Nanofiber based smart wound dressing combined with bacteria detection and drug delivery

Abstract

Since the emergence of Nanotechnology in the past decades, the development and design of nanofibers demonstrated the great potential for applications in wound treatment. Proliferation of bacteria in wound site is a major challenge in combating wounds. Bio-sensing wound dressing composed of nanofibers has proven to be an effective tool in detecting bacterial presence at wound sites. Though wound dressing with antibacterial property is available but they are not quite effective in terms of bioavailability and sustained release of drugs. Biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles have been proven to increase bioavailability, encapsulation, and control release of drugs with less toxic properties. In this study, poly diacetylene (PDA)-based composite nanofibers were prepared to study the microstructure and mechanical properties, and to investigate relationship between these two. It was found that mixing polyurethane (PU) polymer with the PDA yielded better mechanical properties as PU and PDA mixed homogeneously and this helped to form large crystalline regions in the fiber microstructure. In the second part of this thesis, poly(D, Lactide-co-glycolide) acid (PLGA) nanoparticles were synthesized by double emulsion solvent evaporation technique to encapsulate hydrophilic gentamicin antibiotics. The effects of different formulation parameters on the particle size and structure were examined thoroughly which included copolymer ratios of PLGA, molecular weight and concentration of stabilizing agents or surfactants, volume of both aqueous and organic phase, sonication and stirring rate and time. The molecular weight and concentration of surfactants had the most impact on the size and morphology of particles. Higher molecular weight of surfactants caused agglomeration of particles. Increasing the concentration of surfactants resulted in smaller particles. PLGA particles with different morphologies were obtained where the average size ranged 300 nm to several microns.