Controlled released of drug from doubled-walled PVA hydrogel/PCL microspheres prepared by single needle electrospraying method

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogels have been extensively studied as drug delivery systems. However, due to the high hydrophilicity of PVA, these hydrogels have weak abilities to efficiently load drugs and control the initial burst release. In this study, we present a one-step simple and rapid single needle electrospraying (SNESy) method that combines PVA hydrogels with another biocompatible polymer polycaprolactone (PCL). A distinct core-shell structure was obtained with the PVA hydrogel core and PCL shell after the system was properly set up. The results revealed that the volume ratio between PVA hydrogel and PCL played an important role in determining the particle size and the formation of a spherical structure. The double-walled structure of the microsphere was confirmed by taking the fluorescent images and conducting the ATR-FTIR method. Furthermore, doxorubicin hydrochloride was used as a model drug to evaluate the drug loading capacity and the in vitro release behavior of this PVA hydrogel/PCL microsphere. The results indicated that coating a layer of PCL polymer significantly enhanced the drug loading capacity and reduced the drug initial burst release compared to the single-layer PVA hydrogel nanoparticles, demonstrating these biocompatible double-walled microspheres can be applied as excellent drug delivery carriers.