Self-assembled polymeric nanoparticles of poly(ethylene glycol) grafted pullulan acetate as a novel drug carrier

Self-assembling nanospheres of hydrophobized pullulan have been developed. Pullulan acetate (PA), as hydrophobized pullulan, was synthesized by acetylation. Carboxymethylated poly(ethylene-glycol) (CMPEG) was introduced into pullulan acetate (PA) through a coupling reaction using N,N′-dicyclohexyl carbodiimide (DCC). A synthesized PA-PEG-PA (abbreviated as PEP) conjugate was confirmed by Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Since PEP conjugates have amphiphilic characteristics in aqueous solution, polymeric nanoparticles of PEP conjugates were prepared using a simple dialysis method in water. From the analysis of fluorescence excitation spectra primarily, the critical association concentration (CAC) of this conjugate was found to be 0.0063 g/L. Observations by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed the spherical morphologies of the PEP nanoparticles. The particle size distribution of the PEP conjugates was determined using photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS) and the intensity-average particle size was 193.3 ± 13.53 nm with a unimodal distribution. Clonazepam (CNZ), as a model drug, was easy to entrap into polymeric nanoparticles of the PEP conjugates. The drug release behavior was mainly diffusion controlled from the core portion.