Mechanistic correlation between water infiltration and framework hydrophilicity in MFI zeolites

Diffusion of curcumin in PLGA-based carriers for drug delivery: a molecular dynamics study

CONTEXT

The rapid growth and diversification of drug delivery systems have been significantly supported by advancements in micro- and nano-technologies, alongside the adoption of biodegradable polymeric materials like poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) as microcarriers. These developments aim to reduce toxicity and enhance target specificity in drug delivery. The use of in silico methods, particularly molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, has emerged as a pivotal tool for predicting the dynamics of species within these systems. This approach aids in investigating drug delivery mechanisms, thereby reducing the costs associated with design and prototyping. In this study, we focus on elucidating the diffusion mechanisms in curcumin-loaded PLGA particles, which are critical for optimizing drug release and efficacy in therapeutic applications.

METHODS

We utilized MD to explore the diffusion behavior of curcumin in PLGA drug delivery systems. The simulations, executed with GROMACS, modeled curcumin molecules in a representative volume element of PLGA chains and water, referencing molecular structures from the Protein Data Bank and employing the CHARMM force field. We generated PLGA chains of varying lengths using the Polymer Modeler tool and arranged them in a bulk-like environment with Packmol. The simulation protocol included steps for energy minimization, T and p equilibration, and calculation of the isotropic diffusion coefficient from the mean square displacement. The Taguchi method was applied to assess the effects of hydration level, PLGA chain length, and density on diffusion.

RESULTS

Our results provide insight into the influence of PLGA chain length, hydration level, and polymer density on the diffusion coefficient of curcumin, offering a mechanistic understanding for the design of efficient drug delivery systems. The sensitivity analysis obtained through the Taguchi method identified hydration level and PLGA density as the most significant input parameters affecting curcumin diffusion, while the effect of PLGA chain length was negligible within the simulated range. We provided a regression equation capable to accurately fit MD results. The regression equation suggests that increases in hydration level and PLGA density result in a decrease in the diffusion coefficient.

Calorimetric Heats of Intrusion of LiCl Aqueous Solutions in Hydrophobic MFI-Type Zeosil: Influence of the Concentration

For the first time, we report calorimetric measurements of intrusion of aqueous LiCl solutions in a hydrophobic pure siliceous MFI zeolite (silicalite-1) under high pressure. Our results show that the intrusion heats are strongly dependent on the LiCl concentration. The intrusion process is endothermic for diluted solutions (molar H2O/LiCl = 12) as well as for water, but it becomes exothermic for a concentration close to saturation (molar H2O/LiCl = 4). Analysis of the data in the framework of wetting thermodynamics shows that besides surface wetting, other phenomena occur during intrusion, such as hydrogen-bond weakening and composition change. In all cases, water is preferentially intruded so that the intruded phase becomes more diluted than the bulk solution. In the case of the most diluted solution, only water molecules seemed to be intruded. Furthermore, silicalite-1 is shown to be very stable in the presence of LiCl solution, with no noticeable structural and textural modifications observed after intrusion.

Spontaneous Dipole Reorientation in Confined Water and Its Effect on Wetting/Dewetting of Hydrophobic Nanopores

The properties of nanoconfined fluids are important for a broad range of natural and engineering systems. In particular, wetting/dewetting of hydrophobic nanoporous materials is crucial due to their broad applicability for molecular separation and liquid purification; energy storage, conversion, recuperation, and dissipation; for catalysis, chromatography, and so on. In this work, a rapid, orchestrated, and spontaneous dipole reorientation was observed in hydrophobic nanotubes of various pore sizes d (7.9-16.5 Å) via simulations. This phenomenon leads to the fragmentation of water clusters in the narrow nanopores (d = 7.9, 10 Å) and strongly affects dewetting through cluster repulsion. The cavitation in these pores has an electrostatic origin. The dependence of hydrogen-bonded network properties on the tube aperture is obtained and is used to explain wetting (intrusion)-dewetting (extrusion) hysteresis. Computer simulations and experimental data demonstrate that d equals ca. 12.5 Å is a threshold between a nonhysteretic (spring) behavior, where intrusion-extrusion is reversible, and a hysteretic one (shock absorber), where hysteresis is prominent. This work suggests that water clustering and the electrostatic nature of cavitation are important factors that can be effectively exploited for controlling the wetting/dewetting of nanoporous materials.

Anisotropic Electrostatic Interactions in Coarse-Grained Water Models to Enhance the Accuracy and Speed-Up Factor of Mesoscopic Simulations

Water models with realistic physical–chemical properties are essential to study a variety of biomedical processes or engineering technologies involving molecules or nanomaterials. Atomistic models of water are constrained by the feasible computational capacity, but calibrated coarse-grained (CG) ones can go beyond these limits. Here, we compare three popular atomistic water models with their corresponding CG model built using finite-size particles such as ellipsoids. Differently from previous approaches, short-range interactions are accounted for with the generalized Gay–Berne potential, while electrostatic and long-range interactions are computed from virtual charges inside the ellipsoids. Such an approach leads to a quantitative agreement between the original atomistic models and their CG counterparts. Results show that a timestep of up to 10 fs can be achieved to integrate the equations of motion without significant degradation of the physical observables extracted from the computed trajectories, thus unlocking a significant acceleration of water-based mesoscopic simulations at a given accuracy.

Effect of water nanoconfinement on the dynamic properties of paramagnetic colloidal complexes

The anomalous behavior of confined water at the nanoscale has remarkable implications in a number of nanotechnological applications. In this work, we analyze the effect of water self-diffusion on the dynamic properties of a solvated gadolinium-based paramagnetic complex, typically used for contrast enhancement in magnetic resonance imaging. In particular, we examine the effect of silica-based nanostructures on water behavior in the proximity of the paramagnetic complex via atomistic simulations, and interpret the resulting tumbling dynamics in the light of the local solvent modification based on the Lipari-Szabo formalism and of the fractional Stokes-Einstein relation. It is found that the local water confinement induces an increased "stiffness" on the outer sphere of the paramagnetic complex, which eventually reduces its tumbling properties. These model predictions are found to explain well the relaxivity enhancement observed experimentally by confining paramagnetic complexes into porous nanoconstructs, and thus offer mechanistic guidelines to design improved contrast agents for imaging applications.