RESUMEN
Novel monomethoxy poly(ethylene glycol) (mPEG) modified hydroxylated tung oil (HTO), denoted as mPEG-HTO-mPEG, was designed and synthesized for drug delivery. mPEG-HTO-mPEG consists of a hydroxylated tung oil center joined by two mPEG blocks via a urethane linkage. The properties of mPEG-HTO-mPEG were affected by the length of the mPEG chain. Three mPEG with different molecular weights were used to prepare mPEG-HTO-mPEG. The obtained three mPEG-HTO-mPEG polymers were characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC), respectively. Furthermore, the particle sizes of mPEG-HTO-mPEG micelles were evaluated by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). A critical aggregation concentration (CAC) ranged from 7.28 to 11.73 mg/L depending on the chain length of mPEG. The drug loading and release behaviors of mPEG-HTO-mPEG were investigated using prednisone acetate as a model drug, and results indicated that hydrophobic prednisone acetate could be effectively loaded into mPEG-HTO-mPEG micelles and exhibited a long-term sustained release. Moreover, compared with HTO, mPEG-HTO-mPEG had no obvious cytotoxicity to HeLa and L929 cells. Therefore, monomethoxy poly(ethylene glycol) modified hydroxylated tung oil mPEG-HTO-mPEG may be a promising drug carrier.
RESUMEN
Tung oil (TO) was used as a model compound to study two hydroxylated tung oils (HTO), prepared from TO by either aminolysis (HTO-am) or alcoholysis (HTO-al). Main bands in Raman and FTIR spectra were initially assigned based on the detailed analysis of the compound spectra before and after exposure to elevated temperature (200°C). The effect of heat treatment in air on spectral bands, and especially on the changes associated with double bonds, were then investigated. In the present work, changes in spectral bands due to heat treatment were compared with those revealed in the previous work of others. The results show that the conjugated triene structure of TO has been retained during alcoholysis and aminolysis, to yield the HTOs studied; yet the change of the triene structure caused by heating is different among the three samples; the H-bonding strength between OH and CO in HTO-am is higher than that in HTO-al; the changes in HTO vOH and vCO bands in FTIR caused by the present heat treatment were significant; for TO, there is a big difference between changes in spectra as caused by thermal exposure, compared to those caused by ageing under UV light or exposure to a catalyst. The present work has laid additional groundwork for further study of the reactions of such triply conjugated double bond structures under different ageing conditions.
RESUMEN
Three kinds of purified Lyciumbarbarum polysaccharides (LBPSs), LBPS30, LBPS70 and total LBPS (LBPSt), were modified using chlorosulfonic acid-pyridine method based on the previous experiment, forming three sulfated LBPS (sLBPS), sLBPSt, sLBPS30 and sLBPS70 respectively. They were characterized by ultrasonic-acidic barium chromate spectrophotometry, infrared (FT-IR) and high performance gel permeation chromatography (HPGPC). The immunomodulatory activity of each kind of LBPSs and sLBPSs was further examined to determine the relationship between the structure and bioactivity, and the sLBPS with the highest activity was selected. The results showed that sulfate contents were 390.67, 542.75 and 291.71 mg/g respectively, with different molecular masses. The appearance of two new characteristic absorption bands at near 1230 and 855, 853 or 808 cm(-1) in FT-IR spectra revealed the success of sulfation. sLBPSt with high molecular weight and moderate sulfate content exhibited the best immunomodulatory activity by promoting lymphopoiesis and T lymphocyte differentiation as well as increasing IL-2, IL-6, IFN-γ and TFN-α production in vitro compared with the inartificial polysaccharides. These results indicated that sulfated modification could be considered as an effective way to enhance immune activity of LBPSs. Furthermore, sLBPSt showed the best performances and would be expected as a new source of immunopotentiator.