Acetaminophen loaded nanofibers as a potential contact layer for pain management in Burn wounds

Abstract

Application of drugs at local site is beneficial with less side effects. This study dealt with the development of nanofibers (NFs) based drug delivery system for local pain management in burn wounds with acetaminophen as model drug which has been proven to be an effective pain killer in mid to moderate burn wounds. The electrospinning process parameters were optimized by using Taguchi method. The optimized NFs were then selected for further characterization i.e. Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), x-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The NFs final diameter varied from 185 to 375 nm. The optimized NFs showed good liquid absorption properties (∼11 g g−1) with fast release of drug (∼80% in 60 min). The equilibrium drug release data was best followed by Ritger-Peppas kinetic model and showed case II transport mechanism. FTIR analysis confirmed that the drug was successfully incorporated within the NFs. DSC and XRD confirmed that the addition of drug increased the crystallinity of NFs but reduced the liquid absorption to some extent. The desired fast drug delivery along with good liquid absorption and moist environment of the fabricated NFs could be promising solution to manage pain in burn wounds at local site.