Molecular Features Influencing the Release of Peptides from Amphiphilic Polymeric Reverse Micelles

Microemulsions as nano-reactors for the solubilization, separation, purification and encapsulation of bioactive compounds

Bioactive components possess various functionalities and are most interested for different food, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical formulations. The current review will discuss the preparation methods and fabrication techniques to design microemulsions (MEs) for the solubilization, separation, encapsulation and purification of various agro-food bioactive compounds. ME systems have shown suitable potential in enhancing oil recovery, protein extraction, and isolation of bioactive compounds. Moreover, the capability of ME based systems as drug and nutraceutical delivery cargos, and synthesis of various organic and inorganic nanoparticles, especially using biopolymers, will be investigated. ME liquid membranes are also developed as nano-extractor/nano-reactor vehicles, capable of simultaneous extraction, encapsulation or even synthesis of hydrophilic and lipophilic bioactive compounds for food, nutraceutical and drug applications.

Polymeric nanoassemblies for enrichment and detection of peptides and proteins in human breast milk

Human breast milk is an understudied biological fluid that may be useful for early detection of breast cancer. Methods for enriching and detecting biomarkers in human breast milk, however, are not as well-developed as compared with other biological fluids. In this work, we demonstrate a new enrichment method based on polymeric nanoassemblies that is capable of enhancing the mass spectrometry-based detection of peptides and proteins in human breast milk. In this method, positively charged nanoassemblies are used to selectively deplete abundant proteins in milk based on electrostatic interactions, which simplifies the mixture and enhances detection of positively charged peptides and proteins. Negatively charged nanoassemblies are used in a subsequent enrichment step to further enhance the detection and quantification of trace-level peptides and proteins. Together the depletion and enrichment steps allow model biomarkers to be detected at low nM levels, which are close to instrumental limits of detection. This new method not only demonstrates the ability to detect proteins in human breast milk but also provides an alternative approach for targeted protein detection in complex biological matrices. Graphical abstract.

Supramolecularly cross-linked amphiphilic block copolymer assembly by the dipolar interaction of a merocyanine dye

Dipolar interaction driven dimerization of a merocyanine (MC) dye has been exploited to achieve non-covalently crosslinked stable micelles in water and reverse micelles in toluene with emissive properties from a MC-pendant amphiphilic block copolymer.

Supramolecular Polymeric Assemblies for the Selective Depletion of Abundant Acidic Proteins in Serum

The analysis of low-level protein biomarkers in serum is precluded by the presence of other highly abundant serum proteins. Hence, the preliminary removal of serum albumin along with other abundant proteins in serum (i.e., immunoglobulins, transferrin, haptoglobin, α-2-macroglobulin, and apolipoproteins) is often a requirement prior to any biomarker analysis. In this work, we take advantage of the low isoelectric points (pI's) of these highly abundant proteins to selectively deplete them from serum by extraction using functionalized amphiphilic polymeric nanoassemblies. The selectivity of extraction is dependent on the pI of the protein and the extraction pH, which holds true even for extremely complex protein mixtures like serum. High extraction capacity is achieved by optimizing the extraction conditions and is found to be comparable to currently available methods for depletion. Depletion of these abundant acidic proteins allows for the enhanced detection of higher pI proteins and enables a 3 orders of magnitude increase in detection sensitivity for a putative cancer biomarker, demonstrating the utility of these polymeric assemblies for enhancing the analysis of the serum proteome.