The electrospinning process allows producing nanofibrous membranes that mimic well the human tissue. For this reason, it is now widely exploited to produce biocompatible membranes for biomedical applications. Thus, they are now deeply studied for their potentialities to treat topically various types of diseases, limiting so the side-effects with non-invasive therapies. In the current research, electrospun membranes made of Polycaprolactone (PCL) loaded from 2% to 10% of Fe3O4 nanoparticles, functionalized with citric acid, are produced, according to a procedure already reported in literature. The functionalization has been done to improve the compatibility between PCL and magnetite nanoparticles. The morphology of the membranes has been studied by FESEM-EDX, proving that the fiber diameters are between 500 nm and 3 μm for all the systems, and the distribution of nanoparticles is homogeneous over all the samples. The membranes have been tested against melanoma cell lines, proving their cytotoxic activity against tumoral cells. Promising results have been obtained in light of membrane application as a topical treatment of skin cancer.
Design of electrospun membranes loaded with functionalized Fe3O4 nanoparticles for anticancer application
Raffaele Longo;Liberata Guadagno
2022-01-01
Abstract
The electrospinning process allows producing nanofibrous membranes that mimic well the human tissue. For this reason, it is now widely exploited to produce biocompatible membranes for biomedical applications. Thus, they are now deeply studied for their potentialities to treat topically various types of diseases, limiting so the side-effects with non-invasive therapies. In the current research, electrospun membranes made of Polycaprolactone (PCL) loaded from 2% to 10% of Fe3O4 nanoparticles, functionalized with citric acid, are produced, according to a procedure already reported in literature. The functionalization has been done to improve the compatibility between PCL and magnetite nanoparticles. The morphology of the membranes has been studied by FESEM-EDX, proving that the fiber diameters are between 500 nm and 3 μm for all the systems, and the distribution of nanoparticles is homogeneous over all the samples. The membranes have been tested against melanoma cell lines, proving their cytotoxic activity against tumoral cells. Promising results have been obtained in light of membrane application as a topical treatment of skin cancer.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
