With the goal of local delivery in mind, thereby avoiding the complicated variety of current drug delivery solutions — including injection, parenteral, oral, sublingual, inhalation, suppository, implant or topical pathways, among others — wherein drugs travel through the bloodstream, thus accounting for high dosages, the new approach attempts to avoid unwanted side effects due to high dosage levels.

Scanning electron microscope image of a bicomponent fiber with central core. Source: Empa

As such, Empa has developed “textiles for drug delivery” using melt-spun liquid-core filaments (LiCoFs). The drug-enhanced fibers use “physical and chemical processes such as absorption, coating, encapsulation, grafting or covalent conjugation, particularly for transdermal applications.”

While stimuli-responsive textiles that are capable of releasing drugs on demand, when triggered by external factors such as ultrasound, pH, temperature or electrical fields, have proven difficult to accomplish, the researchers report that their Empa liquid-core filaments (LiCoFs) achieved this thanks to a process dubbed “melt spinning,” which enables several functionalities to co-exist in one fiber.

“To the best of our knowledge, this article reports for the first time a direct drug incorporation using a liquid-core melt-spinning technique,” the researchers stated.

The team explained that melt-spinning is cost-effective, industrially viable and offers smart capabilities. By adjusting the textile, the rate at which the drug is released reportedly changes and the fiber biodegrades in the body.

To demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach, the team intends to load surgical suture material with antimicrobial properties to reduce infection during a surgical procedure.

Additionally, the team noted that the fibers could be used for a variety of other applications including surgical suture material for internal and external injuries, wound dressings and textile implants that would enable precise local drug delivery to specific regions of the body. The material could also, in transdermal devices, achieve anti-aging effects.