Glycyrrhetinic acid-modified nanoparticles for drug delivery: Preparation and characterization

In this work, glycyrrhetinic acid-modified chitosan (mGA-suc-CTS) used as liver targeted carrier for drug delivery, was prepared via hemisuccinate as a bridged group. The structure of the product was confirmed by IR and NMR methods and the degree of substitution (DS) of glycyrrhetinic acid groups was estimated via elemental analysis. Nanoparticles were formed by ionic gelation methold. The drug-loading and release behavior of the nanoparticles were investigated using BSA as the model drug. The results indicated that the carrier with a highest DS of 5.19% could be got and the DS was controlled by changing reaction temperature or feed ratio. BSA could be entrapped into the nanoparticles with the drug-loading ratio of 26.3% and the encapsulation efficiency of 81.5%. A sustained release over an 11-day period was observed in pH 7.4 in vitro.