Design and synthesis of dual-ligand modified chitosan as a liver targeting vector

J Mater Sci Mater Med. 2012 Feb;23(2):431-41. doi: 10.1007/s10856-011-4494-1. Epub 2011 Nov 22.

Abstract

Vector plays an important role in hepatic targeted drug delivery system. In this study, a novel material as a liver targeting vector, dual-ligand modified chitosan (GCGA) composed of chitosan (CTS), glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) and lactobionic acid (LA), was designed and synthesized by an orthogonal experiment with two-step synthesis under mild conditions. The synthesized final product was characterized and confirmed by FTIR and (1)H-NMR spectroscopy, and DS of GA and LA in CTS were measured to be 13.77 and 16.74 mol% using (1)H-NMR, respectively. The cytotoxicity of CTS and GCGA was concentration dependent which was inverse proportion to the cell viability by MTT assay using L929 cell line, and inhibitory concentration 50% (IC50) was 0.2 mg/ml for GCGA. The in vitro targeting efficiency and the in vitro cellular uptake were investigated. Compared with CTS NPs and GA-CTS NPs, GCGA NPs showed good cell specificity to BEL-7402 cells via the dual-ligand-receptor-mediated recognition, leading to a higher affinity to BEL-7402 cells. The results suggested that GCGA described here has the potential to be used as an effective vector for hepatic targeted drug therapy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Survival
  • Chemistry, Pharmaceutical / methods*
  • Chitosan / chemistry*
  • Drug Carriers / chemistry
  • Drug Delivery Systems*
  • Drug Design*
  • Galactose / chemistry
  • Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry / methods
  • Humans
  • Ligands
  • Liver / metabolism*
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / methods
  • Mice
  • Models, Chemical
  • Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared / methods

Substances

  • Drug Carriers
  • Ligands
  • Chitosan
  • Galactose