Polyelectrolyte capsules made of different biodegradable and nonbiodegradable polymers can be designed as systems for effective encapsulation and delivery of compounds. The objective of this work was to synthesize biocompatible and biodegradable capsules (<1 μm) by the layer-by-layer (LbL) approach using alginate (ALGI) and poly-l-arginine (PARG) polyelectrolytes with a pH-sensitive outer layer of EUDRAGIT L 100 (EuL) polymer. Those capsules were loaded with curcumin as a model therapeutic drug, which possesses antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer activity. Encapsulation of drugs inside capsules protects its therapeutic activity and increases its bioavailability. We report the capsule stability, loading efficiency, drug release, as well as capsule degradation studies as a function of pH. Furthermore, in vitro biocompatibility studies of capsules including cell viability and uptake studies were performed using HeLa cells. The here synthesized capsules exhibited good reproducibility, spherical shape, and high monodispersibility. The capsules showed good loading efficiency and drug release profile dependent upon pH environment. The in vitro studies indicate that the capsules exhibited acceptable biocompatibility and are highly internalized by cells. Our study thus suggests that alginate LbL capsules could be used as an efficient drug carrier with effective encapsulation and successful in vitro release of cargo in the cell.
Keywords: biocompatible; biodegradable polyelectrolyte capsules; drug release; layer-by layer assembly; nanomaterials.