Hamid Reza Kheiri Manjili
1, Hojjat Malvandi
3, Mir-Sajjad Mosavi
1, Hossein Danafar
2,3*1 Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology Department, School of Pharmacy, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran.
2 Zanjan Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Research Center, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran.
3 Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran.
Abstract
Background: Artemisinin is a sesquiterpene lactone
chemical extract from Artemisia annua, is poorly resolvable in water and a fast-acting
blood active in treating the acute attack of malaria.
Methods: Artemisinin
was encapsulated within mPEG-PCL micelles with a single-step nano-precipitation
method, leading to formation of ART/ mPEG-PCL micelles. mPEG-PCL copolymers was
characterized in vitro by HNMR, FTIR and DSC techniques. Copolymers with
artemisinin were self-assembled into micelles in aqueous solution. The
consequential micelles were further characterized by various techniques such as
DLS and AFM.
Results: The results exhibited the successful
formation of spherical artemisinin-loaded micelles. The artemisinin-loaded
micelles showed high loading efficiency. The encapsulation efficiency of
artemisinin was 63±2.31%. In vitro release of artemisinin from
artemisinin-entrapped micelles followed remarkably sustained release profile.
Conclusion: The results indicated that the successful formulation
of artemisinin loaded mPEG-PCL micelles can
improve the drug delivery of artemisinin. The results showed that nanomicelles
can be promising drug delivery systems for sustaining release of artemisinin.