Fiber Innovation

Novel melt-spun liquid-core filaments for drug-release and similar applications

The presentation will showcase a novel way to introduce drugs into melt-spun filaments for drugdelivery applications.

Saal C
Mittwoch, 13.09.2023, 15:55 - 16:20 Uhr
Sprecher
Edith Perret et al, Empa, St. Gallen (GER)

Textiles that release drugs like vitamins, supplements or medicines to the body, depending on the patient's needs, are the future dream in the field of personalized medicine. Medication that you can wear enables controlled drug-release with strategic placement. Furthermore, patients are more likely to wear a comfortable medical garment than to repeatedly apply a cream or take a pill. A few commercialized examples already exist on the market, e.g. pain relief patches that are sewn into a textile, or textiles made of yarns that contain drugs. In this presentation, we will showcase a novel way to introduce drugs into a filament. Continuous melt-spinning of liquid-core filaments (LiCoFs) is used to introduce drugs into the core. Preliminary results of melt-spun polycaprolactone (PCL) LiCoFs for drug-delivery purposes will be discussed. Such biomedical fibers have to meet high demands for filtration or biotextile applications, e.g. for wovens to form scaffold material for tissue engineering or as suture materials. A variety of spinning trials, mechanical performance testing and drug diffusion results will be presented. Additionally, we will give other examples of LiCoFs for similar types of applications, e.g. fragrance release to improve wellbeing