Effect of Organic Solvents on Gemcitabine Loaded PLGA Nanoparticles

Tahir Emre YALCIN°, Sibel ILBASMIS-TAMER, Sevgi TAKKA

* Gazi University, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, 06330 Etiler, Ankara, TURKEY,

° Corresponding Author;
Phone: +90 312 2023041
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E-mail: tahiremreyalcin@gmail.com

Summary

Gemcitabine hydrochloride is a water soluble drug and widely used alone or in combination with other chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of breast cancer. In this study, gemcitabine hydrochloride loaded poly(d,l-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by modified double emulsion solvent evaporation method. PLGA is a polymer, used in many biomedical applications because it is biodegradable, biocompatible, and FDA approved. To investigate the effect of type of organic phase solvents on the mean particle sizes and entrapment efficiency of obtained PLGA nanoparticles, different organic solvents acetone (ACE, water-soluble solvent) and dichloromethane (DCM, water-immiscible solvent) were used as organic solvents either individually or in combinations. When DCM used alone as organic solvents, large NPs above 400 nm were obtained. DCM in combination with ACE (DCM:ACE 1:2, v/v) resulted in highest entrapment efficiency. The optimized formulation had a range of 231 ± 10.3 nm particle sizes and 12.0 ± 0.43% entrapment efficiency. These findings show that the solubility of organic phase solvents in water was an important parameter affecting the mean particle size and entrapment efficiency of gemcitabine hydrochloride loaded PLGA nanoparticles.

Key Words :
Gemcitabine, modified double emulsion solvent evaporation method, PLGA, nanoparticles