• Fabrication and characterization of mucoadhesive tragacanth gum/silk fibroin nanoparticles by anti-solvent precipitation method for use in oral drug delivery
  • Sedigheh Rezaee,1,*


  • Introduction: Tragacanth gum, is widely used in the development of drug delivery systems due to its high resistance to acid, viscosity and mucosal adhesion, and silk fibroin due to its high structural strength and biocompatibility. This study was carried out in order to compare the amount of adhesion and examining the percentage of drug release in acidic and basic environments of tragacanth gum nanoparticles, silk fibroin and the combination of these two nanoparticles, prepared by anti-solvent precipitation method and using ethanol as a solvent. Necessary analyzes were done. The results of scanning electron microscope (SEM) images and examining the size distribution of nanoparticles using Image J software showed the proper connection of tragacanth gum nanoparticles and the role of structural support of silk fibroin nanoparticles. Also, the average diameter of nanoparticles was 75/97 nm. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and analysis, X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were performed for structural analysis and analysis of the elements in nanoparticles. Drug loading and release tests were performed for all three nanoparticles. The percentage of curcumin drug encapsulation inside the composite nanoparticle structure was reported as 98/52%. Mucosal adhesion and absorption test of nanoparticles to the intestinal tissue of mice reported 71% binding percentage of combined Tragacanth gum-silk fibroin nanoparticles.
  • Methods: In this study, tragacanth-silk fibroin adhesive mucus nanoparticles were prepared by anti-solvent precipitation method and curcumin drug release was investigated for oral application. Nanoparticle characterization analyses were performed to evaluate adhesion, release, and drug loading properties.
  • Results: Based on this research, it is expected that the combination of these two materials in the form of polymer nanoparticles will have promising results for increasing the bioavailability in the oral release of the drug, passing through the acidic environment of the stomach and penetrating the epithelial barrier of the intestinal mucosa.
  • Conclusion: The increase in the mucoadhesive effect of the tragacanth-silk fibroin composite nanoparticles compared to each of the nanoparticles separately. The sizes of the tragacanth, silk fibroin and composite nanoparticles were reported as 125.73 nm, 388.93 nm and 343.16 nm by DLS method and 61.07 nm, 41.08 nm and 75.97 nm by Image J software, respectively. The size of the tragacanth-silk fibroin composite nanoparticles is larger than that of the tragacanth nanoparticles, which improves the mucoadhesiveness of the nanoparticles. On the other hand, compared to the fibroin nanoparticles, the composite nanoparticles have a lower dispersion index (0.3), indicating that the distribution of particles in the nanoparticle composition is more uniform. The percentage of drug encapsulation by tragacanth nanoparticles, silk fibroin, and tragacanth-silk fibroin composite nanoparticles was reported to be 98.29, 80.7, and 98.52%, respectively. All three nanoparticles have entrapped a high percentage of the drug within their structure.
  • Keywords: Tragacanth gum, mucosal adhesion, silk fibroin, polymer nanoparticle