PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF PULLULAN NANOPARTICLES LOADED WITH VALSARTAN

The objective of this paper is to develop polymeric nanoparticles loaded with a cardiovascular drug, an angiotensin II receptor antagonist drug, valsartan. Polymeric nanoparticles were prepared via nanoprecipitation method using pullulan acetate as biodegradable polymeric matrix and Pluronic F127 as a stabilizer. Pullulan acetate was obtained by chemical modification of pullulan (produced through a fermentation process by Aureobasidium pullulans strain) with dimethylformamide, pyridine, and acetic anhydride. Obtained nanoparticles were characterized in terms of entrapment efficiency, size, and polydispersity index using spectrophotometric and dynamic light scattering techniques. The valsartan-loaded nanoparticles showed a good entrapment efficiency of valsartan, nano-metric sizes (lower than 200 nm), and a narrow dispersity (polydispersity index below 0.2). This research revealed that pullulan and pullulan derivatives showed great potential for the production of nanoparticles with application in cardiovascular agents delivery (NUCLEU PN 1941-04 01).