An anti-bacterial and anti-cancer fibrous membrane with multiple therapeutic effects for prevention of pancreatic cancer recurrence

Adjuvant systemic chemotherapy with gemcitabine (GEM) is recognized as the standard of care to improve the prognosis of patients with resected pancreatic cancer (PC); however, it is greatly limited by poor absorption of chemotherapy agents. Moreover, surgical site infection and Gammaproteobacteria-induced GEM resistance further decrease the chemotherapy efficacy and increase the risk of recurrence and even mortality. Here, we develop an implantable anti-bacterial and anti-cancer fibrous membrane (AAFM) to inhibit PC recurrence in a well-coordinated manner. Our AAFM can be readily prepared via simple co-electrospinning of GEM and poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) and subsequent tannic acid (TA)-mediated in-situ generation of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The resultant membrane presents highly porous fibrous morphology and appropriate mechanical performance. Most importantly, we find the surface-deposited TA/AgNP complexes can exert multiple therapeutic effects: (1) they can act as a fence to extend GEM diffusion route, achieving a sustained drug release; (2) they can fight the pathogenic microorganisms in the local microenvironment and prevent infectious complications and alleviate Gammaproteobacteria-induced chemotherapy resistance; (3) they can combat residual cancer cells to synchronously strengthen the effectiveness of GEM-based chemotherapy. Altogether, our AAFM provides a proof-of-concept demonstration of the integrated anti-cancer and anti-bacterial strategy for enhanced therapeutic efficacy and will inspire the design of other high-performance implants for prevention of tumor relapse.