Introduction:

n-Butyl cyanoacrylate (BCA) and its polymer, poly (n-butyl cyanoacrylate) (PBCA) have excellent adhesive, biocompatible and biodegradable properties for medical applications. The current work presents new methods for producing BCA of high purity and PBCA micro/nanofibers as potencial pharmaceutic products.

Methods:

Microwave radiation was used for producing BCA, and electro-spinning technique for PBCA micro/nanofibers, whose physical chemistry, mechanical, biological and drug delivery properties were evaluated.

Results:

The process time for BCA production was reduced by a factor from 3 to 5 fold when microwave radiation was used respecting oil bath. The application of electro-spinning to solutions of PBCA with different molecular weights produced fibers free of defects with diameters between 400 nm and 5 μm. Young´s modulus and maximal tension values were determined in the range from 0,7 MPa to 1,9 MPa and 0,05 MPa to 0,12 MPa respectively. The thermal degradation of PBCA nanofibers and those charged with 15% of 5-fluorouracil was 110 oC to 241oC and 100 oC to 309 oC, with the corresponding maximal peaks at 186 oC and 203 oC. The cytostatic 5-fluorouracil was homogeneously loaded inside PBCA fibers, with a release of 20 % in 7 days and the rest gradually (until 96 days) in physiological medium. Human fibroblasts proliferated over PBCA nanofibers. As a conclusion: Microwave radiation reduces the reaction time for BCA synthesis in a significant way. The electro-spinning of PBCA produces meshes based on micro/nanofibers, which can be used as drug delivery and tissue engineering systems.

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