Influence of the Dispersion Medium and Cryoprotectants on the Physico-Chemical Features of Gliadin- and Zein-Based Nanoparticles

Abstract

The evaluation of the physico-chemical features of nanocarriers is fundamental because the modulation of these parameters can influence their biological and in vivo fate. This work investigated the feasibility of saline, 5% w/v glucose and phosphate-buffered saline solution, as polar media for the development of nanoparticles made up of two vegetal proteins, zein from corn and gliadin from wheat, respectively. The physico-chemical features of the various systems were evaluated using dynamic and multiple light scattering techniques, and the results demonstrate that the 5% w/v glucose solution is a feasible medium to be used for their development. Moreover, the best formulations were characterized by the aforementioned techniques following the freeze-drying procedure. The aggregation of the zein nanoparticles prepared in water or glucose solution was prevented by using various cryoprotectants. Mannose confirmed its crucial role in the cryopreservation of the gliadin nanosystems prepared in both water and glucose solution. Sucrose and glucose emerged as additional useful excipients when they were added to gliadin nanoparticles prepared in a 5% glucose solution. Specifically, their protective effect was in the following order: mannose > sucrose > glucose. The results obtained when using specific aqueous media and cryoprotectants permitted us to develop stable zein or gliadin nanoparticles as suspension or freeze-dried formulations.

Ciprofloxacin-Loaded Zein/Hyaluronic Acid Nanoparticles for Ocular Mucosa Delivery

“…Taking into account the results obtained, the Zein_HA NPs produced and freeze-dried with mannitol at 5% were selected for the subsequent studies. This result is in accordance with those previously obtained for cryoprotected zein NPs [ 36 ]. Moreover, Gagliadri et al demonstrated that the protective effect of mannitol on zein NPs could be related to its physicochemical properties, which can prevent Maillard reactions that commonly occur when subjected to freeze-drying [ 25 ].…”

“…To evaluate the protective effect exerted by the cryoprotectants (5 and 10% w / v ), the redispersibility index (RDI) was calculated according to the following Equation (1) [ 36 ]: where D is the rehydrated NPs hydrodynamic diameter (Dh), and D 0 is the Dh of fresh NPs. RDI values close or equal to 100% mean that samples can be appropriately resuspended.…”

Co-Encapsulation of Paclitaxel and JQ1 in Zein Nanoparticles as Potential Innovative Nanomedicine

“…TEM analysis demonstrated a spherical morphology of the nanosystems, substantiating the results already published by our research team [ 49 ]. It also confirmed the absence of aggregates when the two active compounds were co-encapsulated within the protein matrix ( Figure 1 ).…”

Optimization of storage conditions for lipid nanoparticle-formulated self-replicating RNA vaccines

“…The optimal sucrose concentration was found to be 10% w / v ( Fig. 1 ), similar to other published work on cryoprotection of biological materials [ [55] , [56] , [57] , [58] , [59] ]. It is believed that for a set material concentration, there is a minimum number of sugar molecules required to sufficiently disrupt interactions between the polar water molecules (by formation of water-sucrose hydrogen bonds [ 60 ]) to slow down the freezing rate, and form larger ice crystal with minimal ice-water interface wherein the materials tend to localize [ 61 , 62 ].…”