Lab of General Biochemistry and Physical Pharmacy, Ghent University, Harelbekestraat 72, B-9000 Gent, Belgium.
Biomaterials. 2012 Jan;33(3):962-9. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2011.10.004. Epub 2011 Oct 21.
Despite many advances in modern medicine, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) still affects the health of millions of people world-wide and much effort is put in developing methods to either prevent infection or to eradicate the virus after infection has occurred. Here, we describe the potential use of electrospun cellulose acetate phthalate (CAP) fibers as a tool to prevent HIV transmission. During the electrospinning process, anti-viral drugs can easily be incorporated in CAP fibers. Interestingly, as a result of the pH-dependent solubility of CAP, the fibers are stable in vaginal fluid (the healthy vaginal flora has a pH of below 4.5), whereas the addition of small amounts of human semen (pH between 7.4 and 8.4) immediately dissolves the fibers which results in the release of the encapsulated drugs. The pH-dependent release properties have been carefully studied and we show that the released anti-viral drugs, together with the CAP which has been reported to have intrinsic antimicrobial activity, efficiently neutralize HIV in vitro.
尽管现代医学取得了许多进展，但人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）仍然影响着全球数百万人的健康，因此人们投入了大量精力来开发预防感染或在感染发生后消灭病毒的方法。在这里，我们描述了将醋酸邻苯二甲酸纤维素（CAP）纤维电纺作为预防 HIV 传播的工具的潜力。在电纺过程中，抗病毒药物可以很容易地掺入 CAP 纤维中。有趣的是，由于 CAP 的 pH 值依赖性溶解度，纤维在阴道液中稳定（健康的阴道菌群的 pH 值低于 4.5），而少量人精液（pH 值在 7.4 到 8.4 之间）的加入会立即溶解纤维，导致包裹的药物释放。已经仔细研究了 pH 值依赖性释放特性，我们表明，释放的抗病毒药物与 CAP 一起，具有内在的抗菌活性，能够有效地在体外中和 HIV。
