الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Local infections in trauma, burns, cutaneous and surgical wounds, gastrointestinal tract, vagina, bone or other sites can result in varying complications. Preparations for local application may offer fair antibacterial activity but without sustained antibacterial effect or enhanced tissue regeneration. On the other hand, modern nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems are believed to speed-up the treatment of local infections.
<However, antimicrobial-functionalized nanofibers (NFs) fabricated using the versatile electrospinning technique are currently receiving growing attention as drug delivery scaffolds for the prevention and treatment of diverse localized infections. NFs offer additional advantages, mainly prolonged retention at the specific target site extending the duration of antimicrobial action and enhancement of cell regeneration at the wounded site.
The efficacy of antimicrobial polymer NFs has been progressively promoted by advances in the NFs fabrication methods and diversity of polymers used.
Emphasis is being currently placed on stimuli-responsive polymers for temporal and site-specific control of antimicrobial release. Among these, Eudragit polymers offer great advantages as FDA-approved materials with a variety of physicochemical properties that can be tuned by simple blending Eudragit or other polymers to confer the required function or property.
In the present thesis, it was hypothesized that NFs made of Eudragit may be explored as nanostructured systems with tailored properties and loading of antimicrobial agents for clinical use in the prevention and treatment of local infections. Vancomycin (VCM) was selected being broadly active against Gram-positive bacteria and as the gold standard against (MRSA) infections. The clinical literature indicates a real demand for well-designed local VCM delivery systems with the required attributes for specific local applications.
The objective of thesis was to develop electrospun VCM-functionalized pH-responsive Eudragit NFs for the local delivery of VCM at specific infection sites.
The study design was based on combining the versatility of the electrospinning technique, different drug loading strategies, diversity of Eudragit polymers, unique properties of NFs as drug delivery scaffolds and high VCM activity for the development of effective antimicrobial NFs for potential biomedical applications.