Tailored release of fluorescence quenched drug from the electrospun nanofiber mat for the treatment of oral submucosal fibrosis (OSMF)

The aim of the presented work involves the preparation and characterization of polycaprolactone (PCL) electrospun nanofibers mats (ESNF) loaded with the drug losartan potassium (LP) as a potential localized treatment strategy for treating OSMF. ESNF mats were fabricated using PCL as the biodegradable polymer matrix within which the drug of choice - LP and super disintegrant (SD) - PVP were mixed. The formed ESNF mats were subjected to thorough physicochemical characterization. The electrospinning technique resulted in the fabrication of controlled diameter PCL nanofibers with no beading and uniform thickness. The presence of LP or PVP was dispersed uniformly within the polymer matrix and did not result in clump formation. The average diameter of blank PCL was 170 nm and that of LP and PVP loaded was 610 nm. The drug loading and encapsulation efficiency were calculated based on theoretical loading and quantification of the drug after destroying the mats and were found to be 89-92 %. The ex -vivo release profile of LP from PCL ESNF was designed to be tailored to release the drug in a few hours to a few days by the addition of super disintegrants in the polymer matrix. The addition of PVP was able to tune the release of LP from the PCL ESNF mat from 6 days to 17 days when compared to 21 days for samples without PVP. This was further studied using DOE (R) software that used mathematical software techniques to give the optimized formulation of the LP and PVP-loaded PCL ESNF mat. This optimized formulation was then incorporated in a buccal patch to design an effective system for localized drug delivery application. The optimized buccal patch design was later validated through a mucoadhesive strength study using pig mucosa. The mucoadhesive strength of the buccal patch in pig mucosa showed a force of detachment of 153.30 N/m2 and a force of adhesion of 0.27 N. Hence, a novel PCL-ESNF mat containing LP along with PVP was designed with a tailorable release profile as a possible localized therapeutic platform to alter the overproduction of collagen to provide a cure for OSMF.