Sustained ibuprofen release using composite poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)/titanium dioxide nanotubes from Ti implant surface.

Developing coatings on implant surface as drug carriers can reduce organ toxicity and effectively deliver drug locally to the target compared with the oral approach. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanotube has great potential for this application for widely used Ti implants because of its high surface area, ability to promote bone growth, and biocompatibility. However, there are two issues needed to be solved before further advancing TiO2 nanotubes technology as drug carriers: uncontrolled drug release and poor mechanical properties. In this study, a drug carrier using a composite of biodegradable polymer/TiO2 nanotubes is engineered. Ibuprofen is selected as a concept drug because it is a commonly used anti-inflammatory, fever, and pain-reducing drug. In addition, ibuprofen has a very short plasma half-life of only 1-3 h. A simple characterization method is developed to investigate the infiltration of polymer into TiO2 nanotubes. Good infiltration was observed of polymer into TiO2 nanotubes. The synthesized drug carrier demonstrated much better sustained drug release profiles for ibuprofen of 5 days (low-molecular-weight polymer) and 9 days (high-molecular-weight polymer) compared with 30 min of pure TiO2 nanotubes. The drug carrier also exhibited much improved mechanical strength and flexibility compared with pure TiO2 nanotubes.