Synthesis and characterization of Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles carrying2-(2-chlorophenyl)-2-(methylamino)-cyclohexanone (ketamine), a non-competitive antagonist of N-Methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor: a potentially safer anaesthetic nano-device.

During the thesis period ketamine, a non-competitive antagonist of NMDA glutamate receptor used as anesthetic in various chronic pain treatments, is incorporated in PLGA-NPs synthetized with solvent evaporation method in single and double emulsion technique. PLGA is a copolymer considered the best defined biomaterial for drug delivery available for the synthesis of nanoparticle due to its high degree of biocompatibility and biodegradability. The functionalization of NPs with apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is performed in order to make the nano-vehicle able to pass across the blood brain barrier (BBB) improving the drug distribution. Different optimizing parameters are applied and their effects on the morphological properties, stability and encapsulation efficiency are evaluated by dynamic light scattering (DLS), high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis.