Preparation Of Pva-Nigella Sativa Based Nanofibrous Wound Dressing

Project Title

Preparation Of Pva-Nigella Sativa Based Nanofibrous Wound Dressing

Project Area of Specialization Biomedical EngineeringProject Summary

Every day, people have been exposed to either simple or life threatening injuries or accidents. Globally, chronic non-healed wounds affect nearly 15% (8.2 million) of population.

Infection of wound is the main problem that delay the wound healing process. To avoid the wound infections, researchers are producing electrospun nanofibers functionalize wound dressings with antimicrobial agents, such as nanoparticles, and antibiotics. Wound management and the efficacy of wound healing in occlusion of the injured tissue can considerably depend on the materials used in the wound dressing. Medicinal plants can be taken into account as the potent and promising therapeutics for improvement of wound healing processes based on the variety of the active and effective components. These traditional medicines can be preferred over modern therapy due to the low cost, limited adverse effects, bioavailability, and efficacy. Beside the advantages of medicinal plants for wound management, one of the promising ways to promote their efficacy is to subject them to nanosizing process or incorporate them into nanostructures. Nanomaterials possess unique characteristics due to their nanoscale size and the high surface area to volume ratio, and nanosizing the medicinal plants can occur in association with modification in their physical and chemical characteristics. The advantageous efficacy of the nanostructured medicinal plants stimulated the authors to provide a comprehensive review of the plant-based nanomaterials obtained by different methods and their therapeutic targets in regulating the wound healing process.

Nigella sativa NS (kalongi) has been mentioned by Prophet Muhammad PBUH as the cure for all diseases except death, particularly with regard to its therapeutic effect.

The positive effects of NS in skin wound healing is mainly due to the induction of angiogenesis, increased fibroblast proliferation, and subsequent collagen synthesis. Moreover, NS has been reported to reduce the presence of white blood cells, tissue damage, and bacterial infection.

 It has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antibacterial properties, which mainly contributed to wound healing process. it  has anti-oxidative property

Silver dressings are topical wound care products derived from ionic silver. These products release a steady amount of silver to the wound and provide antimicrobial or antibacterial action. The silver is activated from the dressing to the wound’s surface based on the amount of exudate and bacteria in the wound. Silver is nontoxic when it interact with human tissue.

Combining Nigella and silver, both will enhance the wound healing faster due to their unique properties.

Project Objectives

The following are the objectives to be achieved.

1. To develop the nanofibrous mats using nigella sativa and sliver.
2. To optimize, we will make solutions of different concentrations 
3. To characterize  the  drug carrier and drug release behavior (in vitro and in vivo)

Project Implementation Method

STEPS TO BE FOLLOWED:

1. Material

• Nigella and silver  will be used to fabricate the nanofibers due to its high antibacterial activity
• The developed nanomat hold a great pledge to be used as a biodegradable, bio-based and antibacterial material for wound dressing.
• Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution will also be used in this process because of its ability to produce biodegradable mats. PVA solution helps the formation of excellent quality nanofibers in electrospinning.

1. Preparation of nigella sativa , silver and nanofibrous
   • Washing, grinding, extraction and filtration of the nigella sativa.
   • Evaporating the filtered extract at 70°C while being magnetically stirred until a jelly of polymer is formed.
   • Mixing of Silver nitrate with deniozed water with help of magnetic stirrer using dark conditions
   • Mixing of  PVA and silver nitrate solution with help of magnetic stirrer it will reduce to silver

1. Preparation of final solution for electrospinning
   1. Mixing of PVA with deionized water.
   2. Stirring the mixture at 80°C until the clear, highly soluble, and transparent solution is obtained.
   3. Mixing of nigella sativa extract and silver with PVA solution.
   4. The final solution for electrospinning will be ready.

1. Electrospinning process
   1. Transfer the final prepared solution to a plastic syringe attached to a capillary tip with an inner diameter of 22 gauge.
   2. The plastic syringe should be placed at 45°.
   3. The distance between the collector and capillary tip should be kept 15 cm.
   4. The copper wire attached to positive electrode at 23KV is to be inserted into the solution while connect the negative electrode at 12KV to a metallic collector.
   5. Set the solution pumping rate fixed at 4 mm/h.
   6. Now switch ON the high voltage DC power supply, immediately after few seconds the electrospun nanofiber will start to deposit at collector in the form of nanofibrous membrane.

