Temperature-controlled release of curcumin from thermosensitive PVA/CurM nanofibrous membranes with antibacterial activity

Research and development on thermosensitive material has become one of the hot topics in the field of drug controlled-release. In order to realize the temperature-controlled release of curcumin (Cur), Cur was encapsulated inside thermosensitive amphiphilic poly (N-isopropylacrylamide-co-N,N-dimethylacrylamide)-b-poly(D,L-lactide) (PN-co-DM-bPA) to prepare Cur-loaded micelles (CurM) during dialysis. CurM was then assembled with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) through electrospinning to form PVA/CurM nanofibrous membranes (PCM). The optimal as-prepared drug-loaded micelles (CurM4) can reach the maximum drug loading of 13.9% and encapsulation efficiency of 58.5% with the micelle size of 292.8 nm. TEM, SEM, and CLSM images proved that CurM had been successfully wrapped in PVA to form PCM nanofibers (average diameter: 251 ± 42 nm) when the mass ratio of PVA:CurM was 4:1 at 15 kV. Temperature-controlled drug release experiments showed that the curcumin in the PCM membranes could be released to 63.47% after 96 h when work temperature is higher than the low critical solution temperature (41 ℃). Furthermore, the antibacterial activities of PCM on E. coli and S. aureus were 95.16% and 93.59%, respectively. We hope this work can be a reference for the preparation of thermosensitive drug-loaded nanofibers for controllable releasing of drugs.