2025/09/18 by Ioannis Pispas, Ewa Pavlová, Miroslav Šlouf +1 · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Chemistry · Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics · #Advanced Drug Delivery Systems #Proteins in Food Systems #Surfactants and Colloidal Systems
paper · doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.147766
openalex publication_date 2025/09/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Xanthan gum (XG) and diethylaminoethyl dextran (DD) electrostatic nanocomplexes (NCs) are prepared at the native (NCs) and thermally denatured state of XG (den-NCs). Dynamic and static light scattering (DLS and SLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveal well-defined, spherical NCs with mean hydrodynamic and gyroscopic radii of 100-200 nm at charge ratios (ratio of anionic XG to cationic DD monomers) between 0.4 and 5. Their size increases at CR > 1 possibly due to XG-XG double helix formation. Surface potential shifts from positive to negative between CR 1 and 1.25, suggesting stoichiometric neutralization. NCs remain stable for over one month without significant aggregation. Fluorescence measurements with pyrene and 8-Anilino-1-naphthalenesulfonate (ANS) indicate the presence of hydrophobic domains inside the NCs attributed to DD's ethyl groups, which renders them suitable for the encapsulation of hydrophobic compounds. High loading efficiency (∼48 %) and loading capacity (∼19 %) for β-carotene (β-C) is found for native NCs at CR 0.4 and 2.5, whereas den-NCs show significantly lower encapsulation. NCs interact with porcine gastric mucin (PGM) in PGM solutions as it is confirmed by NC-PGM aggregation. Mucoadhesion is also examined with mucus-mimicking PGM-immobilized alginate beads. Positively charged NCs exhibit enhanced mucoadhesion relative to negatively charged ones. Overall, XG/DD NCs display tunable properties promising for drug delivery applications with notable stability, encapsulation and mucoadhesive capabilities.