Patent ID: 8449919

Claim:
A method of preparing alginate nanocapsules for intravascular, muscular, oral and subcutaneous delivery of drugs of low molecular weight and macromolecules to deliver therapeutic effects and induce immunological responses towards selected antigens, comprising the following steps: a) adding alginate solution into methylene chloride containing a surfactant to form an alginate micro emulsion; b) preparing semisolid form alginate nanocapsules by: (b.1) acidifying said alginate micro emulsion with an acidic agent to render alginate molecules insoluble to form the semisolid form alginate nanocapsules; (b.2) mixing additional methylene chloride into the alginate micro emulsion; and (b.3) washing the aqueous phase with methylene chloride and ethanol to remove the surfactant, oil inclusions and methylene chloride; and (b4) centrifuging said alginate micro emulsion to separate aqueous phase semisolid form alginate nanocapsules and an oil phase; and c) crosslinking said semisolid form nanocapsules to obtain crosslinked alginate nanocapsules, wherein step (c) further comprises the following sub-steps: (c.1) dispersing said semisolid form of alginate nanocapsules in acidic solution of pH 3 with sonication and addition of CaCl 2 solution to generate calcium alginate nanocapsules; (c.2) adding slowly NaOH solution into the calcium alginate nanocapsules to adjust pH to 7.4-7.8 to accomplish ionic crosslinking; (c.3) dispersing the calcium alginate nanocapsules in ethanol; (c.4) centrifuging the calcium alginate nanocapsules to remove liquid; and (c.5) harvesting colloidal solution of the calcium alginate nanocapsules.