Bacterial cellulose nanocrystal as drug delivery system for overcoming the biological barrier of cyano-phycocyanin: a biomedical application of microbial product

Phycocyanin, produced by Spirulina platensis, has been reported as an anti-inflammatory, anti-hyperalgesia, antioxidant, anti-tumor, and anti-cancer agent. However, the ingestion of phycocyanin in the body is often hindered by its instability against gastric pH conditions. The nano-drug delivery system has developed as a promising platform for efficient drug delivery and improvement as well as drug efficacy. Bacterial cellulose nanocrystal (BCNC) has it superiority as DDS due to its inherent properties such as nanoscale dimension, large surface area, - biocompatibility, and non-toxic. To improve its mechanical properties, BCNC was crosslinked with glutaraldehyde and was analyzed as a potential candidate for DDS. The Fourier transform infrared analysis of the BCNC suggested that hydrolysis did not alter the chemical composition. The index of crystallinity of the BCNC was 18.31% higher than that of the original BC, suggesting that crystalline BC has been successfully isolated. The BCNC particle also showed a needle-like morphology which is 25 ± 10 nm in diameter and a mean length of 626 ± 172 nm. Crosslinked BCNC also had larger pores than the original BCNC along with higher thermal stability. Optimum phycocyanin adsorption on crosslinked BCNC reached 65.3% in 3 h. The release study shows that the crosslinked BCNC can protect the phycocyanin retardation by gastric fluid until phycocyanin reaches the targeted sites. This study provides an alternative potential DDS derived from natural bioresources with less expenses and better properties to promote the application of BCNC as functional nanomaterials in biomedical science.