Engineering of multifunctional drug nanocarriers combining stability and good release properties remains a great challenge. In this work, natural polymers κ-carrageenan (κ-CAR) and chitosan (CS) were deposited onto olive oil nanoemulsion droplets (NE) via layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly to study the release mechanisms of the anti-inflammatory diflunisal (DF) as a lipophilic drug model. The nano-systems were characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS), zeta potential (ζ-potential) measurements, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (XEDS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to confirm the NE-coating with polymer layers. In addition, kinetic release studies of DF were developed by the dialysis diffusion bag technique. Mathematical models were applied to investigate the release mechanisms. The results showed that stable and suitably sized nanocapsules (~300 nm) were formed. Also, the consecutive adsorption of polyelectrolytes by charge reversal was evidenced. More interestingly, the drug release mechanism varied depending on the number of layers deposited. The nanosized systems containing up to two layers showed anomalous transport and first order kinetics. Formulations with three and four layers exhibited Case II transport releasing diflunisal with zero order kinetics. Hence, our results suggest that these polyelectrolyte nanocapsules have great potential as a multifunctional nanocarrier for drug delivery applications.

Chitosan-poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogels can be produced by the freeze-thawing method without using toxic crosslinking agents. The applications of these systems are limited by their characteristics (e.g., porosity, flexibility, swelling capacity, drug loading and drug release capacity), which depend on the freezing conditions and the kind and ratio of polymers. This protocol describes how to prepare hydrogels from chitosan and poly(vinyl alcohol) at 50/50 w/w % of polymer composition and varying the freezing temperature (-4 °C, -20 °C, -80 °C) and freeze-thawing cycles (4, 5, 6 freezing cycles). FT-IR spectra, SEM micrograph and porosimetry data of hydrogels were obtained. Also, the swelling capacity and drug loading and release of diflunisal were assessed. Results from SEM micrographs and porosimetry show that the pore size decreases, while the porosity increases at lower temperatures. The swelling percentage was higher at the minor freezing temperature. The release of diflunisal from the hydrogels has been studied. All the networks maintain the drug release for 30 h and it has been observed that a simple diffusion mechanism regulates the diflunisal release according to Korsmeyer-Peppas and Higuchi models.