Development of mucoadhesive thiolated chitosan nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Abstract The main objective of this work was to develop nanoparticles (NPs) of a mucoadhesive polymer based on chitosan for biomedical applications. Here, we developed thiolated chitosan (TCS) using thioglycolic acid (TGA) and chitosan in the presence of 1-ethyl-3-3(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) as catalyst. The prepared TCS was characterized using FT-IR and the degree of thiol substitution was found out by Ellman's method. The TCS nanoparticles (TCS-NPs) were developed using ionic cross-linking reaction with pentasodium tripolyphosphate (TPP). The prepared TCS-NPs were characterized by DLS, AFM, FT-IR, TG/DTA, etc. In vitro cytocompatibility and cell uptake studies were also carried out. These studies suggest that the prepared NPs show less toxicity towards normal and cancer cells and they are easily taken up by both the normal and cancer cells. So the prepared TCS-NPs could be used for drug and gene delivery applications.