Self-assembled polymeric nanoparticles of poly(ethylene glycol) grafted pullulan acetate as a novel drug carrier

  • Sun-Woong Jung
  • Young-ll Jeong
  • Young-Hoon Kim
  • Sung-Ho Kim
Reasearch Articles Articles
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Abstract

Self-assembling nanospheres of hydrophobized pullulan have been developed. Pullulan acetate (PA), as hydrophobized pullulan, was synthesized by acetylation. Carboxymethylated poly(ethylene-glycol) (CMPEG) was introduced into pullulan acetate (PA) through a coupling reaction using N,N′-dicyclohexyl carbodiimide (DCC). A synthesized PA-PEG-PA (abbreviated as PEP) conjugate was confirmed by Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Since PEP conjugates have amphiphilic characteristics in aqueous solution, polymeric nanoparticles of PEP conjugates were prepared using a simple dialysis method in water. From the analysis of fluorescence excitation spectra primarily, the critical association concentration (CAC) of this conjugate was found to be 0.0063 g/L. Observations by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed the spherical morphologies of the PEP nanoparticles. The particle size distribution of the PEP conjugates was determined using photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS) and the intensity-average particle size was 193.3 ± 13.53 nm with a unimodal distribution. Clonazepam (CNZ), as a model drug, was easy to entrap into polymeric nanoparticles of the PEP conjugates. The drug release behavior was mainly diffusion controlled from the core portion.

Key words

Pullulan Poly(ethylene glycol) Polysaccharide Self-assembly Stealth properties 
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Copyright information

© The Pharmaceutical Society of Korea 2004

Authors and Affiliations

  • Sun-Woong Jung
    • 1
  • Young-ll Jeong
    • 2
  • Young-Hoon Kim
    • 3
  • Sung-Ho Kim
    • 1
  1. 1.College of PharmacyChosun UniversityGwangjuKorea
  2. 2.Research Institute of Medical SciencesChonnam National University Medical SchoolGwangjuKorea
  3. 3.Department of ChemistryUniversity of Massachusetts at LowellLowellUSA

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