Preparation, Characterization and in vitro Studies of Chitosan Nanoparticles Containing Androctonus Crassicauda scorpion venom

Subject Areas : Polymer

Orkideh Ghorban Dadras ¹ , Asal Mir Mohammad Sadeghi ² , Nastaran Farhangi ³ , Nazanin Forouhar ⁴ , Naser Mohammadpour ⁵ , Mohammad Reza Avadi ⁶

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Received: 2015-11-16 Accepted : 2015-11-16 Published : 2013-07-01

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Abstract :

Many strategies have been developed to improve vaccine delivery in the past decade. The aim of the current study was to develop a nanoparticulate system based on ionic gelation between chitosan and tripolyphosphate in order to load Androctonus Crassicauda scorpion venom. The best formulation was selected according to the highest association efficiency, loading capacity, optimum particle size and zeta potential. Venom release studies were carried out on the optimum formulation F3. The highest association efficiency (77%) and loading capacity (48%) were obtained from formulation containing chitosan (2.0mg/ml), TPP (1mg/ ml) and scorpion venom concentration of 250μg/ml. The average size of nanoparticles in optimum formulation was about 230 nm with a polydispersity index of 0.479 and a positive zeta potential value. The FTIR results also confirmed the binding of TPP and chitosan with the venom peak present in the nanoparticle formulation. The in vivo release of venom from nanoparticles at pH 7.2 showed an initial burst release of about 69% in the first 24 hours followed by a sustained and much slower release in the next 96 hours. The result suggested that this nanoparticulate system maybe suitable as an antigen carrier with anti- venom activity for further in vivo studies.