Gamma-Irradiated Starch/Chitosan Composite Particles for the Adsorption of Neospora caninum Membrane Proteins as a Potential Vaccine Delivery Platform
7 affiliations
- 1Master’s Program in Medical Devices Engineering, Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, Cartago 159-7050, Costa Rica
- 2Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship Programme, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 1220 Vienna, Austria
- 3Centro de Investigación en Biotecnología, Escuela de Biología, Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, Cartago 159-7050, Costa Rica
- 4Centro de Investigación en Servicios Químicos y Microbiológicos (CEQIATEC), Escuela de Química, Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, Cartago 159-7050, Costa Rica
- 5Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional, Heredia 86-3000, Costa Rica
- 6Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal
- 7Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas de Abel Salazar (ICBAS), Universidade do Porto, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal
Abstract
Gamma irradiation offers a simple and reagent-free strategy for tailoring the physicochemical properties of starch for the development of functional biomaterials, although its application in protein delivery systems remains largely unexplored. In this study, starch was irradiated at doses between 50 and 500 kGy and combined with chitosan to produce composite particles for the adsorption of Neospora caninum membrane proteins (NcMP), with the aim of developing a potential intranasal vaccine delivery platform. Irradiation induced progressive oxidation and depolymerization of starch, as evidenced by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis, increased apparent amylose content, reduced molecular weight and hydrodynamic diameter, and shifted the zeta potential to −13.4 mV, leading to the selection of starch irradiated at 300 kGy for particle preparation. The resulting starch–chitosan particles exhibited spherical morphology and, following protein adsorption, formed a protein-associated nanosystem with a hydrodynamic diameter of 105.7 nm and a zeta potential of −18.8 mV. Protein association was confirmed by fluorescence co-localization and an adsorption efficiency of 34%. These findings demonstrate that gamma irradiation is an effective approach for engineering starch-based composite particles with physicochemical characteristics suitable for protein association and intranasal delivery, supporting their potential as a versatile platform for protein subunit vaccine formulations.
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BibTeX
@article{palmacalvo2026gammairradiated,
title = {{Gamma-Irradiated Starch/Chitosan Composite Particles for the Adsorption of Neospora caninum Membrane Proteins as a Potential Vaccine Delivery Platform}},
author = {María Paula Palma-Calvo and Laria Rodríguez-Quesada and Randall Chacón-Cerdas and Manuel Vilanova and Ricardo Starbird-Perez},
journal = {Polymers},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3390/polym18192447},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13667077},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Gamma-Irradiated Starch/Chitosan Composite Particles for the Adsorption of Neospora caninum Membrane Proteins as a Potential Vaccine Delivery Platform
AU - María Paula Palma-Calvo
AU - Laria Rodríguez-Quesada
AU - Randall Chacón-Cerdas
AU - Manuel Vilanova
AU - Ricardo Starbird-Perez
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Polymers
DO - 10.3390/polym18192447
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13667077
AB - Gamma irradiation offers a simple and reagent-free strategy for tailoring the physicochemical properties of starch for the development of functional biomaterials, although its application in protein delivery systems remains largely unexplored. In this study, starch was irradiated at doses between 50 and 500 kGy and combined with chitosan to produce composite particles for the adsorption of Neospora caninum membrane proteins (NcMP), with the aim of developing a potential intranasal vaccine delivery platform. Irradiation induced progressive oxidation and depolymerization of starch, as evidenced by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis, increased apparent amylose content, reduced molecular weight and hydrodynamic diameter, and shifted the zeta potential to −13.4 mV, leading to the selection of starch irradiated at 300 kGy for particle preparation. The resulting starch–chitosan particles exhibited spherical morphology and, following protein adsorption, formed a protein-associated nanosystem with a hydrodynamic diameter of 105.7 nm and a zeta potential of −18.8 mV. Protein association was confirmed by fluorescence co-localization and an adsorption efficiency of 34%. These findings demonstrate that gamma irradiation is an effective approach for engineering starch-based composite particles with physicochemical characteristics suitable for protein association and intranasal delivery, supporting their potential as a versatile platform for protein subunit vaccine formulations.
SN - 2073-4360
ER -