Preparation and Optimization of Chitosan/pDNA Nanoparticles Using Electrospray

Chitosan (CS), as a natural polymer, has received a great deal of attention as a carrier for delivery of biomaterials. Biomaterials can be incorporated directly into chitosan nanoparticles using the electrospray method; a cost-effective method with mild condition, suitable for sensitive therapeutic agents. In the present work, the authors prepared chitosan/pDNA nanoparticles by electrospray, and evaluated the influence of process/formulation parameters such as chitosan molecular weight, N/P ratio (moles of CS amino groups to phosphate groups of DNAs) and applied voltage on the size of chitosan/pDNA nanoparticles. Furthermore, these nanoparticles were optimized by artificial neural networks for prediction of particle size. Increase in applied voltage and N/P ratio with a decrease in molecular weight led to the formation of smaller particles. Eventually, chitosan/pDNA nanoparticles with minimum size of 152 (nm) were obtained with molecular weight, N/P ratio and applied voltage values of 7 (kDa), 9, and 15 (kV), respectively.