Production of Q10+B2 nanostructured lipid carriers and optimization of their entrapment capacities

Lipidic carriers are efficient vehicles preserving drugs during cell administration. Several production processes of lipidic nanoparticles were developed to reduce mean size at nanometric level, enhancing homogeneity and process replicability. However, lipidic aggregation has always been considered a huge drawback in terms of high polidispersity and instability. Looking at this problem from a different point of view, specific operating parameters were employed to produce Nanostructured Lipidic Carriers (NLC), whose structure simulates the complexity of cell barrier. NLC present high surface to volume ratio, and improved potential in terms of drug entrapment efficiency and bioavailability. In this work, NLCs were produced by studying the effect of process parameters, such as Drug to Lipid Ratio from 2:1-1:20 w/w. At macroscopic level, the NLCs produced showed these diameters distribution: D(10 %) from 85 nm to 6 µm, D(50 %) of about 10 µm and D(90 %) of about 31 µm. Encapsulation Efficiencies were measured from a minimum of 92.06 % to a maximum of 98.93 %, with mass yield included between 48.8 % and 99 %. Scanning Electron Microscope demonstrated the complexity of the shape of these NLCs, characterized by nanometric structures (100-500 nm) grab on Q10 "pillars" or adsorbed on lipidic external sheet.