Magnetic solid lipid nanoparticles co-loaded with albendazole as an anti-parasitic drug: Sonochemical preparation, characterization, and in vitro drug release

Abstract The magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are applied as carriers for the efficient delivery of albendazole (ABZ) following its full characterization in terms of structure, morphology, size, and surface characteristics. The best composition and tunable properties for the achievement of more drug loading, controlled drug release, and delivery were optimized. A potential platform for anti-parasitic drug delivery was observed by uniform magnetic solid lipid NPs (MSLNPs) core/shell structure multifunctional mesoporous nano-capsules, which was composed of inorganic (Fe 3 O 4 ) NPs as the core and stearic acid as the shell. This solid lipid NPs (SLNPs) and MSLNPs were identified and recognized by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and Dynamic light scattering (DLS) analyzer, which accordingly denote spherical particle morphology. The average particle sizes of SLNPs and MSLNPs were between 20 and 120 nm, depending on ultrasound irradiation, reagents concentration, and their order of addition. The ultrasound-prepared MSLNPs were homogeneously distributed with spherical shape and little agglomeration on SLNPs surface. Our in vitro release study demonstrated that 84.0% of ABZ was gradually released within 36 h. Moreover, in comparison to other strategies, the synthesis procedure presented here is more rapid and environment friendly and possesses high efficiency for ABZ delivery.