[Wheat germ agglutinin anchored chitosan nanoparticles and its conjugation with N-acetylglucosamine]

This study is undertaken to modify the chitosan nanoparticles (CS-NPs) with wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), and investigate the conjugation between WGA-CS-NPs and N-acetylglucosamine (NAG). CS-NPs were prepared by ionotropic gelation process and then conjugated with WGA under the activation of glutaricdialdehyde. The mean diameter of the CS-NPs was approximately 113.5 nm and the poly-dispersity index (PDI) was 0.18. The binding yield of WGA to CS-NPs was comprised between 27.8% and 87.9% depending mostly on the addition of 0.3% (w/v) glutaraldehyde solution. A competitive inhibition experiment of WGA-CS-NPs to bovine submaxillary gland mucin (BSM) was taken to illuminate the binding activity of WGA-CS-NPs to the sugar of N-acetylglucosamine. After the addition of NAG, the binding rates between CS-NPs and BSM almost didn't change, while the binding rates between WGA-CS-NPs and BSM dropped down significantly, which confirmed the specific binding characteristics of WGA to NAG.