Electrospun poly (L-lactic acid)/gelatine membranes loaded with doxorubicin for effective suppression of glioblastoma cell growth in vitro and in vivo

Electrospun membranes are attracting interest as a drug delivery system because of their material composition flexibility and versatile drug loading. In this study, the electrospun membrane was loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) via electrostatic adsorption for long-term drug delivery. DOX loading process was optimized by varying temperature, time, drug concentration, pH and ionic strength of solutions. The loading process did not impair the structural properties of the membrane. Next, we investigated the drug release kinetics using spectroscopic techniques. The composite membranes released 22% of the adsorbed DOX over the first 48 h, followed by a slower and sustained release over 4 weeks. The DOX release was sensitive to acidic solutions that the release rate at pH 6.0 was 1.27 times as that at pH 7.4. The DOX-loaded membranes were found to be cytotoxic to U-87 MG cells in vitro that decreased the cell viability from 82.92% to 25.49% from 24 to 72 h of co-incubation. These membranes showed strong efficacy in suppressing tumour growth in vivo in glioblastoma-bearing mice that decreased the tumour volume by 77.33% compared with blank membrane-treated group on Day 20. In conclusion, we have developed an effective approach to load DOX within a clinically approved poly (L-lactic acid)/gelatine membrane for local and long-term delivery of DOX for the treatment of glioblastoma.