Alginate and alginate-gelatin nanoparticles as ocular drug delivery vehicles for glaucoma therapy

IntroductionGlaucoma is a chronic disease which leads to irreparable damages of the eye and further blindness. Timolol maleate is a popular drug to reduce ocular pressure of Glaucoma and administrate as eye drop. But cannot supply sufficient amount of drug because of various ocular barriers and tear turnover rate. Thus the patient needs frequent instillations. To overcome this problem, scientists have tried different methods, such as drug incorporation with nanoparticles. Objective In current study alginate nanoparticles were prepared to provide a vehicle for drug entrapment and alginate-gelatin nanoparticles were prepared to improve drug entrapment efficiency. In addition, mucoadhesive property of alginate and gelatin may lead to polymer-ocular mucin interactions, prolonged precorneal resistance time and further increase in drug availability which can end to less need of eye drops instillation and improve patient quality of life. In this study, drug loading efficiencies of alginate and alginate-gelatin nanoparticles were compared. Method Alginate-Timolol maleate aqueous solution (in desired concentration) and alginate-Timolol maleate- gelatin solution were electrosprayed in CaCl2 as crosslinking solution under stirring to yield drug loaded particles. The encapsulation efficiency of provided particles was investigated by UV-Vis spectrophotometry. Results The outcomes of UV-Vis spectrophotometry show that encapsulation efficiency of Timolol maleate has been improved from about 73% in alginate nanoparticles to about 84% in alginate- gelatin nanoparticles. Conclusion According to the results, it can be concluded that utilization of alginate in combination with gelatin to preparing an ocular drug delivery system based on nanoparticles might increase the efficiency of Glaucoma.

کلیدواژه ها:

Alginate ، Gelatin ، Nanoparticle ، Electrospray