PREPARATION, CHARACTERIZATION, AND IN VITRO EVALUATION OF LOVASTATIN SOLID LIPID NANOPARTICLES

Abstract

Nanoparticles are widely studied drug delivery  system  because  of  many  benefits  like  controlled  release ability to reach target, smaller particle size, enhancement of therapeutic  activity  and  reduction  of  toxicity. SLNs (solid lipid nanoparticles) are novel nanoparticulated systems which invited substantial attention as a drug delivery carrier. The design of this study was to develop and  evaluate  Lovastatin  solid  lipid  nanoparticles, loaded into transdermal patch. Lovastatin, a lipid lowering agent, because of its low bioavailabilty (5%) and shorter biological t ½ is a suitable drug to formulate into transdermal form. SLNs containing drug and non-toxic lipids (stearic acid, cholesterol and glycerol mono stearate), tween 80 and PEG 400 as surfactant and cosurfactant were prepared using micro emulsion process. FTIR study reports indicated that there was no interaction between Lovastatin and other excipients. SLNs were assessed for their particle size, entrapment efficiency, PDI (poly dispersity index) and in vitro studies. Scanning electron microscopy reports shown that the nanoparticles are spherical shape and has size range 132-249 nm. PDI was found out to be in the range of 0.186 – 0.376. Percent entrapment efficiency was between 74.3±0.8 – 93.5±1.8. The SLNs were loaded into a transdermal patch formulated using HPMC in varying concentration. All the prepared patches were assessed for flatness, folding endurance, tensile strength, moisture uptake, moisture content and were determined to be in essential range. The SLNP2 in vitro release rate studies shows better release than remaining formulations (SLNP1 &SLNP3) and it was selected as optimized formulation.