Electrosprayed inulin microparticles for microbiota triggered targeting of colon

Inulin, a naturally occurring polysaccharide, was acetylated to make it processable by electrospraying, a facile and single step method for microparticle fabrication. Electrospraying process parameters were optimized for fabrication of spherical and monodisperse indomethacin (IDM) loaded inulin acetate (INA) microparticles. The apparent entrapment efficiency of IDM was determined to be 100%, whereas working encapsulation efficiency was estimated to be 35.39 +/- 1.63%. Differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed molecular dispersion of IDM in an amorphous state within the INA matrix. Finally, the results from in vitro release study performed in simulated gastro-intestinal fluids demonstrated that IDM was released only in simulated colonic fluid that contained inulinase. Therefore, this study demonstrates that acetylation of inulin does not alter its susceptibility to inulinase and that microparticles fabricated from INA can be developed as a colon targeting drug delivery system. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.