Synthesis, characterization of biomimetic phosphorylcholine‐bound chitosan derivative and in vitro drug release of their nanoparticles

Abstract

AbstractNovel water‐soluble biomimetic phosphorylcholine (PC)—bound chitosan derivatives (N‐PCCs) with different degree of substitution (DS) via a phosphoramide linkage between glucosamine and PC were synthesized through Atherton‐Todd reaction under the mild conditions, and structurally characterized by 1H‐NMR, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography (GPC), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). Their DS ranged from ∼ 16 to ∼ 42 mol % based on the 1H‐NMR spectra. All these N‐PCCs with decreased crystallization showed excellent solubility in the aqueous solutions within a wide pH range (1–12). DSC and TGA results revealed that the thermal stability of N‐PCCs decreased with the increase of DS value. Further, N‐PCCs nanoparticles could be still formed in a spherical shape similar to chitosan nanoparticles by ionic gelation technique, observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Dynamic light scattering (DLS) results suggested that the zeta potential value of N‐PCCs nanoparticles decreased with the DS value increasing. Using 5‐fluorouracil (5‐Fu) as a model drug, in vitro drug release studies indicated that N‐PCCs nanoparticles exhibited a similar prolonged release profile as chitosan nanoparticles. The results suggested that N‐PCCs nanoparticles could be used as promising nanocarriers for drug delivery applications. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013