Preparation, optimisation, and properties of O-carboxymethyl chitosan-g-cholesterol succinic acid monoester polymer nanomicelles

Polymer nanomicelles have the advantages of small particle size, improved drug solubility, retention effect and enhanced permeability, so they can be used in the treatment of tumor diseases. The aim of this study was to prepare and optimise a nanomicelle which can improve the solubility of insoluble drugs. Firstly, the carboxyl group of cholesterol succinic acid monoester (CHS) was grafted with the side chain amino group of O-carboxymethyl chitosan (OCMC) to synthesize CCMC, and its structure was characterized by FTIR and 1H-NMR. Particle size has an important impact on tissue distribution, cell uptake, permeability and inhibition of tumor tissue. In this study, particle size and PDI were selected as indexes to optimise the preparation process of CCMC nanomicelles through single factor experiment, Plackett-Burman experiment, the steepest climbing experiment and response surface design experiment. The optimised CCMC nanomicelles showed an average particle size of 173.9±2.3 nm and a PDI of 0.170±0.053. The Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay showed no significant effect on cell viability in the range of 0~1000 μg·mL-1 concentration. Coumarin-6 (C6) was used as a fluorescent probe to investigate the drug-carrying ability of CCMC nanomicelles. C6-CCMC showed 86.35±0.56% encapsulation efficiency with a drug loading of 9.18±0.32%. Both CCMC and C6-CCMC demonstrated excellent stability in different media. Moreover, under the same conditions, the absorption effect of C6 in C6-CCMC nanomicelles was significantly higher than that of free C6 while also exhibiting good sustained-release properties. Therefore, this study demonstrates CCMC nanomicelles as a promising new drug carrier that can significantly improve insoluble drug absorption.