Effect of sporopollenin microparticle incorporation into the hexyl methacrylate-based monolithic columns for capillary liquid chromatography

Pollen-derived microcapsules for aspirin microencapsulation: in vitro release and physico-chemical studies

Aspirin, also known as acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), is one of the most crucial therapies needed and/or used in a basic health system. Using biocompatible materials to encapsulate ASA would improve its therapeutic efficacy and reduce its side effects via controlled release in physiological environments. Consequently, we explore in this study the feasibility of encapsulation of ASA into robust Lycopodium clavatum L. sporopollenin (LCS) microcapsules. After extracting sporopollenin from their natural micrometer-sized raw spores, the physico-chemical features of the extracted sporopollenin, pure ASA, and sporopollenin loaded with ASA were characterised using various methods, including optical microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis.) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Additionally, we demonstrate the in vitro release profile of ASA in a triggered gastrointestinal environment utilizing kinetics analysis to investigate the mechanism of release. The LCS microcapsules were found to be excellent encapsulants for the crucial ASA drug and achieved controlled in vitro release, that would enable further investigations to rationally design versatile controlled delivery platforms.

Encapsulation of folic acid (vitamin B9) into sporopollenin microcapsules: Physico-chemical characterisation, in vitro controlled release and photoprotection study

Folic acid (FA) is a crucial vitamin for all living creatures. However, it is susceptible to degradation under pH, heat, ultraviolet (UV) and day sunlight conditions, resulting in lowering its bioavailability. Therefore, a versatile protective encapsulation system for FA is highly required to overcome its inherent instability. We report the use of the robust Lycopodium clavatum sporopollenin (LCS) microcapsules, extracted from their natural micrometer-sized raw spores, for FA microencapsulation. The physico-chemical characterisation of the LCS microcapsules are comprehensively investigated before and after the microencapsulation using SEM, elemental, CLSM, FTIR, TGA/DTG and XRD analyses, revealing a successful FA encapsulation within the LCS in an amorphous form. The phenylpropanoid acids, responsible for the UV protection and the autofluorescence of the LCS, were found in the LCS as evidenced by FTIR analysis. TGA/DTG results revealed that the hemi-cellulose and cellulose are the major component of the LCS. A controlled and sustained release of FA from FA-loaded LCS were achieved where the release profile of FA-loaded LCS was found to be pH-dependent. The percentages of cumulative FA released after 10 h at 37 ± 0.5 °C were 45.5% and 76.1% in pH 1.2 and 7.4, respectively, ensuring controlled and slow release in simulated physiological conditions. The FA release kinetic studies indicated the prevalence of the Fickian diffusion mechanism in pH 1.2, while anomalous non-Fickian transport was ascribed for FA release in pH 7.4. The in vitro cytotoxicity assay revealed that the obtained formulations were biocompatible against the human skin fibroblast (HSF) cell line. The versatile LCS microcapsules exhibited intriguing photostability for FA under UV or sunlight irradiation. Concretely, the obtained FA sustained delivery and photoprotection properties of these LCS microcapsules validate their multifunctional characteristics, opening up intriguing applications in oral and topical drug delivery as well as in food industry.

Encapsulation of erythromycin and bacitracin antibiotics into natural sporopollenin microcapsules: antibacterial, cytotoxicity, in vitro and in vivo release studies for enhanced bioavailability

Nature produces large quantities of superbly complex and highly reliable microcapsules. The micrometre-sized Lycopodium clavatum spores are one example of these robust capsules. The encapsulation of erythromycin (EM) and bacitracin (BAC) antibiotics into the Lycopodium clavatum sporopollenin (LCS) extracted from these spore species is explored for the first time. The LCS microparticles are extensively characterised before and after loading using SEM, CLSM, TGA and FTIR techniques. The loading capacity and entrapping efficiency of EM were 16.2 and 32.4%, respectively. The antibacterial activities of pure antibiotics, empty LCS and the antibiotic-loaded LCS were evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus (Gram-positive), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Gram-negative), and Klebsiella pneumoniae (Gram-negative) human pathogenic bacterial strains. A remarkable increase in the antibacterial fold activity of both EM- and BAC-loaded LCS compared to that of the pure antibiotics is observed. Crucial for drug delivery applications, empty LCS, EM- and BAC-loaded LCS were found to be nontoxic against human epithelial colorectal adenocarcinoma cells Caco-2 as revealed by the cytotoxicity evaluation. The in vitro release mechanism of EM in pH 7.4 showed a deviation from Fick's law. In vivo release of EM from EM-loaded LCS (an oral dose of 50 mg kg-1) revealed high values of the area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC0-6 h and AUC0-∞ were 1620 and 2147 μg h L-1, respectively) indicative of the enhanced EM bioavailability. The successful loading of antibiotics into the nontoxic LCS and the enhanced bioavailability can open up intriguing applications in oral and topical drug delivery strategies.

Microwave assisted one-pot green synthesis of cinnoline derivatives inside natural sporopollenin microcapsules

We present a green and efficient approach for the synthesis of novel cinnoline derivatives inside natural Lycopodium clavatum sporopollenin (LCS) microcapsules via a one-pot microwave (MW) assisted reaction for the first time. We also propose the concept that the robust micrometre-sized sporopollenin microcapsules can act as MW microreactors. We demonstrate the feasibility of this concept by in situ synthesising 8-hydroxy-7-nitro-6-(3-nitrophenyl)-3-oxo-2-(p-tolyl)-2,3,5,6-tetrahydrocinnoline-4-carbonitrile inside the LCS microcapsules via a microwave (MW) assisted reaction of ethyl 5-cyano-4-methyl-6-oxo-1-(p-tolyl)-1,6-dihydropyridazine-3-carboxylate with 1-nitro-2-phenylethylene in the presence of piperidine as a base at 100 °C for 20 minutes. The LCS microparticles are extensively characterised before and after the MW induced reaction using several techniques. The formation of the cinnoline compound inside the LCS microcapsules is confirmed by laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses. Using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LCMS) analyses, we show that the structural integrity of the cinnoline compound, recovered from the cinnoline loaded (cinn-loaded) LCS, is preserved. The pure cinnoline is found to show promising optical properties with two λ_max absorption peaks at 310 and 610 nm. Both the pure cinnoline and cinn-loaded LCS show promising antibacterial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Gram-negative) and Bacillus cereus (Gram-negative) human pathogenic bacterial strains. The successful MW induced reaction of the prominent cinnoline derivative inside the biocompatible LCS microreactors can open up intriguing applications in materials and pharmaceutical sciences.

We have achieved in situ microwave assisted green syntheses of a novel cinnoline derivative inside natural sporopollenin microreactors.