Development of a water-in-oil-in-water multiple emulsion system integrating biomimetic aqueous-core lipid nanodroplets for protein entity stabilization. Part II: process and product characterization

Abstract

The aqueous-core enclosed in lipid nanoballoons integrating multiple emulsions of the type water-in-oil-in-water mimic, at least in theory, the environment within viable cells, thus being suitable for housing hydrophilic protein entities such as bioactive proteins, peptides and bacteriophage particles. The research effort entertained in this paper reports a full physicochemical characterization of optimized biomimetic aqueous-core lipid nanoballoons housing hydrophilic (BSA) protein entities, evolved from a statistical 23x31 factorial design study (three variables at two levels and one variable at three levels) that was the subject of the first paper of a series of three, aiming at full stabilization of the three-dimensional structure of protein entities attempted via housing said molecular entities within biomimetic aqueous-core lipid nanoballoons integrating a multiple (W/O/W) emulsion. The statistical factorial design followed led to production of an optimum W/O/W multiple emulsion possessing quite homogeneous particles with an average hydrodynamic size of (186.2 ± 2.6) nm and average Zeta potential of (-36.5 ± 0.9) mV, and exhibiting a polydispersity index of 0.206 ± 0.014. Additionally, the results obtained for the diffusion coefficient of the lipid nanoballoons integrating the optimized W/O/W multiple emulsion were comparable and of the same order of magnitude (1012 m2.s1) as those published by other authors since, typically, diffusion coefficients for molecules range from 1010 to 107 m2.s1, but diffusion coefficients for nanoparticles are typically of the order of magnitude of 1012 m2.s1.