Search

Herpetic infections caused by Herpes simplex virus (HSV) are among the most common human infections, affecting more than two quarters of the world's population. The standard treatment for orofacial herpes is the administration of antiviral drugs, mainly acyclovir (ACV). However, current products are mostly based on semisolid formulations that have limited ability to promote drug skin penetration and tend to leak from the application site, thus showing reduced ability to sustain local drug residence. This work reports on the production of poly (-caprolactone) (PCL) fibrous matrices with ACV and omega-3 fatty acids (3) for application as dressings to the topical treatment of orofacial herpes. PCL fibrous matrices with the co-incorporated bioactive compounds were obtained by electrospinning and characterized regarding their morphology, chemical, physical, and mechanical properties. The potential use of the developed polymeric fibrous matrices for topical applications was evaluated by: (i) the release kinetics of the bioactive compounds; (ii) the occlusive factor of the fibrous mat; (iii) ACV skin permeation capacity; and (iv) the cytotoxicity in a keratinocyte cell line. PCL fibrous matrices loaded with the bioactive compounds presented a smooth morphology and a good balance between flexibility and hardness essential to be durable for handling, while having a desirable texture to be used comfortably. The fibrous mat also provided a sustained release of ACV during 96 h and improved the skin permeability of this drug (Kp = 0.00928 ± 0.000867 cm/h) presenting also high porosity (74%) and a water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) of 881 ± 91 g/m2day, essential to maintain moist and oxygen for faster healing of herpes lesions. Furthermore, cytotoxicity studies suggest that the fibrous mat are safe for topical application. Overall, the PCL based electrospun fibrous matrices with ACV and 3 hereby described have the potential to be used as therapeutic bandage systems for the treatment of orofacial herpes., Financial support was provided by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Funding UID/FIS/04650/2019 and in the ambit of the project CONCERT with reference POCI- 01-0145-FEDER-032651 and PTDC/NAN-MAT/326512017, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through COMPETE 2020, under Portugal 2020, and FCT I.P. This work was also supported by the strategic program UID/BIA/04050/2019 and project FunBioPlas with reference ERA-IB-2-6/0004/2014 funded by national Portuguese funds through FCT I.P. Funding was also provided by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through the project MAT2016-76039-C4-3-R (AEI/FEDER, UE)., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Use of electrospun fiber mats for tissue engineering applications has become increasingly prominent. One of the most important polymers in research, poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL), however, lacks biological performance, easy access to modifications and cellular recognition sites. To improve these properties and to enable further modifications, PCL was blended with chitosan grafted with PCL (CS-g-PCL) and subsequently processed via electrospinning. In this way, chitosan was enriched at the fiber's surface presenting cationic amino groups. The fiber mats were analyzed by various techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Furthermore, analyzing thermal properties and crystallinity, showed that an increased content of CS-g-PCL in blend composition leads to a higher overall crystallinity in produced fiber mats. Blending CS-g-PCL into PCL significantly increased initial cellular attachment and proliferation as well as cell vitality, while maintaining adequate mechanical properties, fiber diameter, and interstitial volume. As proof of principle for easy access to further modification, fluorescently labeled alginate (Alg-FA) was attached to the fiber's surface and verified by CLSM. Hence, blending CS-g-PCL with PCL can overcome an inherent weakness of PCL and create bioactive implants for tissue engineering applications. © 2019 The Authors. Journal of Applied Polymer Science published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019, 137, 48650. © 2019 The Authors. Journal of Applied Polymer Science published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

WOS:000410253800040 PubMed ID: 28887981 The main objective of this study was to fabricate poly (e-caprolactone) (PCL)-based auxetic nanofiber membranes and characterize them for their mechanical and physicochemical properties. As a first step, the PCL nanofibers were fabricated by electrospinning with two different thicknesses of 40 pm (called PCL thin membrane) and 180 pm (called PCL thick membrane). In the second step, they were tailored into auxetic patterns using femtosecond laser cut technique. The physicochemical and mechanical properties of the auxetic nanofiber membranes were studied and compared with the conventional electrospun PCL nanofibers (non-auxetic nano fiber membranes) as a control. The results showed that there were no significant changes observed among them in terms of their chemical functionality and thermal property. However, there was a notable difference observed in the mechanical properties. For instance, the thin auxetic nanofiber membrane showed the magnitude of elongation almost ten times higher than the control, which clearly demonstrates the high flexibility of auxetic nanofiber membranes. This is because that the auxetic nanofiber membranes have lesser rigidity than the control nanofibers under the same load which could be due to the rotational motion of the auxetic structures. The major finding of this study is that the auxetic PCL nanofiber membranes are highly flexible (10-fold higher elongation capacity than the conventional PCL nanofibers) and have tunable mechanical properties. Therefore, the auxetic PCL nanofiber membranes may serve as a potent material in various biomedical applications, in particular, tissue engineering where scaffolds with mechanical cues play a major role. Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Council, TUBITAK, TurkeyTurkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [214M277]; CSCR, India Author acknowledges Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Council, TUBITAK, Turkey for support Project No 214M277 and CSCR, India.

Blends of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and poly(épsilon-caprolactone) (PCL), loaded with different amounts of Amoxicillin antibiotic (AMOX) were electrospun to investigate their release properties and obtain a controlled and tuneable release. The processing parameters for electrospinning were set up and reliable membranes were obtained. Morphology and thermal behaviour were found dependent on the component ratio as well as on the incorporated drug amount. A very different release kinetics of the two pristine polymers, very rapid for PCL and very slow for PLA, reflected in intermediate release time. However comparing the release amount with that predicted by the mixture rule a preferential incorporation of AMOX into PLA can be inferred.