LIPOSOME MICROENCAPSULATIONS WITHOUT USING ANY ORGANIC SOLVENT

Economic Analysis of a New Business for Liposome Manufacturing Using a High-Pressure System

Supercritical assisted Liposome formation (SuperLip) is a lab-scale process for the production of liposomes. SuperLip was recognized as being a versatile supercritical assisted technique for the encapsulation of molecules for different industrial applications, such as pharmaceutic, cosmetic, textile, and nutraceutic purposes. The aim of this work was to perform an economic analysis to assess the profitability of the SuperLip process. The liposomes market was analyzed and the SuperLip process was compared to other techniques in terms of manufacturing advantages using the Canvas and Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Treats (S.W.O.T.) models. SuperLip Plant Capital Expenditures (CAPEX) were estimated, and plant Operating Expenditures (OPEX) were also evaluated and integrated with personnel cost and other plant goods and services. A profit and loss statement was generated, together with a cash flow analysis. According to the market average selling price, liposome price is 1.8 €/mL; in order to join the market rapidly, the selling price of liposomes produced using SuperLip was set at 1.1 €/mL. A payback time has been identified at the fourth year of business. Economic indexes such as ROI and ROS were calculated on a 10-year business prospect, obtaining about a 230% return on investment and a 26.7% return on sales.

An overview of liposomal nano-encapsulation techniques and its applications in food and nutraceutical

Encapsulation in packaging of food ingredients is of great interest at micro and nano levels. It is a distinct process leading to the entrapping of one substance within another material. Lipid oriented encapsulation methods are currently considered as a superior choice for encapsulation of sensitive ingredients, focusing on foods and dietary supplements of hydrophobic and hydrophilic molecules along with bioactive compounds, food ingredients supplementary systems for therapeutic purpose. Liposome and nanoliposome techniques have been widely used in food industry in nutrient enrichment and supplements. It enhances the sensory attributes and shelf life of the food product and serves as an alternative to micro encapsulation. These lipid and water oriented systems have distinguished advantages and provide higher surface area in food processing, which increases product solubility, bioavailability and permits accurate targeting of the encapsulated material to a greater extent in food and nutraceutical production. This review article focuses on nanoliposome, its preparation techniques, advantages and application of nanoliposome in food and nutraceutical process.

Near-Infrared Fluorescence Hydrogen Peroxide Assay for Versatile Metabolite Biosensing in Whole Blood

In emergency medicine, blood lactate levels are commonly measured to assess the severity and response to treatment of hypoperfusion-related diseases (e.g., sepsis, trauma, cardiac arrest). Clinical blood lactate testing is conducted with laboratory analyzers, leading to a delay of 3 h between triage and lactate result. Here, a fluorescence-based blood lactate assay, which can be utilized for bedside testing, based on measuring the hydrogen peroxide generated by the enzymatic oxidation of lactate is described. To establish a hydrogen peroxide assay, near-infrared cyanine derivatives are screened and sulfo-cyanine 7 is identified as a new horseradish peroxidase (HRP) substrate, which loses its fluorescence in presence of HRP and hydrogen peroxide. As hydrogen peroxide is rapidly cleared by erythrocytic catalase and glutathione peroxidase, sulfo-cyanine 7, HRP, and lactate oxidase are encapsulated in a liposomal reaction compartment. In lactate-spiked bovine whole blood, the newly developed lactate assay exhibits a linear response in a clinically relevant range after 10 min. Substituting lactate oxidase with glucose and alcohol oxidase allows for blood glucose, ethanol, and methanol biosensing, respectively. This easy-to-use, rapid, and versatile assay may be useful for the quantification of a variety of enzymatically oxidizable metabolites, drugs, and toxic substances in blood and potentially other biological fluids.

Preparation and characterization of nanoliposomes entrapping medium-chain fatty acids and vitamin C by lyophilization

The complex nanoliposomes encapsulating both a hydrophilic drug vitamin C (vit C) and hydrophobic drug medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) was prepared by combining double emulsion method with dynamic high pressure microfluidization. The complex nanoliposomes was further freeze-dried under −86 °C for 48 h with sucrose at the sucrose/lipids ratio of 2:1(w/w) in order to enhance its stability. The freeze-dried complex nanoliposomes under the suitable conditions exhibited high entrapment efficiency of MCFAs (44.26 ± 3.34)%, relatively high entrapment efficiency of vit C (62.25 ± 3.43)%, low average size diameter (110.4 ± 7.28) nm and good storage stability at 4 °C for 60 days with slight changes in mean particle diameter and drug entrapment efficiencies. The results of transmission electron microscopy of freeze-dried complex nanoliposomes also showed that the freeze-dried samples with sucrose were stable without great increase in their particle sizes and without destroying their spherical shape. The results indicated that sucrose presented well protection effects in MCFAs-vit C complex nanoliposomes, suggesting the possibility of further usage in commercial liposomes.

Active food packaging evolution: transformation from micro- to nanotechnology

Predicting which attributes consumers are willing to pay extra for has become straightforward in recent years. The demands for the prime necessity of food of natural quality, elevated safety, minimally processed, ready-to-eat, and longer shelf-life have turned out to be matters of paramount importance. The increased awareness of environmental conservation and the escalating rate of foodborne illnesses have driven the food industry to implement a more innovative solution, i.e. bioactive packaging. Owing to nanotechnology application in eco-favorable coatings and encapsulation systems, the probabilities of enhancing food quality, safety, stability, and efficiency have been augmented. In this review article, the collective results highlight the food nanotechnology potentials with special focus on its application in active packaging, novel nano- and microencapsulation techniques, regulatory issues, and socio-ethical scepticism between nano-technophiles and nano-technophobes. No one has yet indicated the comparison of data concerning food nano- versus micro-technology; therefore noteworthy results of recent investigations are interpreted in the context of bioactive packaging. The next technological revolution in the domain of food science and nutrition would be the 3-BIOS concept enabling a controlled release of active agents through bioactive, biodegradable, and bionanocomposite combined strategy.

ATR-FTIR studies of phospholipid vesicle interactions with alpha-FeOOH and alpha-Fe2O3 surfaces

Prior infrared spectroscopic studies of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and live bacterial cells have indicated that organic phosphate groups mediate cell adhesion to iron oxides via inner-sphere P-OFe surface complexation. Since cell membrane phospholipids are a potential source of organic phosphate groups, we investigated the adhesion of phospholipidic vesicles to the surfaces of the iron (oxyhydr)oxides goethite (alpha-FeOOH) and hematite (alpha-Fe2O3) using attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. l-alpha-phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and phosphatidic acid (PA) were used because they are vesicle forming phospholipids representative of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell surface membranes. Phospholipid vesicles, formed in aqueous suspension, were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), multi-angle laser light scattering (MALS) and quasi-elastic light scattering (QELS). Their adhesion to goethite and hematite surfaces was studied with ATR-FTIR at pH 5. Results indicate that PC and PE adsorption is affected by electrostatic interaction and H-bonding (PE). Conversely, adsorption of PA involves phosphate inner-sphere complexes, for both goethite and hematite, via P-OFe bond formation. Biomolecule adsorption at the interface was observed to occur on the scale of minutes to hours. Exponential and linear increases in peak intensity were observed for goethite and hematite, respectively. Our ATR-FTIR results on the PA terminal phosphate are in good agreement with those on EPS reacted with goethite and on bacterial cell adhesion to hematite. These findings suggest that the plasma membrane, and the PA terminal phosphate in particular, may play a role in mediating the interaction between bacteria and iron oxide surfaces during initial stages of biofilm formation.