Electrospun Polyvinylpyrrolidone/Soy protein nanofibers enriched with curcumin-loaded ZIF-8 nanoparticles: Synthesis and evaluation for wound healing application

In skin tissue engineering, biocompatible polymeric nanofibers (NFs) with high antimicrobial capability are used as wound dressings for the rapid healing of skin wounds. In this research, a novel NFs is produced by a combination of Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and soy protein (Soy) incorporated with Zeolite imidazolate framework-8 loaded with Curcumin (ZIF8 @Cur) nanoparticles (NPs) via electrospinning method. PVP/Soy NF with a ratio of 70:30 (P70S30) presented acceptable properties as a parent scaffold. ZIF8 @Cur NPs with concentrations of 10 % and 20 % wt. were loaded in P70S30 mat which coded as the PSZ10 and PSZ20, respectively. NFs were investigated in terms of chemical and physical structure such as FTIR and FESEM analyses, swelling, degradation, moisture retention and wettability. In addition, this study investigates cellular behavior, hemocompatibility and antioxidant properties of NFs. The produced scaffolds were not toxic in the cell media and ZIF8 @Cur NPs improved cell growth and proliferation. The results of the antibacterial test showed that the presence of ZIF8 @Cur NPs increases the antibacterial ability against pathogenic agents due to the release of Zn2+ and Cur. Among the NFs, the PSZ20 mat was chosen as the optimal scaffold due to its favorable characteristics. Therefore, the obtained results confirm the potential of NFs as a wound dressing.