Self-assemblied nanocomplexes based on biomimetic amphiphilic chitosan derivatives for protein delivery

A bio-inspired nanocarrier was developed for protein delivery based on biodegradable amphiphilic chitosan derivative (DCA-PCCs) with hydrophilic cell membrane mimic phosphorylcholine (PC) and hydrophobic deoxycholic acid (DCA) moieties, which was synthesized via the combination of Atherton-Todd reaction and carbodiimide coupling reaction. Using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as model protein, it was found that DCA-PCCs with suitable degree of substitution of PC and DCA moieties can load proteins by forming nanocomplexes via a solvent evaporation method. The physicochemical characteristics of BSA/DCA-PCCs nanocomplexes were investigated by Zetasizer, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. In vitro biological evaluation revealed BSA/DCA-PCCs nanocomplexes as blank DCA-PCCs nanoparticles had excellent cytocompatibility and hemocompatibility mainly due to the presence of cell membrane mimic phosphorylcholine. BSA release results suggested BSA/DCA-PCCs nanocomplexes showed a sustained release behavior following first order exponential decay kinetics. The results indicated DCA-PCCs provided a promising approach for effectively delivering therapeutic proteins.