development and characterization of optimized sustained release voriconazole-loaded chitosan nanoparticles for ocular delivery

Voriconazole is an approved antifungal agent belonging to the triazole family. it isgenerally used for treating aggressive fungal infections such as invasive candidiasisor aspergillosis, as well as certain fungal infections, in immunocompromised patients.voriconazole has an oral bioavailability of 96%, and patients can receive the medicationeither by oral or parenteral routes. to fabricate a topical ocular voriconazole deliverysystem, we prepared voriconazole-loaded chitosan nanoparticles by ionic gelationof chitosan with the addition of sodium tripolyphosphate (tpp). three chitosanpolymers with different molecular weights were tested by varying chitosan and tppconcentrations, and the produced nanoparticles were characterized by scanning electronmicroscopy (sem), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ft-ir), differentialscanning calorimetry (dsc), and x-ray powder diffraction (xrd). the obtained datawas presented into a box-behnken design, which showed a set of optimum parametersthat would yield an optimized formulation with the most favourable properties.subsequently, the optimized formulation was synthesized, and the voriconazole releasefrom this formulation was monitored over 48 hr. results showed the drug-loadednanoparticles have high drug loading, show no burst effect, and sustain drug release forup to 48 hr. therefore, this formulation is a potentially efficient ocular delivery systemfor voriconazole.