Green synthesis of cellulose Nanoparticles for their use in biomedicine

Abstract

Recently, nanoscience has been developed as a new branch of science to obtain material at the nanometre scale. Cellulose is a polysaccharide whose molecular structure consists of D-glucopyranose units linked by β(1→4) glycosidic bonds that form a linear structure. The use of cellulose, a biodegradable and biocompatible biopolymer [1], for the synthesis of nanoparticles, together with a synthesis procedure with low energy demand and the use of ionic liquids as solvents for the biopolymer [2], meets both the requirements of nanomedicine and the principles of green chemical engineering. In this work, the synthesis of cellulose nanoparticles (CNPs) using the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate has been investigated and optimised to obtain nanoparticles with good capability for drug carrying. Two types of cellulose purchased from different suppliers were tested. Cell viability studies have been performed with a cancer cell line (HeLa) and with a healthy cell line (EA.hy926).

To obtain the CNPs the experimental setup used was previously described by Fuster et al. [3] to obtain silk fibroin nanoparticles, with modifications as shown in Scheme 1.