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Antioxidant Nanocomplexes for Delivery of Epigallocatechin-3-gallate Bing Hu, Fengguang Ma , Yingkang Yang, Minhao Xie, Chen Zhang, Ye Xu, and Xiaoxiong Zeng J. Agric. Food Chem., Just Accepted Manuscript • DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.6b00931 • Publication Date (Web): 11 Apr 2016 Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on April 17, 2016
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Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Antioxidant Nanocomplexes for Delivery of Epigallocatechin-3-gallate Bing Hu*, Fengguang Ma, Yingkang Yang, Minhao Xie, Chen Zhang, Ye Xu, Xiaoxiong Zeng* College of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
∗
To whom correspondence should be addressed. Fax (Tel.): 86-13915983201; Email:
[email protected] (B. Hu);Fax (Tel.):86-25-84396791; Email:
[email protected] (X. Zeng) 1
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ABSTRACT
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Modification of chitosan (CS) through grafting with caffeic acid (CA, CA-g-CS) and
3
ferulic acid (FA, FA-g-CS) significantly improved the solubility of CS under neutral
4
and alkaline environments. Spherical and physicochemical stable nanocomplexes
5
assembled from the phenolic acid grafting CS and caseinophosphopeptide (CPP)
6
were obtained with particle size less than 300 nm and zeta potential of less than +30
7
mV. The net polymer nanocomplexes composed with the phenolic acid grafting CS
8
and CPP showed strong antioxidant activity. The encapsulation efficiencies of
9
epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) in the CA-g-CS-CPP nanocomplexes and
10
FA-g-CS-CPP nanocomplexes were 88.1 ± 6.7% and 90.4 ± 4.2%, respectively.
11
Improved delivery properties of EGCG were achieved after loading with the
12
antioxidant nanocomplexes, including controlling release of EGCG under simulated
13
gastric environments and preventing its degradation under neutral and alkaline
14
environments.
15
Keywords: Phenolic acid grafting chitosan, Nanocomplexes, EGCG, Antioxidant
16
activity, Controlled release
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18
INTRODUCTION
Chitosan (CS), the deacetylated form of chitin, is mainly originated from
19
shrimp.
It
is
composed
of
glucosamine
known
as
20
2-amino-2-deoxy-(1-4)-β-D-glucopyranan. CS is considered to be the most widely
21
distributed biopolymer and is the only one naturally occurred positively charged
22
polyelectrolyte. Furthermore, it is generally considered biodegradable and nontoxic
23
with an oral LD50 in mice of over 16 g/kg1, and has been approved for dietary
24
applications in Japan, Italy and Finland. Therefore, CS has been extensively
25
investigated for its potential applications in the food, cosmetics, biomedical, and
26
pharmaceutical fields.2 CS and its derivatives are widely used in fabrication of
27
promising nanocomplexes vehicle for oral delivery of therapeutics or nutraceuticals
28
to increase their bioavailability due to its excellent mucoadhesive and
29
absorption-enhancing properties.3, 4
30
The encapsulation and delivery of certain labile drugs and functional dietary
31
ingredients is potential in solving the problem of their poor bioavailability for which
32
the oxidation damage accounts at least partly.5 Many of the labile drug or
33
nutraceutical molecules are oxidation-sensitive, which is the most common cause for
34
their deterioration during storage and/or during their transport to the required target
35
site in the body.6 Therefore, the polymer conjugates with antioxidant activities have
36
been paid a great attention as novel delivery systems for prevention of the drugs or
37
nutraceuticals from oxidation damage.7, 8 In addition, the carrier matrix materials are
38
the major content compared with their payload content in most delivery systems. 3
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Phenolic compounds are attractive due to their multifunctional properties, such
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as combined antimicrobial and antioxidant activities. Caffeic acid (CA) and ferulic
41
acid (FA) are two antioxidant phenolic acids extracted from plants. Despite there
42
have been researches focused on grafting CA and/or FA to CS9, 10, the potential of
43
these polysaccharide-phenolic conjugates in the development of nano-delivery
44
systems for labile molecules has been scarcely investigated.
