Parkinson`s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in older people. In recent years, there was an increasing interest to develop experimental models of PD by using rotenone (ROT). As it was assayed previously by our group, microspheres allow a slow delivery of the drug and thus a long treatment with a single dose administration. In this work, ROT microspheres were prepared by an oil–water emulsion solvent evaporation technique. Microspheres loaded with ROT were physiochemically characterized by thermal analysis, XRPD and FTIR spectroscopy. Our previous pharmacological studies in Wistar male adult rats showed altered motor activity evaluated by behavioral tests.
The DSC thermogram of ROT microspheres showed a glass transition temperature (Tg) at higher values than the copolymer PLGA, suggesting both greater thermal stability and amorphous nature. In this sense, XRPD analysis showed a characteristic halo of amorphous compounds in agreement with DSC results. Evidences of intermolecular interactions between PLGA and ROT were not observed by FTIR analysis. In agreement with the experimental observations in rats, these results suggest that microparticles loaded with ROT could be a suitable tool to generate an animal model of PD.