Preparation of Memantine-Loaded Chitosan Nanocrystals: In Vitro and Ex Vivo Toxicity Analysis

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with unmet medical need, and the leading cause of age-related dementia affecting millions people worldwide. This work aims at developing small, high-drug loading capacity (DL) -entrapment efficiency (EE) memantine hydrochloride (MEM)/chitosan nanocrystals (CS-NCs) to treat moderate severe associated AD. MEM-loaded chitosan (MEM/CS-NCs, further abbreviated as MEM-NCs) were prepared by ionic gelation method. Different formulations varying concentrations CS sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP). The MEM-NCs (n = 8) evaluated for their particle size (PS), polydispersibility index (PDI), zeta potential (ZP), DL, EE characterized scanning electron microscopy (SEM) transmission (TEM). Furthermore, in vitro (i.e., release behavior, cytotoxicity) ex vivo studies histopathology) carried out. results show that DL was over 92% higher than 73%, while particles relatively small nanometric PS (152.63 ± 12.95 310.23 10.49 nm), uniform acceptable PDI (0.336 0.05 0.534 0.02), stable positive ZP (23.8 0.4 mV 54.0 0.5 mV). optimal formulation (MEM-NC3) selected mainly based on (98.44 3.31%), (78.7 3.11%). Interestingly, it does not elicit any cytotoxic tissue damage when examining goat nasal mucosa. subjected surface morphological such (TEM), which revealed NCs spherical shape (100 nm). able sustain drug up 24 h an initial burst (86.51 %). We conclude represent promising (in animal models clinical setting) prevent