الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Objective: Alpha-lipoic acid (α-LA) is characterized by its unpleasant odor, poor bioavailability, and stability. Nanotechnology was applied to overcome this limitation. Thus, this study aimed to formulate α-LA in two different forms of chitosan nanoparticles (CsNPs) and solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNPs) and characterize them in terms of physical properties and biological activities against aluminum chloride (AlCl3)-induced neurotoxicity in rats.
Methods: The invivo study was carried out on 50 rats divided into 5 groups as follow: control, neurotoxic, treated α-LA, treated α-lipoic acid-loaded chitosan nanoparticles (α-LACsNPs), and treated α-lipoic acid-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles (α-LA-SLNPs) groups.
Results:Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that α-LA-SLNPs had a regular spherical shape while α-LA-CsNPs showed an irregular spherical form. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis showed that the average particle size for α-LA-SLNPs was about 71nm and for α-LA-CsNPs was about 126 nm. After the experimental period, AlCl3intoxication significantly increased oxidative stress, neuro-inflammation, and apoptosis with decreased brain fatty acid contents and brain derived neurotrophic factor.α-LA, α-LA-CsNPs, and α-LA-SLNPs were able to ameliorate these negative changes in the neurotoxic rats. However, the effect of the α-LA-loaded NPs was more prominent than that of pristine α-LA but the α-LA-SLNPs group was almost close to the control group.
Conclusion: α-LA can attenuate neurotoxicity induced by AlCl3 attributed to its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-apoptotic activities in addition to the effectiveness of the encapsulation technique that can increase the efficiency and stability of α-LA. Moreover, α-LA-SLNPs are more efficient than α-LA-CsNPs.