Natural polymer based (alginate and chitosan) Microparticles for oral drug delivery

Abstract

Absorption of proteins into cationic chitosan microparticles through electrostatic interaction is a common process suitable for oral delivery of proteinaceous drugs. In this research work, in order to achieve a good stability and encapsulation efficiency for an oral drug delivery system, different combinations chitosan, acetic acid Sodium tripolyphosphate and model protein bovine serum albumin were tried and formulated. Then alginate microparticles were coated with the BSA loaded chitosan. Morphological characterizations of the particles were done using zeta sizer and SEM (scanning electron microscope). It was found that Chitosan of 4mg/ml and 5mg/ml concentration had loading efficiency more than 60% and with a particle size in between 400-500 nm. Again when the particles were coated with alginate, the particle size increased from 1400-1600nm (1.4-1.6 μm), can be effectively used for oral drug delivery. In vitro release of BSA from chitosan microparticles and BSA loaded alginate coated chitosan particles were checked by taking particles at different time intervals at pH7.4 using PBS (phosphate saline buffer). Sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) assay shows that encapsulation with chitosan and further coating with alginate could effectively protect BSA from degradation or hydrolysis in acidic condition for at least 2 hours (using HCl pH 2.0).