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Electrospinning for Drug Delivery Systems: Drug Incorporation Techniques By Cornejo Bravo José Manuel, Villarreal Gómez Luis Jesús and Serrano
Medina Aracely
Electrospinning is a very versatile techniqueused for many purposes, such as tissue engineering, textiles, air and water treatment filter, solar cells, and drug delivery systems, among others. This method is cheap, easy to handle, reproducible when ambient parameters are controlled, and can be used for many formulations. The objective of this review is to enlist and emphasize the advantages and disadvantages of different methods for incorporating therapeutic drugs in a drug delivery system with electrospinning. The importance of the research to create new and innovative drug carriers is high, because of their efficiency of transporting the bioactive agent to the target zone, avoiding secondary effects in the body. Nanofibers and nanoparticles have become an important strategy in pharmacology due to their physicochemical and biocompatible properties useful for this purpose. Among the techniques compared are blending coaxial, emulsion and surface modification electrospinning, followed by electrospray and coaxial electrospray. The present review concludes that every technique has advantages and disadvantages and, not all drugs can be loaded with any method, the strategy used will depend on the drug’s physicochemical properties, target zone, polymeric characteristics, and required drug release rate. This chapter will serve as a starting point for when to choose one of the drug incorporation techniques mentioned.
Part of the book: Electrospinning
Gelatin and Collagen Nanofiber Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering By Daniella Alejandra Pompa Monroy, José Manuel Cornejo Bravo,
Irma Esthela Soria Mercado and Luis Jesús Villarreal Gómez
One of the main complications that can present a person with second and third degree burns is the possibility of being infected by opportunistic bacteria or viruses that are present in the environment. Nowadays, the majority of the burn injuries are treated with conventional gauze, which involves a high probability of infection and pain for the patient being treated with this method. In order to obtain low-cost scaffolds, natural and abundant polymers were used such as gelatin (GEL) and collagen (COL). The GEL functions as a base scaffold, stable and flexible, and also biocompatible because it is a byproduct of the partial hydrolysis of COL, which is an indispensable component for the stability of the cell membrane and it is present in great extent in the human epithelium.
Part of the book: Tissue Regeneration
Novel Drug Carries: Properties and Applications By Luis Jesús Villarreal-Gómez and Graciela Lizeth Pérez-González
Conventional drug administration has several issues and challenges such as full doses absorption and efficient targeting, some generate undesirable secondary effects and promote damage to organs and tissues such as the liver and kidneys, and others trigger inflammation and immune responses. Hence, drug carriers help to promote drug absorption, enhance targeting, avoid or decrease secondary effects, possess the ability to camouflage drugs from immune cells and proteins, and permit controlled release to provide prolonged drug delivery to maintain its blood concentration within therapeutic limits. Drug carriers have gained importance thanks to their various properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, mechanical properties, and high surface area, among others. Drug carriers are getting crucial to avoid or diminish secondary effects and improve the targeting of the administered drugs incrementing their effectiveness. Hence, this book chapter aims to introduce some drug carriers (electrospun nanofibers, aptamers, micelles, and liposomes), describing the properties and polymers used. It is observed that fast dissolving administration is the most recommended strategy for the use of drug carriers, where more evident therapeutics benefits can be appreciated.
Part of the book: Drug Carriers
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