Intranasal administration of carbamazepine-loaded carboxymethyl chitosan nanoparticles for drug delivery to the brain

Epilepsy is considered as a common and diverse set of chronic neurological disorders and its symptoms can be controlled by antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). The presence of p-glycoprotein and multi-drug resistance transporters in the blood-brain barrier could prevent the entry of AEDs into the brain, causing drug resistant epilepsy. To overcome this problem, we propose using carboxymethyl chitosan nanoparticles as a carrier to deliver carbamazepine (CBZ) intranasally with the purpose to bypass the blood-brain barrier thus to enhance the brain drug concentration and the treatment efficacy. Results so far indicate that the developed CBZNPs have small particle size (218.76 +/- 2.41 nm) with high drug loading (around 35%) and high entrapment efficiency (around 80%). The in vitro release profiles of CBZ from the NPs are in accordance with the Korsmeyer-peppas model. The in vivo results show that both encapsulation of CBZ in nanoparticles and the nasal route determined the enhancement of the drug bioavailability and brain targeting characteristics. (C) 2018 Shenyang Pharmaceutical University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.