Novel surfactant for preparation of poly(l-lactic acid) nanoparticles with controllable release profile and cytocompatibility for drug delivery

Poly(l-lactic acid) nanoparticles loaded with a hydrophobic drug were prepared by an emulsion–evaporation process (oil in water) with a novel, effective and biocompatible surfactant butanedioic acid, 2-sulfo-1,4-butanedioic acid ditridecyl ester (sodium salt, 1:1) (BASDE). The particles are spherical in morphology and their diameters are controllable from 50 to 550 nm with poly-dispersity indexes within the range of 0.122–0.340. The drug entrapment efficiency and drug content were measured by spectrophotometry. The drug release rate is affected by both the size of the particles and the drug content in the particles. In vitro cytotoxicity data indicate that these drug-loaded PLA nanoparticles are safe for hypodermic injection regard to the toxicological acceptance. This study demonstrates that using BASDE surfactant, the size of PLA nanoparticles can be controlled at the nanoscale with a narrow size distribution, and the drug release is controllable with excellent in vitro cytocompatibility. This may be due to efficient emulsification capability and biocompatibility of BASDE.