4th Annual WML Academic Symposium

The present study is an attempt to obtain a novel drug delivery system for the treatment of asthma and allergic reactions in the body by preparing and characterizing Cromolyn sodium nanoparticles with the particle size of less than 100 nm using the nanoprecipitation method developed by Bilati et al.13 They produced particles of 172 nm using water as a non-solvent, Dimethyl Sulphoxide as an organic solvent with the organic to aqueous phase ratio of 0.05 and 50 mg of Poly (lactide-co-glycolide) as a polymer. In the present study, concentration of polymer drug, rate of addition of organic phase in the aqueous phase, homogenization speed, and temperature will be varied and optimized using design of experiments to achieve particle size of 100 nm or less. After nanoprecipitation, dispersion of nanoparticles will be ultra-centrifuged and will be periodically monitored in every 3 to 4 min. to avoid hard pallet. Cloudy phase and clear supernatant will be collected separately. Water will be poured in cloudy phase and will be ultracentrifuged to remove the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient adhered on nanoparticles. Supernatant collected after each wash with water and ultracentrifugation will be analyzed for drug content by UV-VIS Spectrophotometer. The dispersion obtained after the final wash of the nanoparticles will be freeze-dried to obtain free flowing homogenous nanoparticles. This freeze dried nanoparticles will be characterized for particle size, zeta potential, and entrapment efficiency. Particle size distribution and amount of drug entrapped will be studied using zeta sizer and UV-VIS spectrophotometer respectively. Stability studies will be performed under different conditions.
Key words: Nanoprecipitation method, Ultracentrifugation, Zeta Sizer, and UV-VIS Spectrophotometer.