Entrapment efficiency gives you an idea about the %drug that is successfully entrapped/adsorbed into nanoparticles. It is calculated as follows:
%EE = [(Drug added - Free "unentrapped drug")/Drug added] *100
Example: If the %EE is 30%, it means that 30% of your drug is entrapped into the nanoparticles.
Loading capacity helps you to deal with nanoparticles after their separation from the medium and to know their drug content. It is calculated using the following equation:
%LC = [Entrapped Drug/nanoparticles weight] * 100
Example: If the loading capacity is 30%, it means that 30% of the nanoparticles weight is composed of the drug! i.e. Each 1 mg nanoparticles contains 0.3 mg drug.
What is the difference between loading capacity and loading efficiency? - ResearchGate. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/post/what_is_the_difference_between_loading_capacity_and_loading_efficiency [accessed Sep 12, 2015].
Let's say you synthesize nanoparticles encapsulated with a protein. To calculate the encapsulation efficiency, you have to dilute a specific amount of NPs in a buffer. For example: PLGA nanoparticles in NaOH 0.1M.
First you have to calculate which is your theoretical protein concentration.
theoretical protein concentration= (initial protein amount, mg)*(concentration for dilution, mg/ml)/ (initial NPs amount, mg)
Initial protein and NPs amount are known, as you know what you weighted for NPs preparation. The encapsulation efficiency is calculated by several methods but the most reliable is BCA, if it's about a protein so, this method gives you a concentration of protein in NPs.
EE%= (Measurement obtained by BCA method, mg/ml)/ theoretical protein concentration, mg/ml)*100
Hope it helps but In case you need more information, don't hesitate to ask me.
Thank you katerina. I'll do and if I find any problem I let you know.
now this is how i have understood, for example, I measure 20 mg of my compounds to be encapsulated in nanoparticle synthesized, i will dissolve it in a soltion as you for example 10 mL, so i will have a concentration in mg/ml this is initial concetration, then after encapsulation i will take my formulation (nanoparticle with compounds encapsulated) and dissolve is a solvent and measure for the concetration either by using UV-Vis or other instruments. so this one will be the amount of compounds in the nanoparticle, then i can now use the formula above you provided. I am correct? help....
Yes this is absolutely correct.you can use either the direct method which is this one (what is encapsulated into the particles) or the indirect (what was not encapsulated into the nanoparticles) in order to calculate the encapsulation efficiencey. in the first method as you nicely describe you will have to disolve the nanoparticles and the encapsulated drug (nanoformulation) in the same solvent and measure the concentration of the drug with any analytical method suits you best. With the indirect method you can measure the drug that was not encapsulated (measure the supernatant after the procedure of encapsulation and the isolation of the nanoparticles (centifugation). Please check also if you like the papers mentioned bellow
Article Novel self-assembled core-shell nanoparticles based on cryst...
Sofia, thank you and thank you for the paper, I'll go through it and come back if i will face any problem. much thanks to you all.
Loading= (measurement obtained by mBCA or UV, mg/ml)*100/ (concentration for dilution, mg/ml)
The entrapment efficiency refers actually to the capability of the drug to be entrapped while the loading capacity is actually the ability of the material to entrap a certain active substance Loading=(weight of drug in nanoparticles*100)/weight of nanoparticles that are obtained after the manufacture procedure. Again have a look on the paper I send you is referred also as Drug loading
Hi, I just happened to face the same problem here. My question is that, shall I take into consideration the dilution caused by adding my drug into the polymer solution? For example, my initial drug concentration is 3 mg/ml which is in solution form, and I added equal volume of the drug solution and polymer solution to form drug-loaded nanoparticles. The initial concentration here should it be 3 mg/ml or 1.5mg/ml?
Entrapment efficiency gives you an idea about the %drug that is successfully entrapped/adsorbed into nanoparticles. It is calculated as follows:
%EE = [(Drug added - Free "unentrapped drug")/Drug added] *100
Example: If the %EE is 30%, it means that 30% of your drug is entrapped into the nanoparticles.
Loading capacity helps you to deal with nanoparticles after their separation from the medium and to know their drug content. It is calculated using the following equation:
%LC = [Entrapped Drug/nanoparticles weight] * 100
Example: If the loading capacity is 30%, it means that 30% of the nanoparticles weight is composed of the drug! i.e. Each 1 mg nanoparticles contains 0.3 mg drug.
What is the difference between loading capacity and loading efficiency? - ResearchGate. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/post/what_is_the_difference_between_loading_capacity_and_loading_efficiency [accessed Sep 12, 2015].
Hi Hui, in my opinion you should consider the concentration of your drug with respect to the whole solution volume. Therefore, 1.5 mg /ml is right.
encapsulation efficiency (EE) and loading capacity (LC). Which one is more useful and why?
I heard that LC is more used because it is more accurate, (LC) is the right way to report things, we don’t report efficiency.?
Hello everyone. I had a query too. Between EE% and LE % which one should have higher value or higher %?
It depends on your system. LE depends on the amount of "excipient" vs molecule, i.e., in liposomes the amount of lipids vs. drug. EE% is more like a yield of your process, how much you encapsulate from your original input of active material.
https://www.researchgate.net/post/what_is_the_difference_between_loading_capacity_and_loading_efficiency
My experience is one should calculate by following equation:
EE= (drug/lipid) after free drug separation / (drug/lipid) initial
Because the drug recovery is not 100%, an internal reference need to be calculated to avoid the data deviation from recovery rate.
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