Fabrication and Characterization of Polycaprolactone with Retinoic Acid and Cerium Oxide for Anticancer Applications

In the present study, poly (epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) composite electrospun nanofibers were fabricated by combining PCL, retinoic acid (RA), and cerium oxide (CeO2). The parameters processing of material fibers by electrospinning were optimized to obtain PCL-based electrospun nanofiber to be used in drug delivery. The results showed that combined solvents and polymer concentration were found to play key roles in determining the morphology of nanofiber. A single solvent (Dimethylformamide DMF, 100%) favored the beads' formation, whereas beadless fibers were produced with mixed solvents(DMF, chloroform, and methanol). The formation of beads was clearly inhibited due to an increased concentration from 10 to 15% w/v of the polymer. Nanofibers of PCL, PCL/RA, PCL/CeO2, and PCL/RA/CeO2 were fabricated and characterized using the combined techniques of SEM (scanning electron microscopy), FTIR (Fourier transform infrared), XRD (X-ray diffraction), TGA (thermogravimetric analysis), contact angle measurements and AFM (atomic force microscopy). The SEM micrographs of RA/CeO2 loaded PCL nanofibers exhibited similar morphology, and none of them showed bead formation or the presence of RA or CeO2 on the surface of the nanofiber matrices. The nanofibers loaded with 0.5% RA/CeO2 drug have the highest diameter (130 +/- 33 nm), and the pure PCL nanofibers showed the smallest diameter (74 +/- 20 nm) among all the drug-loaded samples evaluated. Also, the XRD analysis displayed the very low crystallinity of RA/CeO2 in PCL loaded with RA/CeO2. The result shows that the drug-loaded nanofiber has similar thermal stability to the PCL nanofiber, indicating that the addition of RA and CeO2 decreases the hydrophobicity. The drug-loaded nanofiber has higher surface roughness than the PCL nanofiber, according to AFM data. Based on the results, PCL/RA/CeO2 nanofiber is considered a potential material for drug delivery applications.