Polymeric Nano-particles: from Preparation to Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Abstract

Polymeric nanoparticles (PNPs) have a great potential as drug delivery systems for various types of therapeutic agents, such as anti-inflammatory and antioxidant drugs, offering many advantages concerning targeting to specific sites. Polymeric nanoparticles will be studied as drug carriers in the pharmaceutical field. PNPs will be studied as drug carriers in the pharmaceutical field due to their unique features, such as the capability to protect drugs, the versatility to control drug release and adjustable surface properties.The main objective of this thesis is the preparation of PNPs based on biodegradable polymers such as polycaprolactone (PCL), poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) and chitosan (CS) in order to be used for drug encapsulation which are suitable for use as drug delivery systems due to their high biodegradability, biocompatibility, permeability to wide range of drugs and non-toxicity. In this work, two drug models were used Vitamin C (Vit.C) and 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU). This due to Vit.C had low stability while 5-FU had major drawback is systemic toxicity arising from its non-specificity, low plasma half-life, very low bioavailability leading to the use of high doses resulting in side effects.