N-Stearoyl Chitosan as a Coating Material for Liposomes Encapsulating Itraconazole

Abstract

Since the discovery of liposomes, this technology has been evolving from the studying of biological membranes to various multidisciplinary studies, especially cosmeceuticals and pharmaceuticals. However, the conventional liposomes encountered many challenges such as metabolite by the process of phagocytosis, instability in plasma, and short half-life. In this study, we synthesized 41 kDa N-stearoyl chitosan to be used as a stealth coating materials for soy lecithin liposomes. Soy lecithin liposomes were prepared using the thin-film hydration technique and coated with N-stearoyl chitosan, which reduced the average particle size of liposomes down to 36% and zeta potential to −15.2 mV. The morphology of liposomes was further confirmed to be spherical in shape by using the optical polarizing microscope. More than 90% of itraconazole (ITZ) was successfully encapsulated, while the in vitro release studies showed a significantly slower release of ITZ from N-stearoyl chitosan-coated soy lecithin liposomes as compared to free ITZ. These indicated that N-stearoyl chitosan could possibly be a good coating material for soy lecithin liposomes carrying various antifungal and antiviral drugs.