Nano drug delivery systems and gamma radiation sterilization

Abstract

In recent years, drug delivery systems such as liposomes and microparticles have been used in clinic for the treatment of different diseases and from a regulatory point of view, a parenterally applied drug and drug delivery systems must be sterile and pyrogen free. Radiation sterilization is a method recognized by pharmacopoeias to achieve sterility criteria of parenterals. It has the ability to kill microorganisms in therapeutic products. The ability of, however, irradiation might also affect the performance of drug delivery systems. One of the most critical points is irradiation dose, because certain undesirable chemical and physical changes may accompany with the irradiation, especially with the traditionally applied dose of 25 kGy. Its ionizing property may cause fragmentation of covalent bond. The care must be paid to the applied dose. In this research, the effects of gamma irradiation on different drug delivery systems such as chitosan microparticles, liposomes, niosomes and sphingosomes were investigated. According to the experimental data, it can be concluded that gamma irradiation can be a suitable sterilization technique for liposome, niosome and sphingosome dispersions. When all irradiated drug carrier systems were taken into consideration, chitosan glutamate microparticles were found as the most radioresistant drug delivery system among the others.

Keywords:

• Chitosan microparticles
• gamma radiation sterilization
• liposomes
• niosomes
• sphingosomes

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the drug companies Abdi İbrahim (Turkey), İbrahim Ethem Ulagay-Menarini (Turkey) and Deva (Turkey) for their valuable technical support for this research.

Authors also wish to thank Prof. Dr. Semra Ide (Hacettepe University Department of Physics Engineering) and Prof. Dr. Sevda Senel (Hacettepe University, Department of Pharmaceutical Technology) for their kind technical advice and Phospholipid GmbH for their generous gift of phospholipids and Prof Dr. Asuman Bozkır (Ankara University Department of Pharmaceutical Technology) for their valuable support.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no declarations of interest.