Characterization of isoniazid incorporation into chitosan-poly(aspartic acid) nanoparticles

The incorporation of the drug Isoniazid (an anti-tuberculosis drug) into nanoparticles of polyelectrolyte chitosan-poly(aspartic acid) complexes was carried out by the ionotropic gelation technique, adding a sodium polyaspartate solution containing the drug to a chitosan solution in different proportions in a mass ratio (mg/mg) Isoniazid/Chitosan. This was confirmed by MALDI-TOF/MS, ESI/MS, FTIR, and UV-Vis. The lowest average particle diameter (PD), estimated by DSL, was 148.5 +/- 1 nm corresponding to an Isoniazid/chitosan ratio (mg/mg) of 0.5:1. FE-SEM showed nanoparticles in the order of 100-300 nm; whereas AFM showed semi-spherical particle morphology.