title: Poly(amidoamine)-Cholesterol Conjugate Nanoparticles Obtained by Electrospraying as Novel Tamoxifen Delivery System.
abstract: A new poly(amidoamine)-cholesterol (PAA-cholesterol) conjugate was synthesized, characterized and used to produce nanoparticles by the electrospraying technique. The electrospraying is a method of liquid atomization that consists in the dispersion of a solution into small charged droplets by an electric field. Tuning the electrospraying process parameters spherical PAA-chol nanoparticles formed. The PAA-cholesterol nanoparticles showed sizes lower than 500 nm and spherical shape. The drug incorporation capacity was investigated using tamoxifen, a lipophilic anticancer drug, as model drug. The incorporation of the tamoxifen did not affect the shape and sizes of nanoparticles showing a drug loading of 40%. Tamoxifen-loaded nanoparticles exhibited a higher dose-dependent cytotoxicity than free tamoxifen, while blank nanoparticles did not show any cytotoxic effect at the same concentrations. The electrospray technique might be proposed to produce tamoxifen-loaded PAA-chol nanoparticle in powder form without any excipient in a single step.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienza e Tecnologia del Farmaco, Università di Torino, Via P. Giuria 9, 10125 Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cavalli
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bisazza
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bussano
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Trotta
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Civra
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lembo
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ranucci
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ferruti