Development of ultrasmall chitosan/succinyl β‐cyclodextrin nanoparticles as a sustained protein‐delivery system

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article, we introduce a new method for preparing ultrasmall chitosan (CS)/succinyl β‐cyclodextrin (SCD) nanoparticles (NPs) intended for loading bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a model protein. The proposed method is based on the complex coacervation technique followed by ionotropic gelation with tripolyphosphate. SCD, an anionic derivative of cyclodextrin, was synthesized and used in CS‐based NPs to enhance the entrapment efficiency of BSA. The results show that with this approach, ultrasmall, compact, and neutralized NPs with a mean particle size near 30 nm were obtained. A high degree of protein entrapment in the NPs led to a significant improvement in the BSA release profile with a low initial burst release (ca. 3% w/v of the initially loaded BSA) and a sustained release over time. This enabled a suitable nanocarrier for long‐term protein delivery (30% release over 120 h). © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131 , 39648.