Fucoidan from Fucus vesiculosus: evaluation of the impact of the sulphate content on nanoparticle production and cell toxicity

Abstract

The composition of seaweeds is complex, with vitamins, phenolic compounds, minerals, and polysaccharides being some of the factions comprising their structure. The main polysaccharide in brown seaweeds is fucoidan, and several biological activities have been associated with its structure. Chitosan is another marine biopolymer that is very popular in the biomedical field, owing to its suitable features for formulating drug delivery systems and, particularly, particulate systems. In this work, the ability of fucoidan to produce nanoparticles was evaluated, testing different amounts of a polymer and using chitosan as a counterion. Nanoparticles of 200–300 nm were obtained when fucoidan prevailed in the formulation, which also resulted in negatively charged nanoparticles. Adjusting the pH of the reaction media to 4 did not affect the physicochemical characteristics of the nanoparticles. The IC50 of fucoidan was determined, in both HCT−116 and A549 cells, to be around 160 µg/mL, whereas it raised to 675–100 µg/mL when nanoparticles (fucoidan/chitosan = 2/1, w/w) were tested. These marine materials (fucoidan and chitosan) provided features suitable to formulate polymeric nanoparticles to use in biomedical applications.