Preparation and Characterization of Agkistrodon halys snake venom containing sodium alginate nanoparticles

Alginate nanoparticles have been used in novel drug delivery systems due to marvelous features including biocompatibility, biodegradable, mucoadhesive and non-toxic. At present various type of adjuvants are used against snake venom, as a solution, suspension or emulsion systems, are used in different centers. Above mentioned systems do not considerable stability and cannot protect antigens against environmental factors. On the other hand, their preparation process is time consuming and costly. The conventional adjuvants degrade with high rate in vivo conditions, so could not show considerable sustained release properties. Therefore, it is necessary to design novel forms of adjuvants. The purpose of this study is designing novel type of antigen delivery system as an adjuvant. Alginate nanoparticles were prepared based on ionic gelation process of calcium chloride and alginate. In this work we have studied nanoparticles particle size, morphology, zeta potential, loading capacity, loading efficiency, in vitro release behavior, also stability of venom contained nanoparticles. Nanoparticles were analyzed by FT-IR for structure, DLS and SEM for morphology, size and zeta potential. Stability test of venom loaded nanoparticles was performed according to accelerated condition (25ºc ± 2ºc/60% RH ± 5% RH). The particles were spherical in shape and the ca2+ of calcium chloride linked to the G-block of alginate. Optimum particles size of alginate and venom loaded nanoparticles were 150 and 169 nm, respectively. Optimum loading capacity and loading efficiency achieved by 600 μg/ml concentration of venom. The biological activity of venom remained intact after nanoparticulation process and showed no considerable reduction in accelerated stability analysis. Our results suggested that alginate nanoparticles, which prepared in our study possibly, could be used as an alternative for traditional adjuvant systems.

Keywords:

Alginate Nanoparticles , Calcium Chloride , Venom , Ionic Gelation , Accelerated Condition , Adjuvant