Person: Díaz Baños, F. Guillermo
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Complex polysaccharide-based nanocomposites for 2 oral insulin delivery
Polyelectrolyte nanocomposites rarely reach a stable state and aggregation often occurs. Here, we report the synthesis of nanocomposites for the oral delivery of insulin composed of alginate, dextran sulfate, poly-(ethyleneglycol) 4000, Poloxamer 188®, chitosan, and BSA. Chitosan seems to be essential for the final size of the nanocomposites. When the chitosan concentration used in the synthesis is 10-4 gcm-3, nanocomposites, microcomposites and milimetric composites are obtained. Reducing the chitosan concentration to 10-5 or 10-7 gcm-3 yields nanocomposites of 400-600 nm or 800-900 nm hydrodynamic diameter, respectively, measured by DLS. According to our results, the molecular weight of chitosan has little influence on the size of the composites. The enhanced stability of the newest nanocomposites synthesized was assessed with LUMiSizer®. The rounded shapes of the nanocomposites were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. Analysis by HPLC revealed that, after loaded with insulin, about 80% of the drug was released from our nanocomposites.
Aggregation behaviour of gold nanoparticles in presence of chitosan
Chitosan (CS) is a biocompatible polysaccharide with positive charge that is widely used as a coating agent for negatively charged nanoparticles. However, the types of structures that emerge by combining CS and anoparticles as well as their behaviour are still poorly understood. In this work, we characterize the nanocomposites formed by gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and CS and study the influence of CS in the expected aggregation process that should experience those nanoparticles under the favourable conditions of low pH and high ionic strength. Thus, at the working CS concentration, we observe the existence of CS structures that quickly trap the AuNPs and avoid the formation of nanoparticle aggregates in environmental conditions that, otherwise, would lead to such an aggregation.
Chitosan as stabilizing agent for negatively charged nanoparticles
Chitosan is a biocompatible polysaccharide with positive Z potential which can stabilize negative charged nanoparticles. Silk fibroin nanoparticles and citrate gold nanoparticles, both with negative Z potential, but they form aggregates at physiological ionic strength. In this work, we study the behavior of chitosan in solution when the ionic strength of the medium is increased and how the concentration of chitosan and the proportion of the two components (chitosan and AuNP or SFN) significantly affect the stability and size of the nanocomposites formed. In addition to experimental measurements, molecular modeling were used to gain insight into how chitosan interacts with silk fibroin monomers, and to identify the main energetic interactions involved in the process. The optimum values for obtaining the smallest and most homogeneous stable nanocomposites were obtained and two different ways of organization through which chitosan may exert its stabilizing effect were suggested.