Development of Functional Nanomaterials from Wheat Bran Derived Arabinoxylan for Nucleic Acid Delivery

Wheat bran is a major byproduct of the wheat industry and a rich source of cellulosic and hemicellulosic compounds. We developed a facile and reproducible method to generate functional nanomaterials from wheat bran derived polysaccharide, Arabinoxylan (AX). We first established that AX derived from wheat bran was chemically equivalent to commercially available AX extracted from wheat flour. Through facile chemical modification, positive and negatively charged domains were introduced along AX backbone, which in turn induced local electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions promoting the formation of nanoparticulate structures. The extracted, chemically modified AX was characterized using FTIR, ¹H NMR, and elemental analysis. We observed that, while both anionic and cationic AX self-assemble into stable, spherical nanoparticles with a low polydispersity index, the unmodified AX did not exhibit such self-organizational properties. To form functionally active nanomaterials, we further complexed negatively charged CRISPR-Cas9 DNA with cationic AX. Through gel electrophoretic studies, we identified that, at a feed ratio of DNA to AX of 1:15, AX is capable of forming polyplexes with DNA in the form of nanoparticles with an average hydrodynamic diameter of ∼100 nm and surface charge of -1.40 ± 0.91 mV. We envision that chemically modified AX, originally sourced from agricultural waste materials and not from food products, can be used as functional nanomaterials for gene delivery in the agrochemical sector thus catalyzing the circular approach of sustainability.