Chitosan/montmorillonite composite nanospheres for sustained antibiotic delivery at post-implantation bone infection treatment

Despite the advancements in bone transplantation operations, inflammation is still a serious problem that threatens human health at the post-implantation period. Conventional antibiotic therapy methods may lead to some side effects such as ototoxicity and nephrotoxicity, especially when applied in high doses. Therefore, local drug delivery systems play a vital role in bone disorders due to the elimination of the disadvantages introduced by conventional methods. In the presented study, it was aimed to develop Vancomycin (VC) and Gentamicin (GC) loaded chitosan-montmorillonite nanoclay composites (CS/MMT) to provide required antibiotic doses to combat post-implantation infection. CS/MMT nanocomposite formation was supplied by microfluidizer homogenization and spherical drug carrier nanoparticles were obtained by electrospraying technique. Three factors; voltage, distance and flowrate were varied to fabricate spherical nanoparticles with uniform size. Emprical model was developed to predict nanosphere size by altering process variables. Nanospheres were characterized in terms of morphology, hydrodynamic size, zeta potential, drug encapsulation efficiency and release profile. Drug loaded nanospheres have been successfully produced with a size range of 180-350 nm. Nanocomposite drug carriers showed high encapsulation efficiency (80%-95%) and prolonged release period when compared to bare chitosan nanospheres. The drug release from nanocomposite carriers was monitored by diffusion mechanism up to 30 d. The in vitro release medium of nanospheres showed strong antimicrobial activity against gram-positive S. aureus and gram-negative E. coli bacteria. Furthermore, it was found that the nanospheres did not show any cytotoxic effect to fibroblast (NIH/3T3) and osteoblast (SaOS-2) cell lines. The results demonstrated that the prepared composite nanospheres can be a promising option for bone infection prevention at the post implantation period.