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Abstract
Objective: Preparation and characterization of anandamide (N-arachidonoyl-ethanolamine, AEA) loaded polycaprolactone nanoparticles (PCL NP) as a research tool to clarify the presence of an AEA transporter in cell membranes and to avoid AEA plastic adsorption and instability.
Materials and methods: High performance liquid chromatography and light scattering were used to determine encapsulation efficiency, particle size, drug release, permeability and stability.
Results: A high encapsulation efficiency 96.05 ± 1.77% and a particle size of 83.52 ± 21.38 nm were obtained. Nearly 40% of AEA remained in the NP after a 99.9% dilution and only 50% was released after 24 h at 37°C with a 99% dilution. PCL NP prevented the adsorption of the drug to polypropylene or polystyrene, but not to acrylic multiwell plates. Drug permeability through artificial membranes was low (10−7 to 10−8 cm/s) and was affected by the presence of NP. NP increased AEA stability in suspension (drug half-life 431 h vs. 12 h) and freeze-dried with 5% sucrose.
Conclusion: This article presents the first study where stable AEA-loaded NP with high encapsulation efficiencies have been obtained.
Acknowledgements
D. Hernán thanks the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science for the FPU fellowship. The authors are grateful to Gennaro Gentile from the Istituto di Chimica e Tecnologia dei Polimeri (ICTP)-CNR (Pozzuoli, Napoli) for his collaboration in SEM.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflict of interest related to the data submitted in this manuscript.