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Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is the most abundant and active catechin in
46
green tea. It is well known as a strong natural antioxidant in our diet, which can
47
reduce the risk of cancer as well as cardiovascular, neurodegenerative and other
48
diseases in a lot of epidemiological and preclinical studies.11 Considerable evidences
49
indicate that EGCG can suppress cell proliferation, enhance apoptosis, and inhibit
50
cell invasion, angiogenesis and metastasis through inhibiting enzyme activities and
51
signal transduction pathways.12 However, the oral bioavailability of EGCG is quite
52
low13, which is mainly due to its poor stability in physiological neutral environments
53
(plasma and intestinal juice) and poor intestinal absorption.14 Furthermore, the quick
54
degradation of EGCG in plasma and intestinal juice neutral and alkaline
55
environments was mainly caused by the auto-oxidation of EGCG, forming its
56
homodimers.15
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Therefore, CA and FA were grafted to CS respectively based on an one-pot
58
method reported in our previous study16, which was further confirmed and
59
characterized by the 1H NMR, UV-vis spectra and FT-IR. The solubility of the
60
CA-g-CS and FA-g-CS under pH 7.0 and pH 8.4 was characterized and compared
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with that of CS. Novel polymer nanocomplexes composed with the phenolic acid
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grafted CS and CPP were prepared and characterized using transmission electron
63
microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS). CPP is a group of anionic
64
polypeptides, which are released from the N-terminus polar region during the tryptic
65
digestion of milk casein proteins. The antioxidant activity of the nanocomplexes
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composed with the phenolic acid grafted CS and CPP was evaluated using DPPH
67
radical assay. The oral delivery properties of the nanocomplexes for phytochemicals
68
were characterized through determining their encapsulation efficiency and release
69
profile of EGCG, and the stabilization effects on EGCG in simulated GI
70
environment.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS
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Materials. CS (Average molecular weight: ~ 1.5 × 105, Degree of deacetylation ≥
73
90.0%), 1-ethyl-3-(3’-dimethylaminopropyl-carbodiimide) hydrochloride (EDC-HCl)
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and Folin-Ciocalteau reagent were purchased from Kayon Biological Technology
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Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China). CA (purity > 98%), FA (purity > 98%), Gallic acid (GA,
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purity > 98%), EGCG (purity > 98%), 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH),
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β-carotene and linoleic acid were purchased from Sigma Chemical Co. (St. Louis,
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MO, USA). 1-hydroxybenzotriazole monohydrate (HOBt·H2O) was obtained from
79
Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China). CPP was prepared and
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identified with HPLC-MS-MS as described in our previous study.17 All of other
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reagents were of analytical grade.
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Synthesis of CA-, FA-grafting CS (CA-g-CS, FA-g-CS respectively). The
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synthesis was performed based on the one-pot method reported in our previous
84
study16 with some modifications. CS (0.303 g, 1.85 mmol) was stirred in deionized
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water (30 mL) with HOBt (0.282 g, 1.85 mmol) overnight until a clear solution was
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obtained. CA or FA (0.311 g, 1.85 mmol) was introduced into the CS solution
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followed by the dropwise addition of an alcoholic solution of EDC (0.355 g, 1.85
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mmol, 2 mL). CA-g-CS or FA-g-CS with different substitutions of CA or FA was
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prepared by changing the ratio between the phenolic acid and glucosamine in CS
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(1:2, 1:1). The reaction was carried out for 24 h in ambient temperature and
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atmosphere in dark. The resultant liquid was poured into dialysis bags (MWCO
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8,000-14,000 Da), dialyzed against deionized water for 6 days with four changes of
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water each day. Then, the synthesized CA-g-CS or FA-g-CS sample was frozen and
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dried by lyophilizer to obtain solid conjugate of CA-g-CS or FA-g-CS. Blank CS,
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acting as a control, was prepared in the same conditions but in the absence of
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phenolic acids.
