Bacterial Cellulose–Polyvinyl Alcohol Based Complex Composites for Controlled Drug Release
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Herein, authors have synthesized bacterial cellulose- polyvinyl alcohol-based multi-layer composite for drug delivery applications. Authors have shown the loading and release study of TC-HCL as a model drug. There are several flaws with this article, as mentioned below, and hence it should be rejected.
1) Novelty: There are several reports available for the synthesis of BC-PVA composite for the biomedical applications. The authors have not reported new methods of synthesis nor any enhancement in the material's efficacy. (Wang C, Bai J, Tian P, Xie R, Duan Z, Lv Q, and Tao Y (2021) The Application Status of Nanoscale Cellulose-Based Hydrogels in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Biomedicine. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 9:732513. DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.732513 & International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE) ISSN: 2278-3075, Volume-8 Issue-5S March 2019 & Wan, Wan-Kei, and Leonardo Millon. "Poly (vinyl alcohol)-bacterial cellulose nanocomposite." No. 2539087. 10 Jun. 2014. And so on..)
2) Title: The title is not relatable to the content. Please change with the proper tile
3) No cell culture tests were conducted. Cytotoxicity studies are a must for any drug delivery applications.
4) In vitro permeation testes were needed to find its suitability for transdermal drug delivery applications.
Overall, the work is characterized reasonably, but it lacks novelty. Also, the work does not report any enhanced efficacy. Hence this is not suitable for this journal.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The article written by Cristina Busuioc et al. describes “The characterization and mathematical modeling of drug release in monolayer and multilayer composite systems.” Overall, this study was well executed, and the data are attractive and exciting to the readers of this journal. I would like to recommend this manuscript for publication after addressing the following comments.
1. Figure 1g should be reorganized with higher quality, and the grammatical errors in the manuscript should be checked.
2. Data analysis methods are missing in the article, including methods for calculating significant differences between data groups.
3. The antibacterial activity evaluation only counts the diameter of the antibacterial zone. Therefore, adding photos of the antibacterial zone is recommended to more intuitively show the antibacterial effect of different preparations.
4. In the characterization of composite materials, detecting and calculating the drug loading of the bacteriostatic active ingredient TC-HCl is recommended.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
This manuscript evaluated the drug release processes by mathematical modeling. The novelty of this work should be enhanced. In addition, the composites should be characterized by BET analysis to better explain the results. This paper has no any major flaw and fully acceptable for the publication in Applied Sciences.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors have revised the manuscript accordingly, and the revised version is now suitable for publication in its current form.
Author Response
On behalf of all authors, please allow me to thank you for your time and efforts. We are deeply grateful for your valuable help. Thank you for your kind words!
Reviewer 2 Report
Rephase is needed as some of the contents are similar to another publication named "Controlled release of sorbic acid from bacterial cellulose-based mono and multiplayer antimicrobial films".
Author Response
On behalf of all authors, I want to express our gratitude for your time and efforts. We deeply appreciate your comments that helped us to improve our manuscript.
We carefully reedited our manuscript to avoid similarities with other works. Please see text marked in blue.
Round 3
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors presented a manuscript named "Mono and multilayered composite systems – characterization and mathematical modelling of drug release." No further corrections are needed. The manuscript will be accepted for publishing.
