PREPARATION AND INVITRO CHARACTERIZATION OF SLOW RELEASE ABACAVIR SULFATE NANOPARTICLES IN ALGINATES
Nanoparticles, one of the colloidal drug delivery systems, hold great promise for reaching the goal of controlled drug delivery as well as site specific delivery. Nanoparticles possess a better stability as compared to liposomes. This property may be very important for many modes of targeting. Nanoparticles made of biodegradable polymers have become the best approach for nanoparticle making due to their compatibility with the human body. In this study slow release abacavir sulfate loaded nanoparticles in alginates, biodegradable hydro polymer, were prepared by in situ nano emulsion – polymer cross linking approach. The nano particle were prepared using different ratios of alginates and abacavir sulfate (ag:abs) in the ratios of (1:1,1:2and 1:3). The encapsulation efficiency was also studied to find out the percentage drug entrapped in the prepared nanoparticles. The result of ratio 1:3 (ag:abs) showed a good encapsulation efficiency of 98.71%. Abacavir sulfate nanoparticle was confirmed by FT-IR, DSC and quantitated by uv prepared nanoparticle appeared spherical with a dense drug core in transmission electron microscopy studies. Hydro dynamic diameter of nanoparticles was 63 ± 0.235nm, with a Gaussian distribution and the zeta potential –0.6 mev. Sustained diffusive drug release was observed in vitro, following zero order kinetics releasing the drug pay load over a period of 16h. Embedding abacavir sulfate in alginate provided sustained release. They also offered better pharmacokinetic properties to the drug than that afforded by the free drug it self. The nanoparticle technique developed can be a good choice for the development of sustained antiretroviral drug carrier.