Coaxial Electrospray to Produce Cerasome Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery

Abstract

Cerasomes, a novel organic-inorganic nanohybrid, offer the potential to replace liposomes as a morphologically superior drug delivery vehicle. Due to the surface silicate network, cerasomes have previously demonstrated enhanced stability against membrane destabilization and lipid aggregation, thus improving therapeutic effectiveness. Here we use the one step, facile, coaxial electrospraying technique to prepare deionized water encapsulated cerasome nanoparticles. We have identified the parameters necessary to repeatedly produce particles of 217 ± 21 nm in size, PDI = 0.19 ± .05. SEM images confirmed the size measurements obtained using dynamic light scattering. The electric field strength was identified as a key factor in forming a stable electrospray process. The magnitude of the flow rate did not play a major role in affecting particle size. This study has demonstrated, for this first time, that loaded cerasomes can be successfully and repeatedly prepared using the electrospray method. Incorporating anticancer drug Doxorubicin HCl into the core of cerasomes is in progress.