Preparation of Poly(Lactic Acid) / Hydroxyapatite Core-Shell Nanoparticles Using Different Solvents for Drug Delivery Carriers

Biocompatible nanoparticles have been widely studied as carriers for drug delivery systems.In our previous work, Poly(Lactic acid) / hydroxyapatite core-shell nanoparticles prepared by a surfactant-free emulsification method indicated a drug loading capacity value of 250 % for water-insoluble substances.In addition, the nanoparticles showed pH sensitivity to release the drug.In the process of preparing the core-shell nanoparticles, acetone was used as a solvent to dissolve PLA and hydrophobic substances.However, some substances have poor solubility to acetone.In this work, the core-shell particles were prepared using different solvents, such as tetrahydrofuran (THF) and trifluoroethanol (TFE), to further improve their substanceloading properties.The core-shell nanoparticles prepared using THF and TFE showed a similar morphology to that of acetone.Furthermore, their structure showed no significant difference between the solvents used for preparation.Therefore, changing the solvent to prepare core-shell nanoparticles may not result in any change in the properties of the particles.Accordingly, the core-shell nanoparticles prepared with THF and TFE have the potential to improve drug loading ability for various substances.