Diclofenac sodium loaded PLGA nanoparticles for inflammatory diseases with high anti-inflammatory properties at low dose: Formulation, characterization and in vivo HET-CAM analysis

The development of a new drug active substance is not only time-consuming and expensive, but also a chain of operations that often fails. However, increasing the bioavailability, effectiveness, safety, or targeting the drugs used in clinic by various methods, such as nanoparticles (NPs), may be a more effective way of using them in clinic. In addition, NP formulations are becoming increasingly popular in modern medical treatments. Angiogenesis, formation of new capillaries from a pre-existing one, fundamentally occurs in physiological processes such as wound healing, embryogenesis and menstrual cycle, also has a vital role in pathology of cancer, psoriasis, diabetic retinopathy and chronic inflammation. The Hen's Egg Test on the Chorioallantoic Membrane (HET-CAM) assay is a useful, well established and animal alternative in vivo procedure for evaluation of anti-inflammatory potentials and anti-irritant properties of nano drug delivery systems. In this study, diclofenac sodium (DS) loaded PLGA NPs were prepared and characterized. The particle size (PS) of DS-loaded PLGA NPs was between 114.7 and 124.8 nm and all NPs were monodisperse with negative zeta potential values. The encapsulation efficiency was in range of 41.4-77.8%. In vitro dissolution studies of NPs showed up to 24 h of DS release after the first 3 h of burst effect. The 3 h burst effect and 24 h release kinetics studied with DDSolver were found to be predominantly driven not only by one mechanism, by a combined mechanism of Fickian and non-Fickian. Solid state structures of formulations were clarified by DSC and FT-IR analysis. PS, EE% and release rates were found to be affected by the amount of DS added to the formulations. Increasing the amount of DS added to the formulations increased PS, while the EE% decreased. The release rates were affected by PS and the formulation with the lowest PS value showed slower release. The anti-inflammatory activity of optimum formulation (NP-1) was examined using in vivo HET-CAM assay. The anti-inflammatory activity results indicated that NP-1 coded NP formulation showed significantly good anti-inflammatory potential at low dose. As a result, a low dose high anti-inflammatory effect was achieved with the NP structure of DS. To the best of our knowledge this is the first study on in vivo anti-inflammatory activities of DS loaded PLGA NPs by HET-CAM.