In recent years, the use of biopolymeric nanoparticles as vehicles for drug delivery has increased exponentially. In the present study, chitosan and gelatin nanoparticles were prepared by ionic gelation and desolvation methods, respectively. Salicylic acid was used as the model drug. The nanoparticles were characterized using SEM, XRD analysis and FTIR spectrophotometric studies. In vitro drug release experiments were carried out to understand the mechanism of drug release. SEM micrographs showed the formation of spherical nanoparticles. XRD studies indicated a higher crystalline nature of the chitosan nanoparticles as compared to the gelatin nanoparticles. FTIR studies indicated the presence of salicylic acid within the drug- loaded nanoparticles. Drug release studies indicated that the developed nanoparticles may be used as carriers for various bioactive agents.
TopIntroduction
In the recent years, there has been an exponential increase in the use of nanoparticulate delivery vehicles for controlled drug delivery (Manzoor, et al., 2012; Probst, Zrazhevskiy, Bagalkot, & Gao, 2013). The various nanoparticulate drug delivery vehicles include solid-lipid nanoparticles (Makwana, Jain, Patel, Nivsarkar, & Joshi, 2015), liposomes (Kraft, Freeling, Wang, & Ho, 2014), magnetosomes (Deng, et al., 2013) and biopolymeric nanoparticles (Nitta & Numata, 2013). This increase may be attributed to the advancement of research technologies and the advantages of the nanoparticulate delivery vehicles (Couvreur, 2013; Parveen, Misra, & Sahoo, 2012). The advantages of the nanoparticulate delivery vehicles include their ability to incorporate both hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds (Aryal, Hu, Fu, & Zhang, 2012), ability to cross blood-brain-barrier (Kreuter, 2013; Wohlfart, Gelperina, & Kreuter, 2012) and increased residence time in the systemic circulation (using stealth technology) (Amoozgar & Yeo, 2012; L. Li, et al., 2013). The above-mentioned properties have helped in designing controlled delivery system using nanoparticulate systems (Coco, et al., 2013; Pathak & Thassu, 2016). Of the various types of nanoparticulate delivery vehicles, the use of biopolymeric nanoparticles is on the rise (Lohcharoenkal, Wang, Chen, & Rojanasakul, 2014; Zhen, et al., 2013). This may be attributed to the easy method of preparation, stability of the vehicle, biodegradable/ bioresorbable and minimum antigenic properties associated with the biopolymers (Elzoghby, Samy, & Elgindy, 2012a; Sundar, Kundu, & Kundu, 2016). The various biopolymers which have been commonly used for devising nanoparticulate delivery vehicles are alginate (Nesamony, Singh, Nada, Shah, & Kolling, 2012; Paul, Shelma, & Sharma, 2013), chitosan (Bernkop-Schnürch & Dünnhaupt, 2012; Garrait, Beyssac, & Subirade, 2014), dextran (Foerster, et al., 2016), hyaluronate (Z. Chen, et al., 2013; Yoon, et al., 2013), cellulose (Abeer, Amin, Iqbal, & Martin, 2014; Rescignano, et al., 2014), albumin (Elsadek & Kratz, 2012; Elzoghby, et al., 2012a), collagen (M.-M. Chen, et al., 2015; Kasoju, Ali, Dubey, & Bora, 2013), heparin (Liang & Kiick, 2014; She, et al., 2013), and gelatin (Elzoghby, Samy, & Elgindy, 2012b; Hu, et al., 2015).