Tabane et al Journal of Drug Delivery & Therapeutics. 2023; 13(11):73-80 ISSN: 2250-1177 [73] CODEN (USA): JDDTAO Available online on 15.11.2023 at http://jddtonline.info Journal of Drug Delivery and Therapeutics Open Access to Pharmaceutical and Medical Research Copyright © 2023 The Author(s): This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium for non-commercial use provided the original author and source are credited Open Access Full Text Article Research Article A comparative evaluation of two approaches for loading a therapeutic agent into custom fabricated electrospun nanofiber based innovative wound bandages Tumelo H. Tabane* , and Bareki S. Batlokwa Botswana International University of Science and Technology, College of Science, Department of Chemical and forensic sciences, Private Bag 16, Palapye, Botswana Article Info: ___________________________________________ Article History: Received 18 Aug 2023 Reviewed 02 Oct 2023 Accepted 26 Oct 2023 Published 15 Nov 2023 ____________________________________________ Cite this article as: Tabane TH, Batlokwa BS, A comparative evaluation of two approaches for loading a therapeutic agent into custom fabricated electrospun nanofiber based innovative wound bandages, Journal of Drug Delivery and Therapeutics. 2023; 13(11):73-80 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22270/jddt.v13i11.6254 ____________________________________________ *Address for Correspondence: Tumelo H. Tabane, Botswana International University of Science and Technology, College of Science, Department of Chemical and forensic sciences, Private Bag 16, Palapye, Botswana Abstract ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ In this work, we evaluated two different approaches; the pvpi_blended and the pvpi_soaked approaches, of loading a model therapeutic agent, povidone-iodine (pvpi), into innovatively fabricated, electrospun poly-Ɛ-caprolactone (PCL) nanofiber based wound bandages. The two loading approaches were compared based on the critical parameters that an excellent wound dressing material must possess; loading capacity, therapeutic agent releasing behavior and wettability. From the results, the pvpi_blended approach PCL nanofiber mats with their higher calculated pvpi loading capacities of 97.0% outperformed the pvpi_soaked approach PCL nanofiber mats with 61.2%. They further outclassed the soaked_approach mats when it came to pvpi release time, recording a longer prolonged time of 98 min compared to shorter, faster time of 18 min for the release of 50% or more of pvpi for both. Furthermore, it was found out that the presence of the hydrophilic pvpi within the structure of the prepared PCL nanofiber mats bandages, altered the natural hydrophobicity of the pure PCL mats to slightly hydrophilic making them compatible with the hydrophilic wound exudates and their excellent absorbers. Additionally, the pvpi_loaded PCL nanofiber mat bandages exhibited favorable morphological attributes such as smooth surfaces, nano sized fibers with estimated diameters of 350 nm and high surface area to volume ratio, that supported high performance efficiency of the prepared materials. Overall, the blended presented itself as an approach of choice for incorporating medication when developing medicated nanofiber-based bandages such as the ones in this study, which are potential replacements of the conventional drug wasting, micro-structured cotton bandages. Keywords: Electrospinning, Nanostructured bandages, Electrospun nanofiber bandages, Innovative drug delivery bandages, Smart bandages, Blended approach, Chronic wounds. 1. INTRODUCTION Nanostructured materials such as electrospun nanofiber mats with large surface area to volume ratios and controllable morphologies, that can easily be functionalized, can be taken advantage of in chronic wound care management which is a challenge the world over, to produce the next generation wound dressing materials loaded with healing drugs that could give them smart drug delivery capabilities, thus providing cost effective wound care management solutions with improved therapeutic outcomes. Occurrence of injuries, that end up causing excruciating skin wounds to humans have led to the use of bandages for their care and management since time immemorial. The bandages are conventionally made from macro/micro structured materials such as linen or cotton, with fiber diameters above 1000 micrometers at molecular level 1,2,3 , a feature which is making them not to enjoy all the advantages that come with nano size dimensions in modern nanotechnology. These materials have been found to be less cost effective, inefficient and pain-inducing due to their strong adherence to the wounds, thus, posing a burden to both the patients and health care systems during wound care management 4,5,6,7 . For example, currently, there is a lot of wastage of therapeutic agents or wound medicines which are usually smeared on the cotton bandages during wound dressing including when one replaces an old bandage with a new one during scheduled, periodical wound bandage change overs. In this case, the bandages play a passive role, of merely covering the wound area with very little therapeutic benefits offered from the smeared medicine which almost all of it is thrown away unused during bandage swapping. Despite all this, cotton bandages are still common and still largely employed at health facilities even to date. In order to reduce drug wastage and improve drug delivery as well as efficacy in wound care management, the advent of nanotechnology 8,9,10 has created the potential for the development of alternative wound dressing materials based on nano fibers which are nano structures that possess superior properties such as high surface area to volume ratios that could be favorable for high absorption of wound exudates as well as tunable functionalities that allow for the materials to be applied in different environments. For instance, these nanomaterials have opened avenues for the fabrication of newer, innovative wound care management dressing materials with potential to be equipped with effective drug loading, discharging and general healing properties in their structures. Nano fiber- based materials are well known for possessing unique, favorable traits such as controllable morphologies, large surface area to volume ratio and small pore sizes compared to