polymeric nanogels as cavviers for the drug delivery
Burn wounds environment favors the growth of micro-organisms causing delay in wound healing. The traditional treatment with antimicrobial creams offers inaccurate doses. The aim of the present study is to formulate and evaluate different silver sulfadiazine loaded nanogel formulations. A factorial design experiment was used for the identification of critical process parameters and for the optimization of the respective process conditions. The prepared drug loaded nanogels were characterized for their particle size, zeta potential, entrapment efficiency and swelling index in order to demonstrate their physicochemical properties, in addition, FTIR, TEM, SEM and in vitro release were used for characterization. The results showed that the particle size, zeta potential, entrapment efficiency and swelling index decreased with increasing the SSD concentrations from 0.1% to 0.5% in each of the tested ALG concentrations. TEM micrographs showed that both the SSD loaded and SSD unloaded nanogel particles are rounded with a smooth border. The studied release profiles of SSD from the nanogels in vitro showed that the drug release occurred mainly by a combination of drug diffusion following polymer swelling as well as bulk erosion of the matrix. The combination of these phenomena results in the initial burst followed by slow drug release of SSD from the nanogel. Based on the analysis of variance of the studied factorial design, the predicted formulation composed of 0.4% ALG and 0.414% SSD was used for the in vivo evaluation of the formulation versus the market product. It is concluded that SSD nanogel could be considered a promising effective formulation in healing burn wounds.