1. Characterization and analysis of functionality of nanofibrous membrane
   1. The morphological orientation of nanofibers in the samples will be  observed by scanning electron microscope
   2. The chemical nature of PVA nanofibrous mats with and without nigella extract will characterized using an FTIR
   3. Antibacterial activity of the electrospun nanofibrous mats will checked by using disc diffusion method against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) bacteria and the zone of inhibition will be measured.

Moisture management property and thermal stability of the developed mat will evaluated by a moisture management tester and thermal analyzer

Benefits of the Project

Some of the benefits that can be achieved from the implementation of this project are:

Non-healing wounds affect millions of patients each year and contribute significantly to their morbidity and mortality. These wounds have a substantial impact because of their economic burden and the significant effect on the reduction in quality of life, as well as the increased risk of death for those patients affected by them. A 2020 study of Medicare data showed that chronic non-healing wounds and associated complications affect nearly 15% or 8.2 million Medicare beneficiaries. The study also estimated the cost to treat these wounds at between $28.1 billion and $31.7 billion annually. In addition to being older, most of these patients have obesity and diabetes. Underlying causes often include diabetic foot ulcers, venous leg ulcers, arterial insufficiency, and pressure ulcers. Every wound need different types of dressings which could be an economic burden , as we know that Pakistan is a under-developing country so economic condition is too weak and to afford such type of dressing is a great problem. And dressing cost is too high.

We live in a society where poor community is more and these people can’t afford such expensive dressing, daily thousands of people are dying because of not getting proper treatment for wound .Our goal is to help those poor people who can’t afford such dressing.

So our nanomat would have potential to cure all types of wounds. And cost effective too

PVA-Nigella silver-nanofibrous mats (PNSNM) would be best potential wound dressing material having bacterial resistance and moisture properties. They hold a great promise to be used as a biodegradable, bio-based and antibacterial wound dressing material. They have anti-inflammatory properties, and tissue growth stimulation. High mechanical properties and chemical resistance. High fiber-forming characteristics and thermal stability.  High absorptive capacity which is very good property for the exudative wounds Nigella sativa have such bioactive agents that would accelerate wound healing processes rapidly without any toxicity.

N. sativa extract has antioxidant property that is even more potent than the antioxidant properties of synthetic antioxidants such as BHA and BHT.  Thymol is one of the active compounds of N. sativa which holds excellent antifungal property. N. sativa extract is able to control skin infection in the wound.

 Silver-release dressings are extensively used for wound management, particularly in the treatment of burns, chronic leg ulcers and wounds requiring an antibacterial. They are cytotoxic to many bacteria, viruses, fungi, and even yeast which can disturb the healing process. Silver has strong antimicrobial activity, it is commonly used adjunct in wound care.   

When Silver and nigella sativa used together will enhance more antimicrobial, pro-healing, and anti-inflammatory properties. Silver works best for the burn wounds.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

Evaluation and analysis of functionality of nanofibrous membrane

1. 1.  SEM will be use to evaluate the mats for external morphology (texture) density, porosity, and orientation of materials making up the mats.
   2. The formation of nanofiber with particular diameter will be  measured and the presence of individual chemical constituents will be confirmed  by FTIR spectra
   3. Antibacterial and moisture management properties and thermal stability  of mat will be analysed.

Final Deliverable of the Project Hardware SystemCore Industry MedicalOther Industries Health Core Technology OthersOther TechnologiesSustainable Development Goals Good Health and Well-Being for PeopleRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	80000
polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)	Equipment	20	500	10000
acetic acid	Equipment	60	100	6000
Methanol	Equipment	30	500	15000
nigella sativa	Equipment	25	200	5000
silver nitrate	Equipment	22	500	11000
performing test for characterization	Equipment	10	500	5000
magnets, stirring bottles and syringe pump	Equipment	10	300	3000
in vivo(animal testing )	Equipment	15	1000	15000
transport and print	Miscellaneous	20	500	10000