Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Technology, Matunga, Mumbai 400019, India.
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology, Matunga, Mumbai 400019, India.
Colloids Surf B Biointerfaces. 2018 Jun 1;166:127-134. doi: 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2018.03.017. Epub 2018 Mar 14.
Researchers have explored the ability of chitosan to form nanoparticles, to suit varying applications, ranging from wound-healing to gene delivery. Ionic gelation is a widely used method for formulating chitosan nanoparticles, where self-assembly plays a crucial role. This self-assembly is initially promoted by hydrophilic-hydrophobic parity amongst individual chitosan residues, along with electrostatic and Van der Waals interactions with the cross-linker. However, until now the intrinsic ability of chitosan to self-assemble is not widely studied; hence, we investigate the self-assembly of chitosan, based on proton balance between its protonated and deprotonated residues, to promote facile nanoparticle synthesis. This is one of the first reports that highlights subtle but critical influence of proton balance in the chitosan polymer on the formation of chitosan nanoparticles.
研究人员探索了壳聚糖形成纳米粒子的能力，以适应各种应用，从伤口愈合到基因传递。离子凝胶法是一种广泛用于制备壳聚糖纳米粒子的方法，其中自组装起着关键作用。这种自组装最初是由单个壳聚糖残基之间的亲水-疏水平衡以及与交联剂的静电和范德华相互作用来促进的。然而，到目前为止，壳聚糖的自组装能力并没有得到广泛研究；因此，我们研究了壳聚糖的自组装，基于其质子化和去质子化残基之间的质子平衡，以促进易于纳米粒子的合成。这是第一份强调壳聚糖聚合物中质子平衡对壳聚糖纳米粒子形成的微妙但关键影响的报告之一。
