Electrospun porous nanofibers for sustained drug delivery: Degradation-controlled release through architectural design.

Diclofenac sodium (DS), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug used for treating inflammatory pain, has a short elimination half-life, which can lead to fluctuations in blood drug concentration. Therefore, developing sustained-release formulations is necessary to meet clinical needs. Biodegradable polymers exhibit excellent sustained-release properties and good biocompatibility, making them suitable for processing into nanofiber-based drug delivery systems via electrospinning technology. Using electrospinning combined with a non-solvent-induced phase separation mechanism, porous nanofibers with different structures were successfully prepared, including non-porous uniaxial nanofibers, porous coaxial nanofibers, double-layered nanofibers with a porous mesh surface, and porous uniaxial nanofibers. The results demonstrated that drug release is influenced by fiber structure and morphology. Among these, the coaxial porous shell-core structure(NFs 2) achieved long-term release kinetics, confirming a synergistic mechanism combining diffusion and matrix degradation. The prepared samples were analyzed using kinetic modeling and were found to conform to the Ritger-Peppas model. This study investigates the impact of electrospun nanofiber structure and morphology on drug delivery, providing significant theoretical and practical insights for the development of innovative sustained-release formulations.