Interests of chitosan nanoparticles conically cross-linked with tripolyphosphate for biomedical applications

International audienceThe process of ionic gelation is one of the easiest ways to develop chitosan nanoparticles reported so far in the literature. Its success is mainly due to its one-shot synthesis, and to the mild environment required to produce the nanoparticles. The nanoparticle formation all along this process has been therefore thoroughly studied to lead to particles with a nanometric size, a narrow size distribution, and a spherical shape that are ideal for biomedical uses. The purpose of this review is to compile the biomedical applications that have been considered in the literature for these chitosan nanoparticles prepared by ionic gelation using tripolyphosphate as ionic agent. Their intrinsic biological properties such as non-toxicity, antimicrobial activity, mucoadhesivity and haemocompatibility are firstly discussed and compared to those of chitosan solutions. Then, the different bioactive species (drugs and biomacromolecules) incorporated in these chitosan nanoparticles, their maximal incorporation efficiency, their loading capacity, and their principal associated biomedical applications are presented

A close collaboration of chitosan with lipid colloidal carriers for drug delivery applications

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An overview of lipid membrane supported by colloidal particles

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Chitosan hydrogels for sustained drug delivery

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Lateral Organization of Lipid Membranes Induced by Amphiphilic Polymer Inclusions

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Elaboration of chitosan nanoparticles: Favorable impact of a mild thermal treatment to obtain finely divided, spherical, and colloidally stable objects

International audienceThe elaboration of chitosan (CS) nanoparticles via an ionic gelation process using sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP) as cross-linking agent was thoroughly studied in order to develop colloidally stable, spherical CS nanoparticles with a reproducible sub-micrometer size, and a narrow size distribution. To this end, the most relevant parameters involved in the synthesis such as CS chains concentration and molecular weight as well as ionic strength and pH of CS initial solutions were investigated and optimized. The physicochemical characterization of resulting CS nanoparticles was carried out in terms of size, size distribution, and surface charge by quasi-elastic light scattering (QELS), nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA), and zeta potential measurements. Morphological characterization using classical and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (TEM and cryo-TEM) was then performed revealing a high number of aggregates mixed to individualized nanoparticles with drop-like and irregular shapes. These limitations were overcome by applying a specific and optimized thermal treatment which appeared to significantly reduce the aggregate number, and to restructure the CS nanoparticles into highly spherical objects. Based on all these findings, reproducible, cationic (zeta potential = +37 +/- 5 mV), stable (at least 4 months at 20 degrees C), spherical, and mainly individualized CS nanoparticles of 100 +/- 30 nm (determined from cryo-TEM images) were obtained

First systematic MALDI/ESI Mass Spectrometry Comparison to Characterize Polystyrene Synthesized by Different Controlled Radical Polymerizations

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Reducing-end “clickable” functionalizations of chitosan oligomers for the synthesis of chitosan-based diblock copolymers

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Chemical preparation and structural characterization of a homogeneous series of chitin/chitosan oligomers

International audienceThe preparation of a homogeneous series of chitin/chitosan oligomers (chito-oligomers) with the same distribution of degrees of polymerization (DP) ranging from 2 to 12, but with various average degrees of N-acetylation (DA) from 0 to 90% is described. This DA-series was obtained according to a two-step chemical process involving (i) the production of a well-defined mixture of glucosamine (GlcN) oligomers obtained by acid hydrolysis of a fully N-deacetylated chitosan and after selective precipitations of the hydrolysis products, and (ii) the partial N-acetylation of the GlcN units of these oligomers from a hydro-alcoholic solution of acetic anhydride in a controlled manner. The characterization of this series of samples with different DAs by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) allowed us to determine their average DA and identify the main oligomer structures constituting each mixture. Furthermore, MALDI-TOF MS was particularly helpful to study the distribution evolution of the diverse oligomers as a function of DA for the main DPs from 3 to 7. The modeling of these distributions by means of a binomial law displayed that the chemical N-acetylation of low DP GlcN oligomers, produced in a homogeneous medium, occurs randomly along the oligosaccharide chains in accordance with a statistical (Bernoullian) arrangement. In this case, the relative proportion of each chito-oligomer present in the mixture can be estimated precisely as a function of DA considering oligomers of same DP