Poly(amidoamine)-Cholesterol Conjugate Nanoparticles Obtained by Electrospraying as Novel Tamoxifen Delivery System

A new poly(amidoamine)-cholesterol (PAA-cholesterol) conjugate was synthesized, characterized and used to produce nanoparticles by the electrospraying technique. The electrospraying is a method of liquid atomization that consists in the dispersion of a solution into small charged droplets by an electric field. Tuning the electrospraying process parameters spherical PAA-chol nanoparticles formed. The PAA-cholesterol nanoparticles showed sizes lower than 500 nm and spherical shape. The drug incorporation capacity was investigated using tamoxifen, a lipophilic anticancer drug, as model drug. The incorporation of the tamoxifen did not affect the shape and sizes of nanoparticles showing a drug loading of 40%. Tamoxifen-loaded nanoparticles exhibited a higher dose-dependent cytotoxicity than free tamoxifen, while blank nanoparticles did not show any cytotoxic effect at the same concentrations. The electrospray technique might be proposed to produce tamoxifen-loaded PAA-chol nanoparticle in powder form without any excipient in a single step.