Elaboration of Stable and Antibody Functionalized Positively Charged Colloids by Polyelectrolyte Complexation between Chitosan and Hyaluronic Acid

In this study, we describe the elaboration of multifunctional positively charged polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) nanoparticles, designed to be stable at physiological salt concentration and pH, for effective targeted delivery. These nanoparticles were obtained by charge neutralization between chitosan (CS) as polycation and hyaluronic acid (HA) as polyanion. We showed that the course of the complexation process and the physico-chemical properties of the resulting colloids were impacted by (i) internal parameters such as the Degree of Acetylation (DA, i.e., the molar ration of acetyl glucosamine residues) and molar mass of CS, the HA molar mass and (ii) external parameters like the charge mixing ratio and the polymer concentrations. As a result, nonstoichiometric colloidal PECs were obtained in water or PBS (pH 7.4) and remained stable over one month. The polymer interactions were characterized by thermal analysis (DSC and TGA) and the morphology was studied by scanning electron microscopy. A model antibody, anti-ovalbumine (OVA) immunoglobulin A (IgA) was sorbed on the particle surface in water and PBS quantitatively in 4 h. The CS-HA/IgA nanoparticles average size was between 425–665 nm with a positive zeta potential. These results pointed out that CS-HA can be effective carriers for use in targeted drug delivery.