Preparation, characterization and applications of low-molecular-weight alginate–oligochitosan nanocapsules

The development of drug-delivering nanoparticles from natural materials for various biomedical applications is an area of great promise. However, the contradictory data on their uncontrollable diameter, unstable structure and toxic effects, highlight the need to study their preparation, characterization and cytotoxic effects in cells. In this work, nanocapsules are made from a type of W/O microemulsion system with low-molecular-weight alginate (LMWALG) and oligochitosan (OCS). The particles possess excellent biocompatibility and good biodegradability. The size of capsules is controlled and optimized by carefully adjusting the molecular weight and concentration of LMWALG and OCS. We found, from orthogonal experiments, the encapsulation time leading to a uniform size distribution with an average diameter of 136 nm. Furthermore, we found that molecular weights of LMWALG and OCS significantly influence the stability and size of capsules. The optimized nanocapsules are further used to study the drug release of BSA. Results show that the efficiency of encapsulation approximately reaches 88.4% and the concentration of BSA in phosphate-buffered solution (PBS, pH = 7.4) is well maintained at a level of 35 to 40% from 12 h to 48 h, due to the stable and slow degradation of the nanocapusules. The biocompatibility of LMWALG/OCS nanocapsules is cross-examined by cytotoxicity experiments and acute systemic toxicological tests, and they were found to enhance the survival rate of the cells from 80.30 to 95.39% in 7 days. The synthesized nanocapsules exhibit high biocompatibility, non-toxicity, biodegradation, and uniform size, providing a new potential candidate for drug releases in clinic experiments.