Abstract
Chitosan (CS) nanoparticles have several distinct intrinsic advantages; however, theirin vivocolloidal stability in biological fluids was not fully explored especially when carrying proteins. The present study aimed to investigate their colloidal stability using anex vivophysiological model of fetal bovine serum (FBS) and human serum (HS). The stability of bovine-serum-albumin (BSA-) loaded nanoparticles was relatively higher in FBS than that in HS. Particle size of unloaded and BSA-loaded nanoparticles was statistically unchanged up to 24 h after incubation in FBS. However in HS, a significant increase in particle size from 144 ± 17 to 711 ± 22 nm was observed for unloaded nanoparticles and by 2.5-fold for BSA-loaded nanoparticle, at 24 h after incubation in HS. Zeta potential of both nanoparticles was less affected by the components in FBS compared to those in HS. A remarkable swelling extent was experienced for unloaded and BSA-loaded nanoparticles in HS, up to 54 ± 4% and 44 ± 5%, respectively. Morphology of unloaded and BSA-loaded nanoparticles was varied from smooth spherical and rod shape to irregular shape when incubated in FBS; however, form agglomerates when incubated in HS. These findings therefore suggest that HS is more reactive to cause colloidal instability to the chitosan nanoparticles compared to FBS.
Highlights
Despite several intrinsic and distinct advantages of nanoparticles, the concerns about the health risks of polymeric nanoparticles have been escalating nowadays due to the higher incidence of instability of nanoformulations
Data clearly demonstrates that the particle size and zeta potential of CS/dextran sulphate (DS) nanoparticles were not significantly affected by the DS concentrations (P > 0.05, ANOVA, Tukey’s post-hoc analysis), regardless of unloaded or BSAloaded nanoparticles
The present study was designed with the aim to explore the colloidal stability of unloaded and bovine serum albumin (BSA)-loaded CS/DS nanoparticles in fetal bovine serum (FBS) and human serum (HS)
Summary
Despite several intrinsic and distinct advantages of nanoparticles, the concerns about the health risks of polymeric nanoparticles have been escalating nowadays due to the higher incidence of instability of nanoformulations. The potency and biological activity of polymeric nanoparticles have been connected with several physicochemical (colloidal) characteristics such as the shape of the particles, their surface area, hydrodynamic particle size, agglomeration or flocculation rate, surface potential (zeta potential), and the surface chemistry of nanoparticles [3]. These physicochemical characteristics of polymeric nanoparticles are in turn highly affected by the medium in contact such as biological fluids (plasma, serum, saliva, sweat, sebum, tears, etc.). The colloidal stability was assessed in terms of particle size, zeta potential, PDI, swelling characteristics, and as well as the morphology of CS/DS nanoparticles
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