Anchoring of ulex europaeus agglutinin to chitosan nanoparticles-in-microparticles and their in vitro binding activity to bovine submaxillary gland mucin.

Focused on the natural biodegradable material of chitosan (CS), this investigation concerned its spray-dried nanoparticles-in-microparticles (NiMPs) modified with ulex europaeus agglutinin (UEA). Chitosan nanoparticles were obtained by ionotropic gelation process with pentasodium tripolyphosphate as gelatinizer. Then UEA lectin was bound onto the CS nanoparticles activated by glutaraldehyde. The conjugated spherical UEA-CS-NiMPs, prepared by spray drying method, exhibited 12-85% coupling efficiency of UEA depending upon the amount of activator glutaraldehyde. And the UEA-grafted particles showed additional higher binding tendency with bovine submaxillary gland mucin as compared to the plain chitosan microparticles. Furthermore, the activity and intrinsic fucose-specificity of UEA were still maintained after the covalent modification. It is thus evident that the UEA anchored CS-NiMPs might be used as a potential drug delivery system targeted to the specific regions of gastrointestinal tract.