Formulation of biocompatible polymeric nanoparticles as therapeutic carriers in inhaled drug delivery : effects of different formulation parameters.

The aim of the present work is to synthesize biocompatible nanoparticles, namely polymethyl methacrylate and polycaprolactone, and by varying different formulation parameters, investigate the effects on their sizes, yields and drug loading capacities. As such, the potential capability of these polymeric nanoparticles as therapeutic carriers in pulmonary drug delivery by dry powder inhaler is examined. The nanoparticles are synthesized by solvent displacement method (also known as nanoprecipitation) and parameters such as initial polymer concentration, monomer concentration, and surfactant concentration are varied one at a time. A consistent trend is observed by increasing the initial polymer concentration- nanoparticles size and yield increase. On the other hand, an increasing concentration of surfactant leads to the formation of smaller nanoparticles but only when the surfactant concentration is within its limits. Monomer concentration, unlike the first two parameters, does not control the size of the nanoparticles in a fixed fashion because it depends on the properties of the monomer (e.g: solubility of monomer in solvent). In the drug loading studies, Aspirin is used as the model drug and the results indicate that drug entrapment efficiency is affected by the initial polymer concentration and to a lesser extent, by the water-to-acetone ratio due to the formation of a denser matrix which causes less aspirin to diffuse toward the aqueous phase. The nanoparticulate suspensions are then spray dried under a predetermined operating condition to form large hollow carrier particles which have high flowability and therapeutic efficacy.Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering