Design, Optimization and Characterization of Methotrexate Solid Lipid Nanoparticles for the Effective Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objective: There is a need for developing RA therapies that have minimal toxic effects and are economical as well. In order to assure sustained and prolonged medication delivery, newer approaches are currently being used to generate novel dosage forms, including solid lipid nano-particles. An effort has been made in the current work to formulate and improve SLNs for the efficient delivery of methotrexate as well as to assess for particle size, entrapment effectiveness, and drug release properties. Methods: Drug-loaded SLNs were formulated by micro emulsion method and coated with chitosan (CS) for targeted drug delivery and characterized by various method such as particle size, poly disp ersity index and in vitro drug release in buffer. Results: Optimization of formulation variables of CS-MTX-SLNs had done using Box–Behnken design of response surface methodology. Particle size of the optimized formulation was 210.043 nm with the PDI of 0.216. The CS-MTX-SLNs' zeta potential was -26.12 3.12 mV. Successful coating of the SLNs with CS is indicated by a negative charge on the NP. Entrapment efficiency was found to be 79.12±2.05%. CS-MTX-SLNs demonstrated a controlled release of the drug from the lipid matrix, with 96.78±2.4% of the drug released from the SLNs in 24 h. Conclusion: When compared to pure drug solutions, the drug release experiments demonstrated that optimized CS-MTX-SLNs displayed sustained drug release upto 24 Hr.