title: Enhanced drug encapsulation and extended release profiles of calcium-alginate nanoparticles by using tannic acid as a bridging cross-linking agent.
abstract: Calcium alginate nanoparticles (NPs) suffer from sub-optimal stability in bio-relevant media leading to low drug encapsulation efficiency and uncontrolled release profiles. To sort out these drawbacks, a novel approach is proposed herein based on introducing tannic acid into these NPs to act as a bridging cross-linking aid agent. Calcium-alginate NPs were prepared by the ionotropic gelation method and loaded with diltiazem hydrochloride as a model drug. These NPs were characterized in terms of particle size, zeta potential, and morphology, and results were explained in accordance with Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The incorporation of tannic acid led to more than four folds increase in drug encapsulation efficiency (i.e. from 15.3% to 69.5%) and reduced burst drug release from 44% to around 10% within the first 30 min. These findings suggest the possibility of improving the properties of Ca-alginate NPs by incorporating cross-linking aid agents under mild conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology and.
authors.forename: Samer R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Abulateefeh
authors.forename: Mutasem O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Taha
mesh_terms: D000464:Alginates / Q000737:chemistry*; D002214:Capsules; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents / Q000737:chemistry*; D020723:Glucuronic Acid / Q000737:chemistry; D006603:Hexuronic Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D013634:Tannins / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000464:Alginates; D002214:Capsules; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents; D006603:Hexuronic Acids; D013634:Tannins; D020723:Glucuronic Acid
keywords: Alginate nanoparticles; controlled release; diltiazem hydrochloride; tannic acid