ABSTRACT

In vitro release kinetics of a drug entrapped in nanoparticles can be evaluated by several experimental methods.

A. Dialysis In the dialysis approach, nanoparticles suspended in a small volume of release medium, are separated from a large bulk of sink medium by a dialysis membrane, which is permeable to the drug. The active substance is released from the nanoparticles and diffuses through the membrane. The released drug is assayed in the receptor phase. Washington [65] demonstrated that in most cases, unfortunately, this technique does not allow accurate determination of the real drug release rate. Indeed, since the donor compartment is not under sink conditions, the real release profile is completely obscured by partitioning between the sample and the donor compartment.