sorbitan-monooleate and n-hexane

The development of high-throughput techniques and combinatorial libraries can facilitate rapid synthesis and screening of biomaterial-based nanocarriers for drug and vaccine delivery. This study describes a high-throughput method using an automated robot for synthesizing polyanhydride nanoparticles encapsulating proteins. Polyanhydrides are a class of safe and biodegradable polymers that have been widely used as drug and vaccine delivery vehicles. The robot contains a multiplexed homogenizer and has the capacity to handle parallel streams of monomer or polymer solutions to synthesize polymers and/or nanoparticles. Copolymer libraries were synthesized using the monomers sebacic acid, 1,6-bis( p-carboxyphenoxy)hexane, and 1,8-bis( p-carboxyphenoxy)-3,6-dioxactane and compared to conventionally synthesized copolymers. Nanoparticle libraries of varying copolymer compositions encapsulating the model antigen ovalbumin were synthesized using flash nanoprecipitation. The amount of the surfactant Span 80 was varied to test its effect on protein encapsulation efficiency as well as antigen release kinetics. It was observed that, although the amount of surfactant did not significantly affect protein release rate, its presence enhanced protein encapsulation efficiency. Protein burst and release kinetics from conventionally and combinatorially synthesized nanoparticles were similar even though particles synthesized using the high-throughput technique were smaller. Finally, it was demonstrated that the high-throughput method could be adapted to functionalize the surface of particle libraries to aid in the design and screening of targeted drug and vaccine delivery systems. These results suggest that the new high-throughput method is a viable alternative to conventional methods for synthesizing and screening protein and vaccine delivery vehicles.

Topics: Biocompatible Materials; Decanoic Acids; Dicarboxylic Acids; Drug Delivery Systems; Drug Liberation; Hexanes; Hexoses; Kinetics; Nanoparticles; Ovalbumin; Polyanhydrides; Proteins; Small Molecule Libraries

In this work, the removal of the worldwide non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs ibuprofen (IBP) and ketoprofen (KTP) by emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) was carried out. An ELM system is made up of hexane as diluent, Span 80 as the surfactant and sodium carbonate as the inner aqueous solution. Effect of experimental conditions that affect the extraction of IBP such as surfactant concentration, emulsification time, sulfuric acid concentration in external phase, acid type in external phase, internal phase concentration, type of internal phase, stirring speed, volume ratio of internal phase to membrane phase, treatment ratio, IBP initial concentration, diluent type and salt was investigated. The obtained results showed that by appropriate selection of the operational parameters, it was possible to extract nearly all of IBP molecules from the feed solution even in the presence of high concentration of salt. Under optimum operating conditions, the efficiencies of IBP removal from distilled water (99.3 %), natural mineral water (97.3 %) and sea water (94.0 %) were comparable, which shows that the ELM treatment process represents a very interesting advanced separation process for the removal of IBP from complex matrices such as natural and sea waters. Under the optimized experimental conditions, approximately 97.4 % KTP was removed in less than 20 min of contact time.

Topics: Carbonates; Emulsions; Hexanes; Hexoses; Ibuprofen; Ketoprofen; Membranes, Artificial; Sodium Chloride; Solutions; Sulfuric Acids; Surface-Active Agents; Water Purification