Direct Quantification of Drug Loading Content in Polymeric Nanoparticles by Infrared Spectroscopy

Abstract

Nanotechnology has enabled the development of novel therapeutic strategies such as targeted nanodrug delivery systems, control and stimulus-responsive release mechanisms, and the production of theranostic agents. As a prerequisite for the use of nanoparticles as drug delivery systems, the amount of loaded drug must be precisely quantified, a task for which two approaches are currently used. However, both approaches suffer from the inefficiencies of drug extraction and of the solid-liquid separation process, as well as from dilution errors. This work describes a new, reliable, and simple method for direct drug quantification in polymeric nanoparticles using attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, which can be adapted for a wide variety of drug delivery systems. Silk fibroin nanoparticles and naringenin were used as model polymeric nanoparticle carrier and drug, respectively. The specificity, linearity, detection limit, precision, and accuracy of the spectroscopic approach were determined in order to validate the method. A good linear relation was observed within 0.00 to 7.89% of naringenin relative mass with an R2 of 0.973. The accuracy was determined by the spike and recovery method. The results showed an average 104% recovery. The limit of detection and limit of quantification of the drug loading content were determined to be 0.3 and 1.0%, respectively. The method’s robustness is demonstrated by the notable similarities between the calibrations carried out using two different equipment setups at two different institutions.

Naringenin Nano-Delivery Systems and Their Therapeutic Applications

“…A number of studies employed polymeric nanoparticles as NRG delivery vehicles [ 66 ]. A study in 2016 investigated the in vivo toxicological properties of poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP)-coated NRG nanoparticles.…”

“…Among these, polymeric nanocarriers (natural and synthetic) can be cited: lipid-based nanocarriers, polymeric nanoparticles, dendrimers, hydrogels, micelles, protein-based nanoparticles, carbon-based nanocarriers, nanotransfersomes, nanoemulsions, nanocomposites, metal oxide nanoparticles, etc. These particles can encapsulate NRG inside their structures and release it in a controllable manner [ 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 ].…”

Amino acid modified OCMC-g-Suc-β-CD nanohydrogels carrying lapatinib and ginsenoside Rg1 exhibit high anticancer activity in a zebrafish model

“…The two standard curves described above were analyzed on the HPLC machine by a published method ( Chang et al, 2021 ). The Y -intercept was explained as the average peak area when the concentration of ginsenoside Rg1/lapatinib was 0, and the intercepts in the two standard curves were not statistically different from 0 ( Carissimi et al, 2020 ). The mass of lapatinib/ginsenoside Rg1 was then calculated, and the drug loading efficiency ( DL ) was calculated using the following equation: where W drug indicates the mass of ginsenoside Rg1/lapatinib in lyophilized solid, and W t indicates the total mass of lyophilized solid.…”

Self‐assembly of methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)‐cholesterol micelles for controlled quercetin delivery with toxicity test in Danio rerio model

“…The drug loading efficiency (DLE) and drug loading content (DLC) of the systems were determined using UV-Vis spectrophotometer, as previously described. 23 In brief, QCT-M aliquots were taken from the solution and added with 2 ml methanol to disrupt the micellar structure by gentle mixing, and added up to 10 ml with distilled water. Samples were measured at 370 nm excitation wavelength, prior to the calculation via formulas.…”