The treatment of AIDS remains a serious challenge owing to high genetic variation of Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1). The use of different antiretroviral drugs (ARV) is significantly limited by severe side-effects that further compromise the quality of life of the AIDS patient. In the present study, we have evaluated a liposome system for the delivery of nevirapine, a hydrophobic non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor. Liposomes were prepared from egg phospholipids using thin film hydration. The parameters of the process were optimized to obtain spherical liposomes below 200 nm with a narrow polydispersity. The encapsulation efficiency of the liposomes was. | Ramana et al. Journal of Biomedical Science 2010 17 57 http content 17 1 57 a NSC The cost of publication In Journal of Blomodlcal Science Is bome by the National Science Council Taiwan JOURNAL OF BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH Open Access Development of a liposomal nanodelivery system for nevirapine Lakshmi N Ramana 1 Swaminathan Sethuraman1 Udaykumar Ranga2 and Uma M Krishnan 1 Abstract Background The treatment of AIDS remains a serious challenge owing to high genetic variation of Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 HIV-1 . The use of different antiretroviral drugs ARV is significantly limited by severe side-effects that further compromise the quality of life of the AIDS patient. In the present study we have evaluated a liposome system for the delivery of nevirapine a hydrophobic non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor. Liposomes were prepared from egg phospholipids using thin film hydration. The parameters of the process were optimized to obtain spherical liposomes below 200 nm with a narrow polydispersity. The encapsulation efficiency of the liposomes was optimized at different ratios of egg phospholipid to cholesterol as well as drug to total lipid. The data demonstrate that encapsulation efficiency of and were obtained at egg phospholipid to cholesterol ratio of 9 1 and drug to lipid ratio of 1 5 respectively. We further observed that the size of the liposomes and the encapsulation efficiency of the drug increased concomitantly with the increasing ratio of drug and lipid and that maximum stability was observed at the physiological pH. Thermal analysis of the drug encapsulated liposomes indicated the formation of a homogenous drug-lipid system. The magnitude of drug release from the liposomes was examined under different experimental conditions including in phosphate buffered saline PBS Dulbecco s Modified Eagle s Medium DMEM supplemented with 10 fetal bovine serum or in the presence of an external stimulus such as low .
