Effect of natural and synthetic surfactants on polysaccharide nanoparticles: Hydrophobic drug loading, release, and cytotoxic studies

Abstract

The effects of Triton X-100 and saponin, a natural surfactant extracted from Sapindus rarak on the modification of cellulose and starch nanoparticles were investigated during hydrophobic drug loading and release. Result of crystallinity index showed that by using hydrolysis method to synthesize nanoparticle, there is no change in relative crystallinity. FTIR and X-ray diffraction results indicated that there is insignificant alteration in the molecular structure after both surfactant modifications. Drug loading efficiency decreased with increasing initial drug concentration for all modified polysaccharide nanoparticles. The modification using Triton X-100 showed the best loading for starch nanoparticles (LE = ˜40%), while saponin modified nanoparticles are more favorable towards cellulose (LE = ˜70%). Increasing concentration of surfactants is meaningless for the drug loading. Release kinetic was fitted with Higuchi, Korsmeyer Peppas, and Sigmoidal models to understand the drug release mechanism. All of the modified nanoparticles showed burst release at 30 min with cumulative release higher than 50%; the fitting results signified that experimental data burst relase behaviour, with better correlation parameters using Sigmoidal function (R2 = 0.99). The MTT assay of surfactant-modified nanoparticles indicates that saponin was less toxic than Triton X-100, with cell viabilities around 45–53%.