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Characterization of the phenolic acid grafting CS. Characterizations of CA-g-CS
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and FA-g-CS conjugations were determined by UV-vis spectra, FT-IR and 1H NMR
99
spectra. The UV-vis spectra were determined by a UV-2600 spectrophotometer
100
(Shimazu, Japan) by scanning from 200 to 800 nm. The FT-IR spectra were collected
101
under ambient conditions, using a Nicolet iS10 FT-IR spectrometer (Thermo
102
Electron Corp., Madison, WI). Each spectrum was averaged over 256 scans with 4
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cm-1 resolution in the range of 500-4000 cm-1. Proton nuclear magnetic resonance
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(1H NMR) spectra were recorded at 25
o
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CD3COOD/D2O (1%, v/v, J&K Scientific, China) using AVANCE Ⅲ 500 MHz NMR
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Spectrometer (Bruker, Switzerland).
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Evaluation of phenolic groups by Folin-Ciocalteu reagent. Phenolic acid (GA, FA)
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contents were determined according to the previous method.18 Briefly, 0.5 mL of
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CA-g-CS or FA-g-CS was mixed with 1 mL of Folin-Ciocalteau reagent for 5 min in
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dark, followed by addition of 2 mL 20% sodium carbonate (Na2CO3). The mixture
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was shaken and kept at 30 Ⅲ for 1 h, absorbance (Abs) of which was measured at
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747 nm using a vis-spectrophotometer (Jinghua Instrument 722, Shanghai, China).
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Gallic acid was used as a standard. The grafting contents of CA-g-CS and FA-g-CS
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were expressed as mg of GA equivalent per g of copolymer.
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Characterization of solubility of CA-g-CS or FA-g-CS in neutral and alkaline
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pH. Equal amounts of CA-g-CS or FA-g-CS with different phenolic acid contents
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and CS were dissolved with the same concentration. Equal volume of the polymer
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solutions were adjusted to pH 7.0 and pH 8.4, respectively. After 2 hours, the
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polymer solutions were centrifuged under 5000 rpm for 30 min. After centrifuge, the
120
suspensions were removed and the precipitation of each sample was lyophilized and
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weighted. The ratio between the amount of dried precipitate and the amount of
122
original sample were calculated and compared.
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General procedure for preparation of the nanocomplexes. CA-g-CS-CPP,
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FA-g-CS-CPP and CS-CPP nanocomplexes were prepared according to our
125
previously reported procedure with modification.17 CA-g-CS or FA-g-CS was
C with samples dissolved in
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dissolved in deionized water. CS was dissolved in 1% (w/v) acetic acid solution with
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sonication until the solution was transparent. The aqueous solution of CPP was
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obtained at a suitable concentration. CA-g-CS, FA-g-CS, CS and CPP solutions were
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adjusted to pH 6.2 with 1.0 N HCl or NaOH solution. Subsequently, CPP solution
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was added to the CA-g-CS, FA-g-CS and CS solution, respectively, under stirring at
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room temperature. For the preparation of EGCG-loaded nanocomplexes, aqueous
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solution of EGCG was added to the CA-g-CS, FA-g-CS and CS solution before the
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addition of CPP solution. The formation of CA-g-CS-CPP, FA-g-CS-CPP and
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CS-CPP nanocomplexes started spontaneously via the CPP initiated ionic gelation
135
mechanism.
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Characterization of nanocomplexes. The measurements of particle size,
137
polydispersity index (PDI) and zeta potential of the nanocomplexes were performed
138
on a Zetasizer Nano-ZS (Malvern Instruments) on the basis of DLS techniques. All
139
measurements were made in triplicate at 25 ± 1 Ⅲ.
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The morphological characteristics of the nanocomplexes were examined by a high
141
performance
digital
imaging
TEM
machine
(JEOL
142
High-Technologies Corp., Japan). One drop of the suspension was placed on a
143
copper grid and allowed to evaporate in air. Once evaporated the samples were
144
placed in a TEM for imaging. The accelerating voltage used was 100 kV and the
145
images were taken on a Gatan electron energy loss spectrometry system using 6 eV
146
energy slit.
