Suspension electrospinning of azithromycin loaded nanofibers

This study presents the production of polyvinylpyrrolidone/gelatin (PVP/GEL) based and azithromycin (AZI) loaded nanofibers via suspension electrospinning approach and investigates transdermal drug delivery potential. Firstly, suspension polymer solutions were prepared with various concentrations of AZI and solution properties such as conductivity, viscosity, surface tension, pH, and density were determined. Then, nanofibers were produced under the optimum process parameters and characterized with details. Lastly, drug release behaviors were analyzed as in-vitro by UV-vis. According to the results; viscosity and surface tension were not affected from AZI concentration. However, conductivity decreased, pH and density increased with AZI concentration increasement. Average fiber diameter range is between 160 and 217 nm and no bead defect and no stickiness was observed in the nanoweb structure. FT-IR spectra verified that there is not an undesirable chemical interaction between drugs and polymers and confirmed to existence of AZI in the nanoweb structure chemically. TGA and DSC thermograms showed that nanofibrous surfaces become more stable thermally with addition of AZI in the nanofiber structure. Burst release was observed in all nanofiber samples. However, it was determined that the release time increased seven times by increasing the production time from 1 h to 4 h in the same sample.