A Green Route to Albumin/Albumin Polyelectrolyte Complex Nanoparticles in Water With High Drug Loading for Drug Delivery

Abstract

A polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) formation offers a simple and green approach to obtaining albumin nanoparticles (NPs) without the use of organic solvents, crosslinkers and specialized equipment. The prepared cationic albumin proteins interact with anionic albumin proteins to form albumin PEC NPs (110 nm) with +37 mV surface zeta potential. Furthermore, albumin PEC NPs preparation in water alone achieves chlorambucil (CHL) loading up to 17 times higher than the conventional desolvation method, largely due to the elimination of drug loss to organic solvents. CHL loaded albumin PEC NPs also decreased the cell viability (Huh-7) to 44 % within 24 h. This study demonstrates that high drug-loaded albumin NPs can be alternatively synthesized by using albumin polyelectrolyte properties, and applied in drug delivery applications.