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Determination of antioxidant activity of CA-g-CS-CPP and FA-g-CS-CPP
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nanocomplexes by in vitro DPPH radicals scavenging assay. DPPH radicals
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scavenging assay was performed in the slightly modified reported procedure19. CA,
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FA, CS, CA-g-CS, GA-g-CS, the CS-CPP nanocomplexes, the CA-g-CS-CPP
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nanocomplexes, and FA-g-CS-CPP nanocomplexes were homogenously dispersed in
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deionized water of a series of concentrations (0.05, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 mg/ml,
153
respectively). A 50 µL sample was added to each well of 96-well microplate, mixed
154
with 200 µL methanolic DPPH· solution (0.4 mM). The reactions were carried out in
155
dark at room temperature for 30 min. Abs was measured at 517 nm by a microplate
156
reader (Bio-Tek µquant, USA).
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Scavenging Activity = (1 −
A1 − A2 ) × 100% A0
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Where A0 is the Abs of the control (water instead of sample), A1 is the Abs of the
159
sample, and A2 is the Abs of the sample only (methanol instead of DPPH).
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Encapsulation efficiency of EGCG and in vitro release profile of EGCG from the
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nanocomplexes in simulated gastric environments. The encapsulation efficiency
162
of EGCG in the CA-g-CS-CPP, FA-g-CS-CPP and CS-CPP nanocomplexes was
163
determined according to our previously reported method with minor modification.20
164
Briefly, the EGCG-loaded nanocomplexes were carefully transferred into an Amicon
165
Ultra-15 centrifugal filter device (Millipore Co., Billerica, MA, USA) made up of a
166
centrifuge tube and a filter unit with low-binding Ultracel membrane (MWCO 1000).
167
After centrifugation at 4500 g for 75 min, free EGCG penetrated through the
168
Ultracel membrane into the centrifuge tube, and the EGCG-loaded nanocomplexes in
169
the filter unit were obtained for the determination of the in vitro release profile. The 9
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amount of EGCG in ultrafiltrate was determined by HPLC according to our reported
171
method.21 The encapsulation efficiency of EGCG was calculated using the formula
172
below:
173 174 175
Total amount of EGCG – amount of EGCG in ultrafiltrate
Encapsulation efficiency (%) = ————————————————————————— × 100
Total amount of EGCG
176
The release profiles of EGCG from the CA-g-CS-CPP, FA-g-CS-CPP and
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CS-CPP nanocomplexes in simulated gastric environments were analyzed by dialysis
178
method. The EGCG loaded nanocomplexes, obtained from the centrifugation in
179
determination of the encapsulation efficiency, were dispersed in the simulated gastric
180
fluid (SGF) solution, which was further immediately placed in the dialysis bags
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(MWCO 3.5 kDa) (MYM Biological Technology Company, USA). SGF was 0.1 N
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HCl (pH 1.2) containing 0.1% pepsin. The dialysis bags containing SGF were
183
immersed in acid release medium (0.1 N HCl, pH 1.2). Aliquots of dissolution media
184
(0.5 mL) were withdrawn, and the concentration of EGCG was determined by HPLC
185
after appropriate dilution with water. And, the same volume of buffer (0.5 mL) was
186
fed back to release medium. The percent cumulative amount of EGCG released from
187
the nanocomplexes was calculated as a function of time.
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Determination of the stability of EGCG loaded in the CA-g-CS-CPP and
189
FA-g-CS-CPP nanocomplexes under neutral and alkaline environments. Equal
190
volume (0.5 mL) of the EGCG and EGCG loaded CA-g-CS-CPP or FA-g-CS-CPP
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nanocomplexes with the same concentration of EGCG were dispersed in 9.5 mL, pH
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7.4 PBS buffer. At the time intervals of 0, 1, 3, 6h, 0.5 mL sample was withdrawn
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from the EGCG and
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FA-g-CS-CPP nanocomplexes solution, respectively, and extracted with same
195
volume (0.5 mL) of ethyl acetate twice.22 Blank PBS buffer (pH7.4, 0.5 mL) was
196
feed back. After extraction, the ethyl acetate phase was rotary evaporated,
197
re-dissolved in water, and analyzed using HPLC according to our reported method.21
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Statistical analysis. Data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation (SD) of
199
triplicates. The least significant difference (LSD) test and one-way analysis of
200
variance (ANOVA) were used for multiple comparisons by SPSS 16.0. Difference
201
was considered statistically significant if p < 0.05, and very significant if p < 0.01.
