Design and Development of Lomustine Loaded Chitosan Nanoparticles for Efficient Brain Targeting

Aims: The present research work discussed the preparation of lomustine loaded with chitosan nanoparticles (LNCp) by ionic gelation method with homogenization using the design on experiments by Box-Behnken design. Methods: The nanoparticles are evaluated by particle size, zeta potential, surface morphology, drug content, entrapment efficiency and in-vitro drug release. Results: The FT-IR results support that drug have no interaction with excipients, which are used in the preparation of nanoparticle. The particle size, drug content and encapsulation efficiency of the developed nanoparticles ranged from 190 to 255 nm, 80.88% to 94.02%, and 77.12 to 88.74%, respectively. The drug release rate is diffusion-controlled over 8 hours. The F-value for all of the responses shows that the models are significant. The p-value, less than 0.05 for all the responses reveals the significance of the models. Graphical optimisation is done by desirability plot and overlay plot, which contains optimal values of independent variables with the desirability of 1. Conclusion: In conclusion, the results suggested that the optimised lomustine loaded chitosan nanoparticles are useful for brain targeting hence hold the potential for further research and clinical application.