Antifungal properties of lecithin- and terbinafine-loaded electrospun poly(ε-caprolactone) nanofibres

• Main Authors: Harini, Sriram, Venkatesh, Mayandi, Radhakrishnan, Sridhar, Fazil, Mobashar Hussain Urf Turabe, Goh, Eunice Tze Leng, Rui, Sun, Dhand, Chetna, Ong, Seow Theng, Barathi, Veluchamy Amutha, Beuerman, Roger W., Ramakrishna, Seeram, Verma, Navin Kumar, Lakshminarayanan, Rajamani
• Other Authors: Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Electrospinning; Nanofibres
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/81984; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/41035
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Topical skin and nail fungal infections form the most numerous and widespread among superficial mycoses. Drug eluting electrospun nanofibres have been shown to have immense potential for the topical delivery of antimicrobials. In this article, we investigated the efficacy of lecithin-loaded electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) fibers containing terbinafine hydrochloride (terbinafine) for applications in superficial mycoses. Electron microscopy studies indicated that addition of lecithin and terbinafine decreased the average diameter of PCL nanofibers, increase in mechanical properties and wettability of the fibre mats. PCL mats containing lecithin and terbinafine displayed pronounced blue photoluminescence and did not affect cell adhesion and biocompatibility for primary human dermal fibroblasts. The drug loaded mats maintained the antifungal efficacy against moulds as well as dermatophytic fungus. Using an ex vivo porcine skin infection model, we showed that the drug-eluting mats resulted in >5 log reduction in the viability of T. mentagrophytes.