Synthesis of aminolyzed gelatin-mediated chitosan as pH-responsive drug-carrying porous scaffolds.

Bio-based drug delivery devices have gained enormous interest in the biomedical field due to their biocompatible attributes. Extensive research is being conducted on chitosan-based devices for drug delivery applications. Chitosan being hydrophobic under neutral conditions makes it difficult to interact with a polar drug of curcumin. We tended to make it polar through sol-gel synthesis and modification via PEGylation, alkaline hydrolysis, and aminolysis. Such alterations could make the chitosan-based scaffolds porous, hydrophilic, amino-functionalized, and pH-responsive. The ninhydrin assay confirmed that a successful aminolysis occurred, and the chemical interaction among the precursors was explained under infrared spectroscopy. The scanning morphology of the optimum aminolyzed membrane appeared to be porous with an average pore size of 320 ± 20 nm. The aminolyzed chitosan membrane was found thermally stable up to 310 °C, hydrophilic with a water contact angle of 23.4°, moderate flowablity, and porous (97 ± 5 %, w/w) against ethanol. The curcumin-loaded chitosan membrane expressed the UV-protection behavior of 99 %. The curcumin-loading and release phenomena were found pH-responsive. The curcumin release results were evaluated through specific kinetic models. This study could be the first report on the amphiphilic, porous, and swellable drug-loaded gelatin/chitosan membrane with pH-responsive loading and release of curcumin for potential drug delivery applications.