Abstract

Background: Albumin-based nanoparticles have been used as drug carriers to improve therapeutic effect. This study aimed to produce sulfasalazine (SSZ)-loaded bovine serum albumin (BSA) nanoparticles by desolvation technique and characterize their physical properties. Drug loading effect was also investigated.

Methods: SSZ albumin nanoparticles were batch produced by desolvation technique and lyophilized. Physical characteristics of nanoparticles including size distribution, zeta potential and entrapment efficiency were studied.

Results: Nanoparticles were spherical and typically 200–400 nm with low polydispersity (PDI). The zeta potentials of nanoparticles ranged from −21 to −41 mV, which were attributed to BSA and SSZ. The highest actual drug loading was close to 0.5%w/w. The addition of 2% sucrose during lyophilization was essential to avoid cake collapse and the particle sizes increased slightly where their PDI values were low. Although the presence of sucrose led to a slight reduction in zeta potential, it had limited effect on zeta potential of the nanoparticles. The interactions between SSZ and formulation excipients were also confirmed with FTIR and DSC analyses.

Conclusion: Desolvation technique produced stable sulfasalazine-loaded nanoparticles that can be administered parenterally.

KEYWORDS: sulfasalazine; nanoparticle; albumin; physical property