STUDIES ON HYALURONIC ACID AND RELATED SUBSTANCES

Chemical modification of hyaluronic acid as a strategy for the development of advanced drug delivery systems

Hyaluronic acid (HA) has emerged as a promising biopolymer for various biomedical applications due to its biocompatibility, biodegradability, and intrinsic ability to interact with cell surface receptors, making it an attractive candidate for drug delivery systems and tissue engineering. Chemical modification of HA has opened up versatile possibilities to tailor its properties, enabling the development of advanced drug delivery systems and biomaterials with enhanced functionalities and targeted applications. This review analyzes the strategies and applications of chemically modified HA in the field of drug delivery and biomaterial development. The first part of the review focuses on the different methods and functional groups used for the chemical modification of HA, highlighting the impact of these modifications on its physicochemical properties, degradation behavior and interactions with drugs. The second part of the review evaluates the use of chemically modified HA in the development of advanced biomedical materials including nano- and microparticles, hydrogels and mucoadhesive materials with tailored drug release profiles, site-specific targeting and stimuli-responsive behavior. Thus, the review consolidates the current advances and future perspectives in the field of chemical modification of HA, underscoring its immense potential to drive the development of advanced drug delivery systems and biomaterials with diverse biomedical applications.

Polysaccharide Chemistry in Drug Delivery, Endocrinology, and Vaccines

Polysaccharides, due to their outstanding properties, have attracted the attention of researchers, working in the biomedical field and especially of those working in drug delivery. Modified/functionalized polysaccharides further increase the importance for various applications. Delivery of therapeutics for diverse ailments in different endocrine glands and hormones safely, is a focal point of researchers working in the field. Among the routes followed, the transdermal route is preferred due to non-exposure of active moieties to the harsh gastric environment and first-pass metabolism. This review starts with the overview of polysaccharides used for the delivery of various therapeutic agents. Advantages of polysaccharides used in the transdermal route are addressed in detail. Types of polysaccharides will be elaborated through examples, and in this context, special emphasis will be on the polysaccharides being used for synthesis of the membranes/films. Techniques employed for their modification to design novel carriers for therapeutics delivery will also be discussed. The review will end with a brief discussion on recent developments and future perspectives for delivery of therapeutic agents, and vaccine development.

Chondroitin fragments are odorants that trigger fear behavior in fish

The ability to detect and avoid predators is essential to survival. Various animals, from sea urchins to damselfly larvae, use injury of conspecifics to infer the presence of predators. In many fish, skin damage causes the release of chemicals that elicit escape and fear in members of the shoal. The chemical nature of the alarm substance ("Schreckstoff" in German), the neural circuits mediating the complex response, and the evolutionary origins of a signal with little obvious benefit to the sender, are unresolved. To address these questions, we use biochemical fractionation to molecularly characterize Schreckstoff. Although hypoxanthine-3 N-oxide has been proposed to be the alarm substance, it has not been reliably detected in the skin and there may be other active components. We show that the alarm substance is a mixture that includes the glycosaminoglycan (GAG) chondroitin. Purified chondroitins trigger fear responses. Like skin extract, chondroitins activate the mediodorsal posterior olfactory bulb, a region innervated by crypt neurons that has a unique projection to the habenula. These findings establish GAGs as a new class of odorants in fish, which trigger alarm behavior possibly via a specialized circuit.

HEPARINIC ACIDS: DETERMINATION OF EQUIVALENT WEIGHTS AND SULFATE TO CARBOXYL RATIOS

By means of an automatic titration apparatus, a polyelectrolyte of biological origin, heparin, from two animal sources, was found to have an average equivalent weight of 170.0, a sulfate content of 34.44 percent, and a sulfate to carboxyl ratio of 2.59.

Extracellular mammalian polysaccharides: glycosaminoglycans and proteoglycans

This review of the mammalian extracellular matrix polysaccharides covered the glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) and their association into proteoglycans. As they necessarily pertain to the chromatographic and electrophoretic separations of these molecules, the structural features of the five principal GAGs were briefly reviewed. Much of the current structural work as well as the separation technology has been concerned with the sulfation state and copolymeric sequences of the individual classes of GAGs. The separation methods discussed included electrophoresis by agarose, acrylamide and cellulose acetate, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), ion-exchange, gel permeation and biospecific affinity methods. Since detection systems are an integral part of chemical separation technology, current thoughts about the best methods to assay GAGs or detect column fractions were discussed. These included polysaccharide-specific detection systems such as Alcian blue dye, 1,9-dimethylmethylene blue, bovine serum albumin-Coomassie blue, as well as non-specific carbohydrate detection systems such as the carbazole or indole hydrochloride methods. Instrumentation used in the detection of chromatography fractions for these molecules was discussed, since the usual ultraviolet detector, standard with HPLC equipment, is often unsatisfactory. The most sensitive specific detection method for GAGs is the use of monoclonal antibodies, which are only now becoming commercially available. The use of these antibodies, combined with HPLC separation, appears to be the best available biochemical technology for studying the extracellular matrix polysaccharides. Finally, the association between proteoglycans, GAGs and mammalian disease processes was reviewed, emphasizing mucopolysaccharidoses and arthritis. The early detection of both of these diseases is desired for effective counselling and treatment. Many of the methods discussed here have been applied, but others are yet to be tried in efforts to further that goal.

Methyl derivatives of 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-3-O-(beta-D-glucopyranosyluronic acid)-D-glucose (hyalobiouronic acid) from methylated hyaluronic acid

Methanolysis of methylated hyaluronic acid, followed by acetylation, gave, in 70% yield, crystalline methyl 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-4,6-di-O-methyl-3-O-(methyl 4-O-acetyl-2,3-di-O-methyl-beta-D-glucopyranosyluronate) -alpha-D-glucopyranoside. Removal of the O-acetyl and methyl ester groups gave compounds that are useful in the investigation, by 1H-n.m.r. spectroscopy, of interaction within chains of hyaluronic acid in solution.

Studies on hyaluronic acid. V. Relationship between the protein content and viscosity of rooster comb dermis hyaluronic acid

Protein accounted for an average of 8.7% w/w of the hyaluronic acid obtained from rooster comb dermis extracts and three types of peptide constituents appeared to be present. A few collagen-like fibers were closely associated with the hyaluronic acid when samples were examined in the electron microscope and collagenase treatment decreased the intrinsic viscosity from 7000-5000 ml/g to 3900-2700 ml/g. The quantities of collagen present, however, were too small to detect chemically with the methods employed. The major peptide consituent was readily separated from the hyaluronic acid by fractionation in a cesium chloride gradient or by treatment with pronase. The viscosity was decreased by the density gradient procedure but not by the pronase digestion. Repeated fractionation in a cesium chloride gradient decreased the intrinsic viscosity still further and a small peptide constituent with a high glycine and serine content remained associated with a hyaluronic acid. The data suggest that an interaction or entanglement with collagen fibers is responsible for the high viscosity of hyaluronic acid in this tissue extract and that the viscosity of purified hyaluronic acid preparations is dependent upon interactions between adjacent polysaccharide chains. Interactions between the major peptide constituent and polysaccharide chains or the small residual peptide component remaining with hyaluronic acid after extensive purification procedures, however, appear to be involved in some organized structure because the presence of the major peptide constituent minimized the decrease in viscosity that occurred when hyaluronic acid samples were lyophilized.