The efficacy of chitosan (CS) to be used as drug delivery carrier has previously been reported. However, limited work has been pursued to produce stable and mucoadhesive CS electrosprayed particles for oral drug delivery, which is the aim of this study. Various CS types with different molecular weight (MW), degree of deacetylation (DD), and degree of polymerization (DP) were assessed. In addition, the effect of the solvent composition was also investigated. Results showed that stable CS electrosprayed particles can be produced by dissolving 3% w/v of low MW CS in mixtures of aqueous acetic acid and ethanol (50/50% v/v). The stable CS particles displayed diameters of approximately 1 μm as determined by dynamic light scattering. The zeta potential of these particles was found to be approximately 40 mV confirming the mucoadhesion properties of these CS electrosprayed particles and its potential to be used as drug delivery carrier.

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Chitosan particles loaded with the antigen ovalbumin (OVA) and the adjuvant, Quil-A were produced by electrospray, using mixtures of water/ethanol/acetic acid as a solvent. Three different chitosan's designed as HMC + 70, HMC + 85 and HMC + 90 (designated as 705010, 855010 and 905010) were tested and its efficacy to be used in oral vaccine delivery applications was investigated. The morphology, size and zeta potential of the produced particles were investigated, together with the encapsulation efficiency and release of OVA from the three chitosan formulations. Moreover, the mucoadhesion and cytotoxicity the chitosan microparticles was examined. All the three formulations with OVA and Quil-A were in the micrometer size range and had a positive zeta potential between 46 to 75 mV. Furthermore, all the three formulations displayed encapsulation efficiencies above 80 % and the release of OVA over a period of 80 h was observed to be between 38-47 %. None of the developed formulations exhibited high mucoadhesive properties, either cytotoxicity. The formulation prepared with HMC + 70, OVA and Quil-A had the highest stability within 2 h in buffer solution, as measured by dynamic light scattering. The electrosprayed formulation consisting of HMC + 70 with OVA and Quil-A showed to be the most promising as an oral vaccine system.

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