Protein-based nanoparticles synthesized at a high shear rate and optimized for drug delivery applications

Abstract

This study aims to establish a method for the preparation of protein-based nanoparticles with uniform-sized nanoparticles less than 100 nm. For this, the conventional desolvation method was enhanced by applying a high shear rate. Molecular bovine serum albumin (BSA) was exploited in the modified method. The synthesis condition was optimized by the Taguchi approach. For this, an orthogonal array of L16 was used for four parameters each at four levels. Temperature, pH, agitation speed, and the volume fraction of organic solvents (ethanol/acetone) were selected as affecting parameters. The smallest size of BSA nanoparticles was obtained at pH 8, 8 °C, 66.7% (v/v) ethanol to acetone, and 7000 rpm of agitation speed (shear rate ~73304 s−1). The nanoparticles were characterized using dynamic light scattering (DLS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The BSA nanoparticles with the smallest size of 76 nm were used for the controlled release of cefazolin (Cef) as one of the most commonly used antibiotics for the treatment of bacterial infections. Also, the loading capacity and in vitro drug release kinetic behavior of the BSA nanoparticles were investigated. Amongst the adsorption equilibrium isotherms fitted to the experimental data, the Freundlich isotherm was the best isotherm with R2 = 0.97. The release kinetics of Cef was followed by the Korsmeyer-Peppas model (R2 = 0.99) revealing that the drug release is controlled by the non-Fickian diffusion-based mechanism along with polymer erosion. The kinetic data showed that about 99% of the drug is released within 42 h. According to the result of this study, BSA nano-formulation could be an encouraging carrier for antibiotics delivery.