Abstract

NEOTERIC HYDROPHILIC CHITOSAN-POLYETHYLENE OXIDEPOLYPROPYLENE OXIDE NANOPARTICLES AS ANTIVIRAL LOAD

Mahesh Ramrao Sherkar* and Ashok Vitthal Bhosale

Abstract

Hydrophilic nanoparticulate carriers have important potential applications for the administration of therapeutic molecules. The recently developed hydrophobic–hydrophilic carriers require the use of organic solvents for their preparation, and have a limited antiviral loading capacity. To address these limitations a new approach for the preparation of nanoparticles made solely of hydrophilic polymers is presented. The preparation technique, based on an ionic gelation process, is extremely mild and involves the mixture of two aqueous phases at room temperature. One phase contains the polysaccharide chitosan (C), a diblock copolymer of polyethylene oxide and propylene oxide (PEO–PPO) and, the other, contains the polyanion sodium tri polyphosphate (TPP). Nanoparticles were brown to white in color, characteristic odor, having acidic pH ranges between 4.3 to 4.6, particle size between 200- 400 nm, zeta potential between 20-40 mV, and DSC and FTIR spectra confirmed antiviral drug embedded in the nanoparticles. It was shown that these nanoparticles have a great antiviral drug loading capacity (entrapment efficiency up to 81% of the antiviral), and provide a continuous antiviral release for extended periods of time. All the nanoparticles were found to be stable, potent.

Keywords: Antiviral, chitosan, hydrophilic, loading capacity, mucoadhesive, nanoparticle.