A NOVEL NANOPARTICLE SYSTEM BASED ON POLYCAPROLACTONE-TRIOL AS A POTENTIAL CARRIER FOR DRUG DELIVERY

Recently, considerable interest has arisen in using polycaprolactone-triol (PCL-T) to prepare nanoparticle-based systems aiming to mask the bitter taste of antiviral drugs [1]. Nevertheless, none of these studies focused solely on investigating the use of PCL-T as a drug delivery carrier. Thus, we aimed in this study to develop PCL-T NPs loaded with dexamethasone. The first step of the study consisted of evaluating the nanoparticle characteristics by changing the PCL-T concentration and acetone: water ratio. Not surprisingly, increased PCL-T concentration and acetone: water ratio increased the size of the NPs. In view of these findings, the acetone: water ratio selected for further studies was 2:10, and the concentration of PCL-T was chosen as 1.6 mg.ml-1. Going further, the loading efficiency of dexamethasone into PCL-T NPs was investigated using different concentrations. The loading efficiencies obtained were about 87, 95 and 97% at the concentrations of 0.16, 0.32, and 0.48 mg.ml-1, respectively. Although the higher concentration of dexamethasone resulted in higher loading efficiency, this system was not stable over time (aggregates were observed after three days). Based on this, the final concentration for dexamethasone was selected as 0.32 mg.ml-1, which was used for further studies. The PCL-T NPs exhibited significantly retarded in vitro release compared with free dexamethasone. These findings collectively confirm the potential use of PCL-T-based NPs as drug delivery carriers.