Formulation Development of Ritonavir loaded solid lipid Nanoparticles for Targeted Drug Delivery

ABSTRACT

Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) have emerged as a remarkable nano-colloidal system for drug delivery. This research work aims at developing and optimizing the Ritonavir loaded solid lipid nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery by solvent emulsification-evaporation method. The produced solid lipoid Ritonavir nanoparticles were characterized for various physicochemical in terms of size, surface charge, % entrapment efficiency (EE) and in-vitro drug release studies. The entrapment efficiency (%) range of solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) is between 16.23% to 54.23% with polydispersity index (PDI) of 0.2. The mean size of particles was found between 189.6 to 271.4 nm. This indicates particles are in uniform distribution. The zeta potential was found in the range of -36.54 to -41.57 mV for prepared solid lipid nanoparticles. The most EE% was about 54.23% achieved in the presence of Polysorbate 20. It was found that addition of Polysorbate 20 in optimized concentration in the process led to increased entrapment efficiency and particle size when compared with Span 20.  In this study, we showed the SLNs have more encapsulating Ritonavir with optimized drug release.

Keywords: Ritonavir, solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) entrapment efficiency, polydispersity index (PDI)