Antitumor Efficacy of Doxorubicin-Loaded Electrospun Attapulgite–Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) Composite Nanofibers

Currently, cancer chemotherapeutic drugs still have the defects of high toxicity and low bioavailability, so it is critical to design novel drug release systems for cancer chemotherapy. Here, we report a method to fabricate electrospun drug-loaded organic/inorganic hybrid nanofibrous system for antitumor therapy applications. In this work, rod-like attapulgite (ATT) was utilized to load a model anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX), and mixed with poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) to form electrospun hybrid nanofibers. The ATT/DOX/PLGA composite nanofibers were characterized through various techniques. It is feasible to load DOX onto ATT surfaces, and the ATT/DOX/PLGA nanofibers show a smooth and uniform morphology with improved mechanical durability. Under neutral and acidic pH conditions, the loaded DOX was released from ATT/DOX/PLGA nanofibers in a sustained manner. In addition, the released DOX from the nanofibers could significantly inhibit the growth of tumor cells. Owing to the significantly reduced burst release profile and increased mechanical durability of the ATT/DOX/PLGA nanofibers, the designed organic–inorganic hybrid nanofibers may hold great promise as a nanoplatform to encapsulate different drugs for enhanced local tumor therapy applications.