Minocycline-loaded cellulose nano whiskers/poly(sodium acrylate) composite hydrogel films as wound dressing

In this work, antibiotic drug Minocycline (Mic) loaded cellulose nano-whiskers (CNWs)/poly(sodium acrylate) hydrogel films were prepared and investigated for their drug releasing capacity in physiological buffer solution (PBS) at 37 °C. The (CNWs)/poly(sodium acrylate) film, containing 9.7% (w/w) of CNWs, demonstrated Mic release of 2500 μg/g while the plain poly(acrylate) film showed 3100 μg/g of drug release. In addition, with the increase in the concentration of cross-linker N,Nʹ-methylene bisacrylamide (MB) from to, the drug release from the resulting films decreased from 507 to 191 μg/g. The release exponent 'n' for films with different compositions was found in the range of 0.45 to 0.89, thus indicating non-Fickian release mechanism. The Schott model was employed to interpret the kinetic drug release data successfully. The film samples poly(SA) and CNWs/poly(SA) (both not containing drug) showed thrombus formation of 0.010 ± 0.001 g and 0.007 ± 0.001 g, respectively, thus showing the non-thrombogenic behavior. In percent Hemolysis, both of the film samples of 1.136 ± 0.012 and 0.5 ± 0.020, respectively, thus indicating non-hemolytic behavior. In addition, both of the film samples demonstrated protein adsorption of 49.02 ± 0.59 μg/μL and 51.20 ± 0.51 μg/μL per cm2, thus revealing a fair degree of protein adsorption. Finally, the Mic-loaded films showed fair anti-fungal and antibacterial properties.