Seyed Ali Javad Mousavi - Air Pollution Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences,Tehran, Iran.
Bita Mehravi - Department of Medical Nanotechnology, Faculty of Advanced technology in Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Mojdeh Mohseni - Radiation Biology Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Marziyeh Abnoos - Department of Medical Nanotechnology, Faculty of Advanced technology in Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Introduction:Pulmonary fibrosis as a chronic disease without any known specific causes has many limited therapeutic routes. Pirfenidone, one of orally administrated drugs,has short half-time and first-pass metabolism which causes some side effects. Therefore, using other more effective ways to treatment, such as nanotechnology with unique properties seems necessary. Materials and Methods: Sodium alginate and chitosan (poly [D-glucosamine] deacetylated chitin), acetic acid and pirfenidone were supplied from Sigma-Aldrich. Pirfenidone solution (1% w/v in water) was dropwisely added to alginate solution (1% w/v in water). Then, CaCl2 and chitosan with concentration of 1% (w/v) were added to previous solution while stirring. Finally, the prepared structure was frozen and dried by freeze dryer. FTIR, SEM, DLS, TEM, drug loading, release, and Ex- vivo permeation were performed to study chitosan-alginate loaded pirfinidone to pulmonary fibrosis treatment. Results: Obtained results showed that synthesized nanoparticles had a spherical morphology with the size of 80-100 nm. Mentioned nanoparticles were stable in PBS for 6 months without any deformation and degradation. Drug study behavior was also represented that encapsulation efficiency was 94.08%, and pirfinidone release had sustained profile after 5 hours and had steady-state manner till 24 hours. Ex-vivo permeation depicted that drug release through chitosan-alginate nanoparticles significantly increased as compared to drug solution.Conclusion: Chitosan-alginate nanoparticles as a novel carrier to transdermal delivery of pirfenidone with sustain drug release and suitable skin permeation without anytoxicity can be introduced as a promising new approach to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis treatment.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, Nanocarriers, Pirfenidone.