In this study, N,N-Dimethyl-N-Octyl chitosan was synthesized. Nanoparticles containing insulin were prepared using PEC method and were statistically optimized using the Box-Behnken response surface methodology. The independent factors were considered to be the insulin concentration, concentration and pH of the polymer solution, while the dependent factors were characterized as the size, zeta potential, PdI and entrapment efficiency. The optimized nanoparticles were morphologically studied using SEM. The cytotoxicity of the nanoparticles on the Caco-2 cell culture was studied using the MTT cytotoxicity assay method, while the permeation of the insulin nanoparticles across the Caco-2 cell monolayer was also determined. The optimized nanoparticles posed appropriate physicochemical properties. The SEM morphological studies showed spherical to sub-spherical nanoparticles with no sign of aggregation. The in-vitro release study showed that 95.5 ± 1.40% of the loaded insulin was released in 400 min. The permeability studies revealed significant enhancement in the insulin permeability using nanoparticles prepared from octyl chitosan at 240 min (11.3 ± 0.78%). The obtained data revealed that insulin nanoparticles prepared from N,N-Dimethyl-N-Octyl chitosan can be considered as the good candidate for oral delivery of insulin compared to nanoparticles prepared from N,N,N-trimethyl chitosan.
Keywords: Caco-2 cell permeability; Cytotoxicity studies; Insulin nanoparticles; N; N-Dimethyl-N-Octyl chitosan; Oral drug delivery.