Effect of solvent on the preparation of surfactant-free poly(DL-lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles and norfloxacin release characteristics

The surfactant-free nanoparticles of poly(DL-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) were prepared by dialysis method without surfactant and physicochemical properties such as particle size and drug contents were investigated against used initial solvent. The size of PLGA nanoparticles and drug contents were significantly changed by used initial solvent. The size of PLGA nanoparticles prepared from dimethylacetamide (DMAc), dimethylformamide (DMF), and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) as a initial used solvent was smaller than that of acetone. Selected initial solvent used to dissolve the copolymer significantly affects the size of nanoparticles and drug contents. It was shown that PLGA nanoparticles have spherical shapes from the results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations. It was thought that surfactant-free nanoparticles of PLGA entrapping norfloxacin (NFX) has nice drug loading capacity without free-drug on the surface of nanoparticles through the analysis of X-ray powder diffraction. From these results, it was showed the potential that the PLGA nanoparticles could be formed successively by dialysis method without surfactant. Release kinetics of NFX used as a model drug was governed by not only drug contents but also particle size parameter. The higher the drug contents and the larger the particle size resulted in slower the drug release. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.