Recently various diseases have been managed effectively through improving therapeutic effect of drugs, reducing side effects and drug consumption, by the development of new drug delivery system such as target drug delivery, percutaneous drug delivery and controlled drug delivery using nanoparticles.
Chitosan is a linear copolymer assembled from glucosamine and N -acetylglucosamine [poly(N-acetyl- d -glucosamine-co- d -glucosamine)] units. Chitosan is a generic name of polymers with its molecular weights up to several millions.
Chitosan is charged positively so it can adhere to the negatively charged surface. Chitosan is soluble to some acid solutions and can form complexes and gel through the interaction with polyanions.
CS is attracting more and more attention in the application as a drug delivery carrier due to its several favorable biological properties, such as biodegradability, biocompatibility, nontoxicity, nonimmunogenic, noncarcinogenic, and antibacterial properties.
A research team in the Basic Medicine Faculty, Pyongyang Medical College,
We prepared nanoparticles upon addition of a sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP) aqueous solution to the chitosan solution and explored the optimal reaction conditions varying concentration, pH, temperature and agitation rate.
The mean particle size was the smallest as 241.3nm, 249.8nm in 2mg/ml of chitosan and 1mg/ml of TPP respectively.
The mean particle size is increased significantly with remarkable decreasing of Zeta potential according to the pH change from 5 to 6.
The mean particle size was the smallest at 10-20℃ of temperature with no significant changes of Zeta potential.
The mean particle size is decreased significantly with remarkable increasing of Zeta potential at 750rpm of agitation rate.
Our investigation on the controlled drug release from chitosan nanoparticles continues.
