Tóm tắt

Nanofiber materials are commonly used as delivery vehicles for dermatological drugs due to their high surface-area-to-volume ratio, porosity, flexibility, and reproducibility. In this study air-jet spinning was used as a novelrnand economic method to fabricate corn zein nanofiber meshes with model drugs of varying solubility, molecularrnweight and charge. The release profiles of these drugs were compared to their release from corn zein films tornelucidate the effect of geometry and structure on drug delivery kinetics. In film samples, over 50% of drug wasrnreleased after only 2 h. However, fiber samples exhibited more sustained release, releasing less than 50% afterrnone day. FTIR, SEM, and DSC were performed on nanofibers and films before and after release of the drugs.rnStructural analysis revealed that the incorporation of model drugs into the fibers would transform the zeinrnproteins from a random coil network to a more alpha helical structure. Upon release, the protein fiber reverted tornits original random coil network. In addition, thermal analysis indicated that fibers can protect the drug mo-lecules in high temperature above 160 °C, while drugs within films will degrade below 130 °C. These findings canrnlikely be attributed to the mechanical infiltration of the drug molecules into the ordered structure of the zeinrnfibers during their solution fabrication. The slow release from fiber samples can be attributed to this biophysicalrninteraction, illustrating that release is dictated by more than diffusion in protein-based carriers. The controlledrnrelease of a wide variety of drugs from the air-jet spun corn zein nanofiber meshes demonstrates their success asrndrug delivery vehicles that can potentially be incorporated into different biological materials in the future.