Preparation and crosslinking of electrospun ofloxacin nanofibers using an Electrospinning Technique as ocular drug delivery

Background and Objective: Ofloxacin is as an agent against external ocular infections, and is exceptionally potent against a wide range of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and obligate anaerobes. However, topical delivery of anti-infective agents is associated with a number of problems and challenges owing to the unique structure of the eye. During the past few years, the fabrication of polymer-based nanofibers by electrospinning has attracted considerable attention in biomedical fields. Under the critical electric field, the ultrafine jet would eject from charged polymer fluid and then change themselves into nanofibers with the rapid evaporation of the solvent. The prominent advantages of three-dimensional electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds such as high surface area, high porosity and controllable pore size have made them widely used as drug delivery. The aim of the present work was to develop ofloxacin loaded ocular nanofibers composed of blends of various polymers and glutaraldehyde.Materials and Methods: Nanofibers solutions were obtained upon the composition of 4% (w/v) chitosan to 10% PVA with ofloxacin Solved in ethanol under magnetic stirring at room temperatures. Preparation of the nanofibers was carried out using a customized electrospining system. The resulting electrospun nanofibers with OFX loading were further crosslinked in glutaraldehyde vapor for varying period of time. All samples were dried overnight under vacuum at room temperature. The sterility testing of drug delivery systems were performed. Nanofibers were characterised by FT-IR, SEM. in vitro drug release tests were carried out.Findings: In vitro release studies revealed a release during the 48 h followed. SEM images reveal that nanofibers prepared have good uniformity with regular diameter of about 200 nm. FT-IR exhibited the existence of relevant functional groups of PVA, Chitosan and glutaraldehyde in the nanofibers. The overall results of the sterility test showed that ocular formulation prepared passes the sterility test as there was no evidence of the growth found in the negative control test tubes.Conclusion: From these results, we can conclude that OFX nanofibers may represent an interesting vehicle in order to enhance the therapeutic index of clinically challenging drugs with potential application at extraocular level.

کلیدواژه ها:

Nanofibers ، ocular drug delivery ، chitosan ، ofloxacin