospinning and their applications in bone tissue engineering. The review further focuses on the nanofiber-based growth factor delivery and summarizes the strategies of growth factors loading on the nanofiber scaffolds for bone tissue engineering applications. The perspectives on future challenges in this area are also pointed out.

Regenerative engineering is an advanced field comprising the collective benefit of biodegradable polymers with cells and tissue inducing factors. Current method of replacing the defective organ is through transplantation, but is limited due to immune rejection and availability. As a solution, new polymeric biomaterial-based threedimensional (3D) scaffolds in combination with cells and inducing factors were aroused to fulfil the existing demands. These scaffolds apply material science, biomedical technology and translational medicine to develop functional tissue engineering constructs. Presence of small molecules and growth factors guides the cell phenotypes to specific organ development. The 3D scaffold thus could also be favorably used as carriers for various types of drugs and genes, with the release profile fine-tuned by modulation of the scaffold’s morphology, porosity, and composition. An increasing trend was observed in recent years toward the combination of scaffolds and growth factors to fabricate a bioactive system, which not only provide a biomimetic biodegradable physical support for tissue growth but also explores biological signals to modulate tissue regeneration. In this review, along with general aspects of tissue engineering, we also discuss the importance of various scaffold architectures like nanofibers, hydrogels, beads, meshes, microspheres etc. in combination with specific drugs, growth factors and small molecules for cartilage regeneration. Growth factors may be incorporated into scaffolds by direct blending, physical adsorption, drop casting, surface grafting, covalent bonding, chemical immobilization, coaxial electrospinning, microparticle incorporation etc. This offers new possibilities for the development of biomimetic scaffolds that are endowed with a hierarchical architecture and sophisticated release kinetics of the growth factors. This review portrait the fundamentals of tissue engineering with emphasis on the role of inducing factors in scaffold based cartilage tissue regeneration.

The interest in polymeric nanofibers has escalated over the past decade given its promise as tissue engineering scaffolds that can mimic the nanoscale structure of the native extracellular matrix. With functionalization of the polymeric nanofibers using bioactive molecules, localized signaling moieties can be established for the attached cells, to stimulate desired biological effects and direct cellular or tissue response. The inherently high surface area per unit mass of polymeric nanofibers can enhance cell adhesion, bioactive molecules loading and release efficiencies, and mass transfer properties. In this review article, the application of polymeric nanofibers for controlled bioactive molecules delivery will be discussed, with a focus on tendon and ligament tissue engineering. Various polymeric materials of different mechanical and degradation properties will be presented along with the nanofiber fabrication techniques explored. The bioactive molecules of interest for tendon and ligament tissue engineering, including growth factors and small molecules, will also be reviewed and compared in terms of their nanofiber incorporation strategies and release profiles. This article will also highlight and compare various innovative strategies to control the release of bioactive molecules spatiotemporally and explore an emerging tissue engineering strategy involving controlled multiple bioactive molecules sequential release. Finally, the review article concludes with challenges and future trends in the innovation and development of bioactive molecules delivery using polymeric nanofibers for tendon and ligament tissue engineering.

Human heart has endogenous regenerative capability; however, the intrinsic repair mechanism is not sufficient to overcome the impact placed by adverse pathological conditions, such as myocardial infarction (MI). In such circumstances, the damaged tissue initiates a series of remodeling process which results in the deterioration of structural, functional, and mechanical properties of the myocardium. To address such adverse conditions, clinical approaches ranging from surgical interventions, pharmaceutical drugs, and device implantation are administered which have played significant role in reducing the mortality rate. However, these approaches do not replace the lost cardiomyocytes, or restore the degraded structure-function relationship of the myocardium. In this aspect, cell-based therapy has gained substantial interest as a potential clinical approach for myocardial regeneration; however this method is impeded by lower graft retention and poor cell viability. To overcome these limitations, biomaterials are being developed as “trojan horses”, i.e., vehicles for homing and deploying cells, and as matrices for delivering specific biological, mechanical, and chemical cues intended for tissue regeneration. Similarly, several candidate drugs, potent synthetic and biological molecules, and advanced drug delivery systems are being examined to provide exogenous cues in a controlled fashion to the diseased myocardium. In this article, we review biomaterials-based drug delivery systems for myocardial regeneration, specifically on the applications of hydrogels, microgels, nanoparticles, and nanofibers in the field. The prime focus of the article is on nanofibers-based drug delivery systems that is gaining considerable attention as a biomimetic pharmacological approach. We highlight literature on fabrication methods of self-assembling and electrospun nanofibers, drug incorporation methods and release kinetics, and in vitro and in vivo outcomes from nanofiber-based drug delivery systems in cardiac regeneration.

Nanofibers has gained significant prominence in recent years due to its wide applications in medicinal pharmacy, textile, tissue engineering and in various drug delivery system. In oral drug delivery system (DDS), nanofibers can be delivered as Nanofiber scaffolds, electrosponge nanofibers as oral fast delivery system, multilayered nanofiber loaded mashes, surface modified cross-linked electrospun nanofibers. Nanofibers are of 50- 1000nm size fibres having large surface area, high porosity, small pore size, low density. Various approaches for formulation of nanofibers are molecular assembly, thermally induced phase separation, electrospining. Most commonly used by using electrospining polymer nanofibres with different range can be produced collective usage of electro spinning with pharmaceutical polymers offers novel tactics for developing drug delivery system (DDS). Different polymers used in preparation of nanofibers include biodegradable hydrophilic polymers, hydrophobic polymers and amphiphilic polymers. Electrospun nanofibers are often used to load insoluble drugs for enhancing their dissolution properties due to their high surface area per unit mass. Besides the water insoluble drugs freely water soluble sodium can also spun into the fibers. The most commonly polymers used for nanofibers are gelatin, dextran, nylon, polystyrene, polyacrylonitrile, polycarbonate, polyimides, poly vinyl alchol, polybenzimidazole. Delivery systems reviewed rely on temporal control, changes in pH along the GIT, the action of local enzymes to trigger drug release, and changes in intraluminal pressure. Dissolution of enteric polymer coatings due to a change in local pH and reduction of azo-bonds to release an active agent are both used in commercially marketed products. In vitro and in vivo studies have demonstrated that the release rates of drugs from these nanofiber formulations are enhanced compared to those from original drug substance. This review is focused on the different type of polymers used, different used in the preparation of nanofibers, cytotoxicity studies and application of nanofiber by using oral drug delivery.

Since the discovery and synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and carbon nanofibers (CNFs) over a decade ago, researchers have envisioned and discovered new potential applications for these materials. CNTs and CNFs have rapidly become a platform technology for a variety of uses, including biomedical applications due to their mechanical, electrical, thermal, optical and structural properties. CNTs and CNFs are also advantageous due to their ability to be produced in many different shapes and sizes. Since their discovery, of the many imaginable applications, CNTs and CNFs have gained a significant amount of attention and therapeutic potential in tissue engineering and drug delivery applications. In recent years, CNTs and CNFs have made significant contributions in designing new strategies for, delivery of pharmaceuticals, genes and molecular probes into cells, stem cell therapies and assisting in tissue regeneration. Furthermore, it is widely expressed that these materials will significantly contribute to the next generation of health care technologies in treating diseases and contributing to tissue growth. Hence, this review seeks to explore the recent advancements, current status and limitations of CNTs and CNFs for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications.