A novel pH-sensitive microsphere composed of CM-chitosan and alginate for sulforaphane delivery

Sulforaphane (SF) has been proved to be an effective anticancer agent according to its experiments both in vitro and in vivo. To date, there is few reported method to deliver SF for increasing its bioactivity and stability. In this study, a novel pH-sensitive microsphere composed of water-soluble carboxymethylated chitosan (CMCS) and alginate mixed with sodium sulfate was developed for SF delivery. Swelling studies and release characteristics under different pH values of microspheres were investigated. Then, the release of SF from test microspheres was studied in simulated gastric and segmented intestinal media. It has been found that the SF cumulated release in 5h was increased from 55.89% to 76.73% when the microspheres mixed with sodium sulfate. In addition, the stability of SF embedded in CMCS/alginate microspheres was also significantly improved. Under pH 7.4, free SF had a severe degradation of approximate 100% within 210 min, whereas the change of the SF in microspheres was only a decrease of about 10%. The results suggested that the microspheres of CMCS and alginate could be a suitable pH-sensitive carrier to increase the stability of SF in the segmented intestine.