Fluorescence enhancement for the complex PAMAM–BSA in the presence of photonic crystal heterostructures

Regulating the alky chain length of fatty acid-didanosine prodrugs and evaluating its role in albumin binding

Rational design of prodrugs for efficient albumin binding shows distinct advantages in drug delivery in terms of drug availability, systemic circulation, and potential targeting effect. And fatty acids are good candidates due to their high affinity to albumin. However, how the alkyl chain length of fatty acids affects the binding dynamics between prodrugs and albumin, despite its importance, is still unclear. In the present study, three prodrugs of didanosine (DDI) and fatty acids were designed and synthesized to evaluate the effect of the alkyl chain length on prodrug-albumin binding process, including capric acid-didanosine (CA-DDI), myristic acid-didanosine (MA-DDI), and stearic acid-didanosine (SA-DDI). The binding dynamics between these prodrugs with bovine serum albumin (BSA) were studied by fluorometry, circular dichroism (CD), UV analysis, and molecular docking. It turned out that DDI itself showed poor binding affinity to BSA. In contrast, CA-DDI, MA-DDI, and SA-DDI demonstrated significantly improved binding affinity. Interestingly, the binding affinity between DDI prodrugs and BSA was correlated with the alkyl chain length of fatty acids, and the binding constant significantly increased with the extension of alkyl chain length (K_CA-DDI = 5.86 × 103 M^-1, K_MA-DDI = 8.57 × 103 M^-1, and K_SA-DDI = 11.42 × 103 M^-1 at 298 K).

Design of antimicrobial membrane based on polymer colloids/multiwall carbon nanotubes hybrid material with silver nanoparticles

The aim of this study was to obtain membranes with antimicrobial activity presenting a complex sandwich-type structure. The outer layers are comprised of poly(methyl methacrylate) membranes, whereas the inner active layer consists of a modified commercial membrane to achieve antimicrobial properties. This activity arises due to the presence of silver nanoparticles in a material with a hybrid composition deposited on a commercial membrane. This hybrid material consists of polymer colloids and multiwall carbon nanotubes used for both the stabilization of the active layer by the interconnections of the polymer particles and as active component. The filtration tests revealed a good stability of the materials and an increased hydrophilicity of the hybrid membranes. The antimicrobial properties have been evaluated using Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, and have been correlated with the content and migration rate of silver ions.

Optical Properties of the Self-Assembling Polymeric Colloidal Systems

In the last decade, optical materials have gained much interest due to the high number of possible applications involving path or intensity control and filtering of light. The continuous emerging technology in the field of electrooptical devices or medical applications allowed the development of new innovative cost effective processes to obtain optical materials suited for future applications such as hybrid/polymeric solar cells, lasers, polymeric optical fibers, and chemo- and biosensing devices. Considering the above, the aim of this review is to present recent studies in the field of photonic crystals involving the use of polymeric materials.