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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
203
Synthesis and characterization of the phenolic acid grafting CS. The phenolic
204
acid grafting CS (CA-g-CS and FA-g-CS) were prepared through conjugating the
205
amino-groups in CS with the carboxyl group in CA and FA, which was mediated via
206
a water-soluble carbodiimides conjugating agent, EDC, according to our previous
207
study.16 The UV-vis spectra of CA-g-CS and FA-g-CS, as well as the corresponding
208
CS, are shown in Figure 1A. Compared with net CS, new absorption peak around
209
300 nm appears for the samples of CA-g-CS and FA-g-CS, which mainly originates
210
from the π-system of the benzene ring in the phenolic acid. The absorption peak can
211
also be observed in the UV-vis spectra of free CA and FA (data not shown).
EGCG loaded CA-g-CS-CPP nanocomplexes and
212
The phenolic acid grafting CS were then characterized by FT-IR, compared with
213
the net CS. The result is shown in Figure 1B. The main characteristic absorption
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bands of CS appear at 1640, 1557, 1374 and 1150-1040 cm-1, which correspond to
215
amide I, amide II, amide Ⅲ groups, and glycosidic linkage (C-O-C), respectively.23
216
After grafting CS with the phenolic acids (CA and FA), the peak height ratio
217
between the absorption bands of amide II and amide I increases. In addition, certain
218
changes in the bands of amide Ⅲ group around 1374 cm-1 could be observed. The
219
amide II bands around 1557 cm-1 arise from the N-H bending vibrations coupled to
220
C-N stretching vibrations. Amide Ⅲ bands arise from the C-N stretching vibration.
221
This phenomenon is caused by the grafting of the phenolic acids on the amino
222
groups in the CS chain. Similar result was also reported in previous study.24
223
Furthermore, the phenolic acids grafting CS were characterized by 1H NMR, and
224
the net CS was used as the control. Figure 1 C and D reveal the 1H NMR spectrum
225
of the CS derivatives grafted with CA (C) and FA (D). In the spectrum of both
226
CA-g-CS and FA-g-CS, a single peak at 2.9 ppm (H-2), multiple peaks at 3.3–3.7
227
ppm (H-3, H-4, H-5, H-6) and a small single peak at 4.4 ppm (H-1) are exhibited,
228
which originate from CS. The protons of N-acetyl glucosamine units exhibit a single
229
peak at 1.8 ppm. Compared with net CS (data not shown), the phenolic acid grafted
230
products show new peaks at 6.2–8.0 ppm (methine protons of phenolic acids),
231
indicating the successful grafting of phenolic acids onto CS. This result is consistent
232
with that of previous studies. However, the signals of the peaks at 6.2–8.0 ppm are
233
comparatively weak, which was caused by the strong signal of the peak representing
234
the D2O at 4.8 ppm.
235
The substitution of the phenolic acids (CA and FA) on CS was determined by
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Folin-Ciocalteu reaction, in which, the phenolic compounds took part in a complex
237
redox reaction with phosphotungstic and phosphomolybdic acids.19 The color was
238
developed from
239
phosphomolybdic/phosphotungstic acid complexes caused by the transfer of
240
electrons at basic pH. Calculated from the results of the Folin-Ciocalteu reaction, the
241
substitutions of CA and FA on the dry CA-g-CS and FA-g-CS copolymers with the
242
molar ratios between phenolic acid to glucosamine in CS of 1:2 and 1:1 are shown in
243
Table 1. For CA-g-CS, the grafting ratio of the phenolic acid to CS increases
244
significantly (p < 0.05) with the elevation of the molar ratios between phenolic acid
245
to glucosamine in CS, which might be attributed to higher quantity of phenolic acid
246
available for the reaction. However, an opposite change trend appears for the
247
FA-g-CS, which might be related to the poor solubility of FA. In addition, at the
248
same molar ratio between phenolic acid to glucosamine in CS, the substitution of CA
249
on CS was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than that of FA on CS, which might also be
250
related to the higher solubility of CA compared to FA.
the chromogens formed through
the reduction
of the
251
Figure 2 shows the solubility of the CA-g-CS, FA-g-CS and CS in neutral and
252
alkaline environments. The CA-g-CS and FA-g-CS were synthesized with the same
253
molar ratio between phenolic acid to glucosamine in CS of 1:1. It can be found from
254
Figure 2 that, compared with the plain CS, the precipitation of the copolymers under
255
pH 7.0 and pH 8.4 is very significantly (p < 0.01) reduced after grafting with CA.
