Model Catanionic Vesicles from Biomimetic Serine-Based Surfactants: Effect of the Combination of Chain Lengths on Vesicle Properties and Vesicle-to-Micelle Transition.

Mixtures of cationic and anionic surfactants often originate bilayer structures, such as vesicles and lamellar liquid crystals, that can be explored as model membranes for fundamental studies or as drug and gene nanocarriers. Here, we investigated the aggregation properties of two catanionic mixtures containing biomimetic surfactants derived from serine. The mixtures are designated as 12Ser/8-8Ser and 14Ser/10-10Ser, where mSer is a cationic, single-chained surfactant and n-nSer is an anionic, double-chained one (m and n being the C atoms in the alkyl chains). Our goal was to investigate the effects of total chain length and chain length asymmetry of the catanionic pair on the formation of catanionic vesicles, the vesicle properties and the vesicle/micelle transitions. Ocular observations, surface tension measurements, video-enhanced light microscopy, cryogenic scanning electron microscopy, dynamic and electrophoretic light scattering were used to monitor the self-assembly process and the aggregate properties. Catanionic vesicles were indeed found in both systems for molar fractions of cationic surfactant ≥0.40, always possessing positive zeta potentials (ζ = +35-50 mV), even for equimolar sample compositions. Furthermore, the 14Ser/10-10Ser vesicles were only found as single aggregates (i.e., without coexisting micelles) in a very narrow compositional range and as a bimodal population (average diameters of 80 and 300 nm). In contrast, the 12Ser/8-8Ser vesicles were found for a wider sample compositional range and as unimodal or bimodal populations, depending on the mixing ratio. The aggregate size, pH and zeta potential of the mixtures were further investigated. The unimodal 12Ser/8-8Ser vesicles ( ≈ 250 nm, pH ≈ 7-8, ζ ≈ +32 mV and a cationic/anionic molar ratio of ≈2:1) are particularly promising for application as drug/gene nanocarriers. Both chain length asymmetry and total length play a key role in the aggregation features of the two systems. Molecular insights are provided by the main findings.

Nanomedicine for the Delivery of RNA in Cancer.

The complexity, and the diversity of the different types of cancers allied to the tendency to form metastasis make treatment efficiency so tricky and often impossible due to the advanced stage of the disease in the diagnosis. In recent years, due to tremendous scientific breakthroughs, we have witnessed exponential growth in the elucidation of mechanisms that underlie carcinogenesis and metastasis. The development of more selective therapies made it possible to improve cancer treatment. Although interdisciplinary research leads to encouraging results, scientists still have a long exploration journey. RNA technology represents a promise as a therapeutic intervention for targeted gene silencing in cancer, and there are already some RNA-based formulations in clinical trials. However, the use of RNA as a therapeutic tool presents severe limitations, mainly related to its low stability and poor cellular uptake. Thus, the use of nanomedicine employing nanoparticles to encapsulate RNA may represent a suitable platform to address the major challenges hampering its therapeutic application. In this review, we have revisited the potential of RNA and RNA-associated therapies to fight cancer, also providing, as support, a general overview of nanoplatforms for RNA delivery.

11(th) National Meeting of Organic Chemistry and 4(th) Meeting of Therapeutic Chemistry.

For the first time under the auspices of Sociedade Portuguesa de Química, the competences of two important fields of Chemistry are brought together into a single event, the 11st National Organic Chemistry Meeting and the the 4th National Medicinal Chemistry Meeting, to highlight complementarities and to promote new synergies. Abstracts of plenary lectures, oral communications, and posters presented during the meeting are collected in this report.

Enhanced interfacial properties of novel amino acid-derived surfactants: Effects of headgroup chemistry and of alkyl chain length and unsaturation.

Amino acid-derived surfactants have increasingly become a viable biofriendly alternative to petrochemically based amphiphiles as speciality surfactants. Herein, the Krafft temperatures and critical micelle concentrations (cmc) of three series of novel amino acid-derived surfactants have been determined by differential scanning microcalorimetry and surface tension measurements, respectively. The compounds comprise cationic molecules based on serine and tyrosine headgroups and anionic ones based on 4-hydroxyproline headgroups, with varying chain lengths. A linear dependence of the logarithm of cmc on chain length is found for all series, and in comparison to conventional ionic surfactants of equal chain length, the new amphiphiles present lower cmc and lower surface tension at the cmc. These observations highlight their enhanced interfacial performance. For the 18-carbon serine-derived surfactant the effects of counterion change and of the presence of a cis-double bond in the alkyl chain have also been investigated. The overall results are discussed in terms of headgroup and alkyl chain effects on micellization, in the light of available data for conventional surfactants and other types of amino acid-based amphiphiles reported in the literature.

Physicochemical and toxicological properties of novel amino acid-based amphiphiles and their spontaneously formed catanionic vesicles.

The design of efficient liposomal systems for drug delivery is of considerable biomedical interest. In this context, vesicles prepared from cationic/anionic surfactants may offer several advantages, mainly due to their spontaneity in formation and long-term stability. There is also an impending need to produce less toxic, more biocompatible amphiphiles, while maintaining the desirable aggregation properties. In this work, we present data for acute toxicity to Daphnia magna (IC(50)), and potential ocular irritation (HC(50)) for some newly prepared ionic surfactants with dodecyl chains, derived from the amino acids tyrosine (Tyr), serine (Ser), hydroxyproline (Hyp) and lysine (Lys). The micellization behavior of the compounds, evaluated from surface tension measurements, is presented and compared to more conventional ionic amphiphiles. Two types of spontaneouly formed catanionic vesicles, composed either by a dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB)/Lys-derivative and or Ser-/Lys-derivative mixture, have also been tested for their ecotoxicity and hemolytic potential. All the micelle-forming surfactants as well as the vesicle-containing mixtures are found to have lower ecotoxicity than the reference surfactant DTAB. Moreover, the results from hemolysis and hemoglobin denaturation tests show that the Tyr- and Lys-derivatives are moderately irritant, whereas the Hyp- and Ser- ones are just slightly irritant. Even more significantly, the vesicle-containing mixtures exhibit lower hemolytic activity than the neat surfactants, a positive result for their potential use in liposomal formulations.

Spontaneous vesicle formation in catanionic mixtures of amino acid-based surfactants: chain length symmetry effects.

The use of amino acids for the synthesis of novel surfactants with vesicle-forming properties potentially enhances the biocompatibility levels needed for a viable alternative to conventional lipid vesicles. In this work, the formation and characterization of catanionic vesicles by newly synthesized lysine- and serine-derived surfactants have been investigated by means of phase behavior mapping and PFG-NMR diffusometry and cryo-TEM methods. The lysine-derived surfactants are double-chained anionic molecules bearing a pseudogemini configuration, whereas the serine-derived amphiphile is cationic and single-chained. Vesicles form in the cationic-rich side for narrow mixing ratios of the two amphiphiles. Two pairs of systems were studied: one symmetric with equal chain lengths, 2C12/C12, and the other highly asymmetric with 2C8/C16 chains, where the serine-based surfactant has the longest chain. Different mechanisms of the vesicle-to-micelle transition were found, depending on symmetry: the 2C12/C12 system entails limited micellar growth and intermediate phase separation, whereas the 2C8/C16 system shows a continuous transition involving large wormlike micelles. The results are interpreted on the basis of currently available models for the micelle-vesicle transitions and the stabilization of catanionic vesicles (energy of curvature vs mixing entropy).