Formulation and characterization of 5-Fluorouracil enteric coated nanoparticles for sustained and localized release in treating colorectal cancer

5-Fluorouracil is used in the treatment of colorectal cancer along with oxaliplatin as first line treatment, but it is having lack of site specificity and poor therapeutic effect. Also toxic effects to healthy cells and unavailability of major proportion of drug at the colon region remain as limitations. Toxic effects prevention and drug localization at colon area was achieved by preparing enteric-coated chitosan polymeric nanoparticles as it can be delivered directly to large bowel. Enteric coating helps in preventing the drug degradation at gastric pH. So the main objective was to prepare chitosan polymeric nanoparticles by solvent evaporation emulsification method by using different ratios of polymer (1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4). Optimized polymer ratio was characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), entrapment efficiency and particle size and further subjected to enteric coating. In vitro drug release studies were done using dialysis bag technique using simulated fluids at various pH (1.2, 4.5, 7.5, 7.0) to mimic the GIT tract. 5-FU nanoparticles with drug: polymer ratio of 1:2 and 1:3 has shown better particle size (149 ± 1.28 nm and 138 ± 1.01 nm respectively), entrapment efficiency (48.12 ± 0.08% and 69.18 ± 1.89 respectively). 5-FU E1 has shown better drug release after 4 h and has shown 82% drug release till 24 h in a sustained manner comparable to the non-enteric coated tablets, which released more than 50% of the drug before entering the colon region. So we can conclude that nanoparticles prepared by this method using the same polymer with the optimized ratio can represent as potential drug delivery approach for effective delivery of the active pharmaceutical ingredient to the colorectal tumors.