I am working on nanoparticles for the treatment of cancer. I am working with hydrophobic and hydrophilic drug. usually people (in papers) use 24 hrs for loading of drug in nanoparticle. My question is that if we increase the loading time like 48 hrs, 72 hrs, 96 hrs etc drug loading in nanoparticle will increase or not? what are the factors that are important for loading of drug in nanoparticle?
With loading time increasing, the loaded amount will tend to saturation state. So yes, if you increase loading time, the loaded amount may increase but usually not much. Also, 24 hrs is not a fixed time for drug loading. The properties like hydrophilic or stability will also influence it. The factors influencing drug loading mainly focuse on the loading method (linkage, encapsulation et. al), properties of drugs (hydrophilic or hydrophobic, stability et al.), properties of nanomaterials (porous structure? 2D material? surface functionalization?), and the environment (temperature, pressure, properties of solution system et. al). Many works has paid attention on this domain. You can find some related review and read it.
With loading time increasing, the loaded amount will tend to saturation state. So yes, if you increase loading time, the loaded amount may increase but usually not much. Also, 24 hrs is not a fixed time for drug loading. The properties like hydrophilic or stability will also influence it. The factors influencing drug loading mainly focuse on the loading method (linkage, encapsulation et. al), properties of drugs (hydrophilic or hydrophobic, stability et al.), properties of nanomaterials (porous structure? 2D material? surface functionalization?), and the environment (temperature, pressure, properties of solution system et. al). Many works has paid attention on this domain. You can find some related review and read it.
Thanks Yuxin Liu for a nice explanations. Yes loading will affect loading amount. A optimized time should be used for loading as excessive loading time may also be deter-mental as may cause opposite de-attactment of drug molecules due to continuous stiring.
Thanks Liu and Qasim for the answers. With the increased loading time in the solution, we also need to worry about
1.the crystal growth of nanoparticles in the solution which may alter its properties
2. Loading rate decreases with the loaded volume, hence after a period of time, there will not be any loading, instead there are chances of de loading due to continuous stirring as Qasim mentioned
Abdul Azeez.. I did not get your first point about crystal growth. What will cause nanoparticles crystal growth. Loading is done normally at ambient temperature and in water or buffer , how it will cause crystal growth. Even though if it happens it means nanoparticles is not chemically stable and is not suitable to this application.
Dear Qasim,
Loading of drug into nano particle is by chemical bonding, which demands a reactive functional bond on the surface of the particle. In spite of stabilizing the particles with surfactants, the solution we use would contain surface moieties (PEG, thiol, etc.,) in order to conjugate the drug with particle. Over exposure to such moieties will lead to increase in particle size. Kindly correct me if I am wrong. Thanks.
Dear Azeez,
Yes i agree with you that Binding of drug molecule on the surface of nanoparticles may increase particles size. But it will not increase crystal size of nanoparticles as both , crystal and particle size are different. In addition, drug can be loaded within the pores of particles or/and on the surface of particles and only in the second case slight increment may occur but not in case where nanoparticles are porous in nature.
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