Electrospun Fibrous Architectures for Drug Delivery, Tissue Engineering and Cancer Therapy

• Published in: Advanced functional materials Vol. 29; no. 2
• Main Authors: Ding, Yaping, Li, Wei, Zhang, Feng, Liu, Zehua, Zanjanizadeh Ezazi, Nazanin, Liu, Dongfei, Santos, Hélder A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.01.2019
• Subjects: Biomedical materials; Cancer; Cancer therapies; cancer therapy; Chemical compounds; Composition; Drug carriers; drug delivery; Drug delivery systems; Electrospinning; Inorganic materials; Materials science; Pharmaceuticals; Polymer blends; Therapy; Tissue engineering
• ISSN: 1616-301X; 1616-3028
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201802852

The versatile electrospinning technique is recognized as an efficient strategy to deliver active pharmaceutical ingredients and has gained tremendous progress in drug delivery, tissue engineering, cancer therapy, and disease diagnosis. Numerous drug delivery systems fabricated through electrospinning regarding the carrier compositions, drug incorporation techniques, release kinetics, and the subsequent therapeutic efficacy are presented herein. Targeting for distinct applications, the composition of drug carriers vary from natural/synthetic polymers/blends, inorganic materials, and even hybrids. Various drug incorporation approaches through electrospinning are thoroughly discussed with respect to the principles, benefits, and limitations. To meet the various requirements in actual sophisticated in vivo environments and to overcome the limitations of a single carrier system, feasible combinations of multiple drug‐inclusion processes via electrospinning could be employed to achieve programmed, multi‐staged, or stimuli‐triggered release of multiple drugs. The therapeutic efficacy of the designed electrospun drug‐eluting systems is further verified in multiple biomedical applications and is comprehensively overviewed, demonstrating promising potential to address a variety of clinical challenges. Drug‐loaded electrospun architectures are gaining increasing attention in various biomedical applications. By carefully choosing materials/drugs and drug loading techniques, electrospun structures with adjustable topography, tunable porosity, high surface area, and controllable drug release behaviors can be manufactured for biomedical applications, such as simple drug delivery systems, tissue engineering, and cancer therapy. Recent progress is thoroughly overviewed in this review.