Preparation and characterization of Duloxetine-loaded nanofiber scaffold composed of polyvinyl alcohol and chitosan as wound healing agent, fabricated by electrospinning method.

Wound is a disruption in the epithelial integrity of the skin or mucosa, which is caused by internal or external pathological processes. In this study, a nanofiber as wound dressing loaded with Duloxetine was produced by electrospinning technique. The diameter of nanofibers containing 20% and 40% Duloxetine was around 236 nm and 272 nm, respectively. Tensile testing results showed that elongation at break percentage soared from 11.5% for drug-free nanofibers to 40.01% for nanofibers containing 40% Duloxetine. All nanofibers had uniform bead-free structure. Contact angle of nanofibers with and without drug was 84.3° and 99.3°, respectively. The drug release profile revealed that after the burst release over the first 8 hours, the curve witnessed a slow sustained release for a longer period. The nanofibers had antibacterial activity against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and the crosslinked nanofibers with 40% duloxetine had the largest diameter of inhibition zone at roughly 43 mm for Staphylococcus aureus, 40 mm for Escherichia coli, and 30 mm for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Clinical studies showed that the percentage of wound area reduction was approximately 96.41% for nanofibers containing 40% duloxetine which was higher than positive control containing phenytoin at around 92.24% and also the other group with 20% duloxetine at 81.68%.