The role of hyaluronic acid inclusion on the energetics of encapsulation and release of a protein molecule from chitosan-based nanoparticles

The synergistic effects of the polysaccharides chitosan (CS) and hyaluronic acid (HA) formulated into hybrid nanoparticles are promising for drug delivery. In the present work, we performed a detailed analysis of the molecular interactions involved in the TPP-assisted ionotropic gelation of CS hybrid nanoparticles with the objective of investigating the impact of HA inclusion on the particle formulation and on the in vitro release of insulin (INS) as a protein cargo. To do that, an in-depth thermodynamic study was carried out by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques. Such analysis allowed us to elucidate the type and extent of interactions established by INS within the hybrid nanoparticles and to get further knowledge on the nature of its release mechanism in vitro. Overall, INS release from the CS nanoparticles was thermodynamically driven, and when including HA a weaker INS binding to the nanoparticles, hence, a faster release rate in vitro were observed. As a negative polyelectrolyte, HA might have sterically blocked the activated sites of CS, such as the amino groups, through chain entanglement, thereby, attenuating the competitive binding interactions of INS. As a consequence, INS might have experienced a spatial exclusion onto the surface of the hybrid nanoparticles to a greater extent which, in turn, would explain its initial abrupt release. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.