A Detailed Microscopic Insight into the Aggregation Behaviors of Doxorubicin Hydrochloride in Different Microheterogeneous Media

Abstract

In recent time periods, a large portion of research interests include the study of aggregation properties of different amphiphilic molecules and the resulting morphological architectures due to their significant applications in diverse research fields. The aggregation behaviors of different biomolecules are also very much important and thus recently become the cup of tea to a large number of research communities. In this respect, the aggregation result of potentially important chemotherapeutic molecule, doxorubicin hydrochloride (Dox) in a conventional imidazolium based surface active ionic liquid (SAIL), 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (C8mimCl) was studied in details. The complete characterizations using dynamic light scattering (DLS), different microscopic techniques like fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM), transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM and analytical TEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) with fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) measurements revealed the formation of large spherical vesicular Dox/C8mimCl aggregates. The guiding forces behind such SAIL induced aggregation of Dox were also explored. Finally a common bile salt, sodium cholate (NaCh) was observed to transform Dox/C8mimCl spherical aggregates to rod like fibrillar aggregates. In summary, the aggregation of Dox in microheterogeneous medium of C8mimCl SAIL to spherical vesicular aggregates and also the bile salt induced disruption into rod like fibrillar aggregates were studied in detail. The formation and disruption of Dox forming vesicular aggregates can be modeled as a new generation future delivery system for biologically important molecules with smart loading and release phenomena where the biomolecule itself aggregates to form the delivery system.