Thiolated eudragit-coated chitosan microspheres as an oral drug delivery system

The aim of this study is to prepare mucoadhesive chitosan microspheres for protein drug to deliver to intestine through oral administration. The thiolated Eudragit was synthesized by reaction between L-cysteine hydrochloride and Eudragit (R) L-100. About 8 mol-% of cysteine was introduced to the Eudragit-cysteine conjugate. The conjugate was used to coat bovine serum albumin (BSA)-loaded chitosan microspheres. The average particle sizes of BSA-loaded thiolated Eudragit-coated chitsoan microspheres (TECMs) were 4.06 +/- 0.74 mu m and the uniform size-distribution was shown. The in vitro release of BSA from BSA-loaded TECMs was pH-dependent. Our results indicated that thiolated Eudragit might be a good candidate as a coating material for oral delivery of protein drug owing to mucoadhesive and pH-sensitive propertied.