256
And grafting with FA significantly (p < 0.05) decreased the precipitation of the
257
copolymers under pH 7.0 and pH 8.4 compared with that of net CS. These results
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indicated that grafting with phenolic acid significantly increased the solubility of CS
259
in neutral and alkaline pH conditions. The solubility of CA-g-CS was higher than
260
that of FA-g-CS, which might be due to the higher substitution of the CA in the
261
copolymer than that of FA. The general pH value in human body, such as the
262
digestive tract, blood vessel, et al, is neutral and alkalescent. However, CS
263
precipitates at neutral and alkaline pH conditions due to deprotonation of amine
264
groups. The pKa value of the amine groups on CS is approximately pH 6.4. This
265
property of CS means that the CS and the CS based biomaterials can be effective
266
only in a limited area of the human body, such as in stomach and duodenum, where
267
the pH values are below or close to its pKa. Therefore, grafting with phenolic acids
268
successfully extends the soluble pH scope of CS, which is the pre-requirement for
269
intestinal mucosal delivery and vascular delivery of the nutraceuticals using CS
270
based biomaterials.
271
Physicochemical properties of the nanocomplexes. The particle sizes of the
272
CS-CPP, CA-g-CS-CPP and FA-g-CS-CPP nanocomplexes are shown in Table 2.
273
The particle size of the CS-CPP nanocomplexes determined by DLS at room
274
temperature is 199.1 ± 3.0 nm (n = 3), with the PDI around 0.250. With the grafting
275
of the phenolic acids, either CA or FA, the particle size of the nanocomplexes
276
increases significantly compared with that of the CS-CPP nanocomplexes. The
277
particle size of the CA-g-CS-CPP nanocomplexes with the CA grafting ratio of
278
108.02±1.08 mg/g is as large as 273.8 ± 1.7 nm, with the PDI around 0.268, which
279
indicates that the obtained nanocomplexes dispersion is highly heterogeneous. The
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size of the nanocomplexes composed with the FA-g-CS and CPP is 251.3 ± 3.6 nm,
281
which is smaller than that of the CA-g-CS-CPP nanocomplexes due to the lower
282
grafting ratio of FA than that of CA. However, the PDI of the nanocomplexes
283
suspensions increases from around 0.268 and 0.386, indicating the increased
284
heterogeneity of the nanocomplexes dispersion. It might be caused by the
285
heterogeneous distribution of FA that is grafted in the CS molecular chain. Figure 3A
286
and B show the structure and morphology of the CA-g-CS-CPP nanocomplexes and
287
the FA-g-CS-CPP nanocomplexes with CA grafting ratios of 108.02±1.08 (A)
288
FA grafting ratios of 39.71±0.10 mg/g (B), which were characterized using TEM. It
289
could be seen that the nanocomplexes are spherical in shape, dispersed
290
homogenously, which is in consistence with the DLS results.
291
The antioxidant activity of the nanocomplexes. Despite various chemical-based
292
assays can be used to determine antioxidant activities, such as oxygen radical
293
absorbance capacity (ORAC), DPPH• scavenging method, ferric reducing capacity,
294
β-carotene-linoleic acid system etc, they can generally be classified into two types
295
according to the reactions involved, the assays based on hydrogen atom transfer
296
(HAT) reactions and the ones based on electron transfer (ET). The DPPH assay is
297
one representive of ET reactions. As polysaccharides are soluble in water
298
environment rather than the oil conditions, the DPPH assay was selected to measure
299
the antioxidant activity of the phenolic acid grafting CS.
and
300
It can be found from Figure 4 that both the CA-g-CS-CPP and FA-g-CS-CPP
301
nanocomplexes show significantly higher (p