Zwitterionic chitosan (ZC)@calcium carbonate (CC) nanoparticles were conveniently obtained and transformed to biocompatible nanosponges by continuous gas-phase photo-derived transformation in a single-pass configuration, and their potential use for biomedical applications was investigated. The mean diameter of the ZC@CC sponges was ~166 nm (~72 nm for CC and, ~171 nm for ZC), and the sponges had a mesoporous structure (i.e., an average pore diameter of ~13 nm). Measurements of the sponge cytotoxicity were performed and only a slight decrease was observed (>78% in cell viability) when compared with pure ZC (>80%). The ZC@CC sponges had a similar transfection ability to lipofectamine (~2.7 × 109 RLU mg−1 protein) at a 50:1 ratio of sponge:DNA weight. Because of a porous structure, the sponges showed remarkably higher transfection efficiencies than pure ZC.
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