Electrospun Chitosan/PVA/CNT Nanofiber Composite for Sustained Fluconazole Delivery Against Biofilm-Forming Candida albicans

Innovative drug delivery methods are needed to improve efficacy due to the global increase in antifungal resistance, especially in Candida albicans . this study introduces a novel electrospun nanofiber platform containing fluconazole in a Chitosan-PVA-CNT-COOH matrix.A 50/50 chitosan/PVA blend with 0.25% CNT-COOH was used to electrospin nanofibers loaded with fluconazole at 10, 25, and 40 µg/mL. SEM and FT-IR were used to analyze the composition and morphology and stability was examined for 24 hours at 37°C in PBS. The pour plate method was used to evaluate the antifungal activity against Candida albicans , the MTT assay was performed for biofilm inhibition formation and cytotoxicity (on SW480 cell line) evaluation.Chitosan, PVA, CNT-COOH, and fluconazole were confirmed by FT-IR, and the nanofibers displayed consistent 70–80 nm diameters and retained their integrity after PBS. With SW480 viability exceeding 90% in comparison to free fluconazole, they demonstrated minimal cytotoxicity, completely inhibited C. albicans growth, and significantly decreased biofilms (p < 0.05).Chitosan system enhances fluconazole delivery, targets C. albicans , reduces toxicity, promising for reducing resistance.