Abstract
This review’s main objective is to discuss some physico-chemical features of polysaccharides as intrinsic determinants for the supramolecular structures that can efficiently provide encapsulation of drugs and other biological entities. Thus, the general characteristics of some basic polysaccharides are outlined in terms of their conformational, dynamic and thermodynamic properties. The analysis of some polysaccharide gelling properties is also provided, including the peculiarity of the charged polysaccharides. Then, the way the basic physical chemistry of polymer self-assembly is made in practice through the laboratory methods is highlighted. A description of the several literature procedures used to influence molecular interactions into the macroscopic goal of the encapsulation is given with an attempt at classification. Finally, a practical case study of specific interest, the use of marine polysaccharide matrices for encapsulation of vaccines in aquaculture, is reported.
Highlights
The polymer science viewpoint has been extended in the last two decades to many other fields of research, from food science and technology to pharmaceutical and biomedicine application.It is a first principle in the general polymer textbook that, when specific interactions are weak or absent, most polymers are by definition incompatible and show a tendency to undergo liquid-liquidMar
The thermodynamic phase boundary location and the dynamic aspects of phase separation are related to the non-equilibrium relaxation processes that follow the perturbation of the system from a thermodynamically stable to a thermodynamically unstable state
In an attempt to scrutinize the above features, the very preliminaries for a correct setting of knowledge about the shape of polysaccharides in solution are essentially given by the correlation between three contributions: the primary structure, the intrinsic conformational features dictated by the rotational equilibrium and the interaction with the other molecular species in the system, i.e., solvent and cosolutes [38]
Summary
The polymer science viewpoint has been extended in the last two decades to many other fields of research, from food science and technology to pharmaceutical and biomedicine application It is a first principle in the general polymer textbook that, when specific interactions are weak or absent, most polymers are by definition incompatible and show a tendency to undergo liquid-liquid. Of a great practical interest is the situation when one or both polymers are weakly charged and modulation of the solution compatibility can be achieved by tuning the ionic strength or pH [1] Some aspects of these phenomena are briefly described reporting in particular on the phenomenon of polymer complexation and gelation of weakly charged polysaccharides and their self-assembly in forms of beads (from nano to micro) for several practical applications, including the delivery of vaccines in aquaculture. The last section is devoted to a case study of specific interest, the use of polysaccharidic matrix for encapsulation of vaccines for aquaculture, by exploring the formulation and the characterization of several systems
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