Carbohydrate Polymer Technologies and Applications (Dec 2021)
Lung targeted electrosprayed chitosan nanocomposite microparticles boost the cytotoxic activity of magnolol
Abstract
Large scale production of therapeutic nanoparticles (NPs) is still challenging. Herein, we report a facile single step electrospray process for the production of a nanocarrier platform made of hybridized chitosan (CS)/ polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) matrix. The method was adapted to achieve the lowest NPs size for carrying and delivering a hydrophobic anti-cancer drug, magnolol (Mag). To improve the inhalation properties of the optimized NPs formulation, the spray drying method was adopted to generate Mag loaded nano embedded-in-microparticles (Mag-NEM). The impact of the characteristics of CS and PVA blended solutions with and without Mag on the developed systems was investigated. The viscosity of the polymers solution played a major role on the size of electrosprayed NPs. NPs could only be obtained at CS:PVA ratio 7:3 and 8:2 for low molecular weight CS and at only 8:2 ratio for the medium molecular weight. Mag-NPs scoring 415.7 nm with a high drug encapsulation efficiency of 95.5% ±2.5 were successfully prepared at 0.1 mL/h flow rate, 15 cm tip to collector distance and 25 kV applied voltage. Optimized Mag-NEM exhibited good aerosolization properties with effective inhalation index of 64.69% and showed a two-fold decrease in IC50 when challenged against lung cancer cells A549.