Competitive interfacial adsorption of blood proteins.

The competitive adsorption of blood proteins is of great importance for the treatment of thrombosis using a colloidal drug delivery system. The aim of this study is to investigate competitive adsorption of albumin (BSA) and human immunoglobulin G (HIgG) against fibrinogen (Fb). The competitive adsorption of blood proteins was investigated using interfacial rheology at physiological pH. The influence of bulk concentration, temperature and pH on the interfacial adsorption of protein molecules was determined at the air/aqueous interface. As expected, the results indicated that increase in bulk concentration enhanced the interfacial adsorption. Structure and molecular weight of the protein molecules under investigation had influence on interfacial adsorption leading to a competition at the interface. HIgG is more flexible and surface active molecule than BSA. Thus, HIgG replaced BSA and Fb at the air/aqueous interface. In the presence of Fb, BSA adsorbed rapidly initially and then, was replaced by Fb at the interface. The kinetics of displacement of albumin at the interface was rather slow. In conclusion, the investigation of competitive adsorption of blood proteins may be useful biotechnologically, as it will provide useful information for the production of an antithrombogenic material, which will adsorb albumin rather than Fb.

Possible role of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor sertraline on oxidative stress responses.

The naphthylamine derivative sertraline is a potent and selective inhibitor of serotonin reuptake into presynaptic terminals and the most widely used that has been shown to have both antidepressant and antianxiety effects. In the present study the possible role of sertraline (acute and chronically doses) was evaluated on lipid peroxidation levels and antioxidant enzyme activities in plasma and brain tissues of (10, 40, 80 mg/kg) sertraline treated Wistar albino rats (n=48). Lipid peroxidation levels (MDA) of plasma and brain tissue increased in all acute and chronic sertraline treated rats (p < 0.05). According to results of present study superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels of brain tissue decreased while plasma levels increased (p < 0.05) as compared with vehicle group. Catalase (CAT) levels of plasma and brain tissue and paraoxonase (PON) levels of plasma decreased (p < 0.05) as compared with vehicle group. Based on the data, it can be concluded that high dose sertraline administration enhances oxidative stress. Therefore, dose adjustment in depression patients seems significant as it may help prevention of further prognosis of the diseases.

A novel method of determination of protein stability.

A novel method of determination of protein stability is described, which involves interfacial shear rheology of adsorbed protein layers. This technique provides information on the structural-mechanical properties of the adsorbed protein layers which can be related to: the rate of interfacial adsorption, interfacial interactions, and conformational changes in the adsorbed layers. The interfacial shear rheology of the blood proteins, bovine serum albumin and human immunoglobulin G was investigated. The air/aqueous and oil/aqueous interfaces were studied and the interfacial rheological activity of BSA was shown to be similar at three hydrophobic interfaces: air, squalene and mineral oil. The kinetics of interfacial film formation was shown to be time dependent, and aging effects were detected in both interfacial and bulk molecules. The absolute interfacial elasticity values decreased as the temperature increased. The protein solutions exhibited no interfacial rheological activity in the presence of the small surfactant molecules, Tween 80 and lecithin, under the conditions studied.