Ratio of Drug/carrier as Dominant Factor in Determining Size of Doxorubicin-Loaded Beta-1,3- Glucan Nanoparticles: An Artificial Neural Networks Study

Size of nanoparticles is an important parameter in determining many of their properties. In this work, nanoparticles of β-1,3-glucan containing doxorubicin (Dox) in conjugated and unconjugated forms (Con-Dox-Glu and Un-Dox-Glu, respectively) were prepared. Then, artificial neural networks (ANNs) were used to find the effect of different formulation/processing parameters on their particle size, which was measured using dynamic light scattering (DLS). The parameters included ratio of Dox/Carrier as well as concentrations of polyethyleneimine (PEI), NaOH and succinic anhydride (Sa). To do so, fifty samples having different values of the four parameters were prepared and their particle size was measured. The data were divided randomly into training, test and unseen data. The ANN model demonstrated that in both conjugated and unconjugated forms, Dox/Carrier ratio is the dominant factor determining the particle size. Also, concentration of PEI showed to be important in determining particle size of unconjugated form of the nanoparticles. The remaining parameters indicated no considerable effect on the particle size