Fucoidin (Fx) has varieties of biological activities such as anti-tumor, anti-oxidation, anti-inflammatory, hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic and weight loss, which has become one of the hot spots in the exploration and development of marine drugs. However, its application is limited to its poor water solubility and strong environmental sensitivity.<br/>Microfluidic device has the ability of efficient fluid mixing and accurate fluid control. Compared with conventional methods, microfluidics-based approach for nanoparticle synthesis is more conducive to the production of Fx nanoparticles (FxNPs) with controllable structure and high water solubility. Recently, we have synthesized hybrid nanoparticles with fucoidin as core and shellac as shell by using microfluidic device (Fig.1). The mean particle size of synthesized FxNPs was less than 200 nm and the zeta potential was about -25 mV. In addition, the FT-IR and <sup>1</sup>H-NMR confirmed well encapsulation of Fx into the shellac. Observed by SEM and TEM, it was found that FxNPs were spherical with obvious core-shell structure. Furthermore, the releasing evaluation exhibited the release of nanoparticles in gastric and intestinal fluids was inhibited but promoted in colorectal. Moreover, FxNPs didn't showed cytotoxicity to Caco-2 cells at the concentration up to 20μg/mL. These results indicated that FxNPs can be used as an effective colon-targeted delivery system to improve the bioavailability of lipophilic compounds.

Microfluidics-based synthesis of pH-responsive colon-targeted fucoxanthin nanoparticles

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.